It’s already been 11 years since the rules on busking on our streets were loosened, but back in the 60s, yg remembers a different kind of busker in the form of the wandering salesman (koyok man) and his assistants. What is a ‘koyok’ again?

Photo courtesy of the National Archives

in the 60s, entertainment also came in the form of the chinese medicine travelling salesman and his assistants. we refer to this wandering salesman as the koyok man. koyok means ‘quack medicine’ in malay. koyok is also the name of a plaster, concocted by the koyok man, to treat all kinds of aches and pain.

a number of these itinerant salesmen were martial art exponents and they used their strength, knowledge of the art and technique to demonstrate amazing feats like bending long iron rods pressed against the throat, eating fire, breaking bricks with their bare hands and other feats requiring extraordinary human strength.

Is there a difference between the koyok man of yesterday with the buskers of today? Red what yg has to say in the koyok man – s’pore busker

Tags: Busking, Koyok man