Hong Kong busker Dave May has plenty of street cred

Since 1996, Dave May has been on the fiddle in Hong Kong - not that he's doing anything illegal.

The Scotsman from Stenhousemuir has been a busker, or street performer, in the city for the past 17 years but has often encountered police orders to move along. On some occasions, the shooing isn't polite.

Busking is not illegal here, however. A court ruled in 2010 that street performers were protected by a law guaranteeing the freedom to engage in literary and artistic creation.

That means in reality, anyone who thinks he has talent and wants to show it off should be able to do so.

"It's just that some police officers don't seem fully aware of the law," May says. "It's not like I'm begging or hawking, but some are genuinely in a quandary as to what to do."

A police spokesman said the Hong Kong statutes carried no specific prohibition on street performance per se. However, street performers, like the public at large, are subject to the laws, including prohibitions on nuisance, annoyance or obstruction in any public place to people or traffic. These laws apply whether or not payment is involved.