I raised in South Korea and studying design in Australia who never had experienced any suppression of religion, lost freedom of expression and unfair discrimination. In my point of view about Indonesia based on different cultural background, I thought that people are living their life in boundary of Muslim and admitted their condition by themselves without any conflict about narrowing the huge gap between the rich and poverty. So, I was wondering how young artist express themselves and their life style.

Ismail Hasanesta is 22 years old guy who manages his own Reggae shop, ‘Djate’ which sells apparels and accessories all related with Reggae. I visited his shop to browse all the goods which is placed in front of our hotel, Istana Batik Ratna and became a friend incidentally. As he is an artist, he was interested in K-POP (Korean Pop) and this makes we can have little conversation by overcoming language barriers. Even Ismail, all his friends and many young Indonesian are interested in music, art, fashion etc. Mass media has enabled youth culture and its associated jargon to spread and develop swiftly across the whole Indonesian archipelago, ignoring geographic, ethnic and class boundaries.

Also, especially, there are many kinds of community and connection between artists in Jogja and he is also involved into Reggae music band. Many artists in Indonesia have freedom of expression and keep creating their own community spontaneously that are happening differently than I expected.

I was wondering how he became to be a Reggae artist and one of lover in Reggae. When he was in high school, he played drum in Indonesia traditional music band and dance. Naturally he was interested in ‘Jimbe’ as one of member of percussion and made connection with Reggae artists. Not only field of music but also he was ‘multi’ artists who loves fashion, Java culture and people.

From the interview, it was good opportunity to make new friend in other country with overcoming language barriers and different backgrounds.