Seikatsu-sha and the City

seikatsu-sha

I do not think of myself as someone who is well-traveled. Indeed, I am not. I have only traveled to a few places, most of which are quite conventional tourist destinations, and never done any solo traveling. Hence, this is not a travel blog. I am writing a blog about cities and urban life from the perspective of a person who lives there to work, to study, to play and to meet people. In Japanese, there is a word, "seikatsu-sha" (生活者), which is rather difficult to translate but it means something along the line of "a person who goes about living his/her daily life". Hmm, big deal? 

It sounds so simple - yet there is no English word that could convey such an existence so well. In marketing term, "seikatsu-sha" is often translated as "consumer", which is rather inappropriate as it reduces the activity of pursuing daily life to that of mere consumption. The term "seikatsu-sha" itself has a long history from Japan's postwar consumer movements and economic recovery - and has since gained a multitude of nuances. It is not my purpose to elaborate all the historical contexts and possible interpretation of the word - or even its vagueness and debatability in sociological discourse. If you are interested in pursuing the topic in a greater academic rigour, you might want to read MacLahlan's article on "Seikatsusha and the Fight for Consumer Rights: Consumer Movement Activism in Postwar Japanese Society".

The reason that the word is brought into this blog is very simple. I am probably one of a few people who have been granted the privilege to live in several different places. The definition of living here may be contentious because I have stayed in one place for longer than in another, so you might want to know what living means. Does living mean becoming a 'local' to that place? Oh, man, there is another contentious definition over there. I have come into terms with the fact that no matter where I go, I will never be a local anymore. I was born in Semarang, a small city in central Java, Indonesia, spent my early adolescence there, and then moved out to spend one-third of my life in Singapore. I have studied in Japan, worked in India, and somehow managed to find myself an alternate 'home' in Bandung. I therefore do not like to attribute myself with the status of 'local' more than what I deserve. But at least I am not a Martian. Hey, that's something!

So, the solution is what I found in the word "seikatsu-sha". Living - to me -  is buying groceries, cleaning my room, studying, researching, painting, working, talking to people, solving problems, writing, feeling happy, feeling down and confused, and admiring the beauty of everyday things. So, I am not a local to the places where I have lived. I am a "seikatsu-sha".

Now, don't get me wrong here. The fact that I am a mere seikatsu-sha in a given city does not mean that I do not make any attempt to localize myself. I do. It is also incorrect to assume that I do not possess any attachment whatsoever to the place and the community where I live. However, my attachment to the city is of a different kind - a kind that I might be willing to explain another day.