Events

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Thang Leng Leng, Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

With increasing healthy life expectancies and smaller nuclear family structures becoming more common across Asia’s cities, the question of how seniors can find sources of meaning and well-being in old age is becoming ever more crucial. Many senior urban Asians pursue leisure activities regularly as part of their lifestyle, yet the role of leisure in enabling holistic senses of well-being in old age has only been examined sporadically in gerontology and leisure studies. This proposed monograph contributes to this under-explored but critical area of research, by examining the regular karaoke participation of senior elderly Japanese (from 60 to 80 years old) through ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 2013 to 2017 at karaoke classrooms and kissas (a bar/café hybrid) in Tokyo and Osaka. It describes how and why coming regularly to the classroom and kissa enabled the senior karaoke enthusiasts to construct lifestyles facilitating the pursuit of well-being and ikigai, the meaning and direction in life that makes it worth living. Particularly, I draw attention to the considerable time and emotional investments seen in the enthusiasts’ regular karaoke participation, using the conceptual lens of “serious leisure” (Stebbins 2007). Through these approaches, I argue that the enthusiasts’ modes of regular participation, including everyday routines, learning activities, and even romantic interactions, allowed karaoke to become central to their pursuits of individual and social well-being in old age. Furthermore, I also argue that these serious karaoke pursuits influenced the senior regulars’ affects, dispositions and temporal senses, enabling them to flourish in their advanced stage of life. Given the popularity of karaoke and other leisure activities among seniors in other Asian societies, such as South Korea and Taiwan, this monograph promises trans-Asian implications.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Benny Tong is currently Postdoctoral Fellow in the Changing Family in Asia research cluster of the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include aging lifestyles, the anthropology of leisure, and popular culture in East and Southeast Asia. He is currently conducting a comparative ethnographic study of the role of leisure engagements in the construction of senior lifestyles and well-being in Singapore and Asia. His latest publication is “Better Singers Together: How Older Japanese Women Build and Social Relations in Karaoke Classrooms”, in Troy Glover and Erin Sharpe (eds.), Leisure and its Communities: Rethinking Mutuality, Collective Expression, and Belonging in the New Century (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), pp.100-110.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.