Prisoners 'connect the dots' to aid reform
Shot by Zhou Shengjie. Edited by Zhong Youyang. Subtitles by Tian Shengjie.
A 40-something man, surnamed Xi, sat at a table with a small hammer and a pointed chisel. On hearing a teacher's instruction to start, he hit the chisel to create engraved dots on a porcelain plate.
The cling-clang sound reverberated in the classroom, where many people like Xi gathered to study porcelain carving, an ancient art form.
Xi is a special student. He has been a member of the porcelain-carving class in Shanghai Wujiawa Prison for about six years. He is in prison for robbery.
The more than 200-year-old Dafeng porcelain carving has been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage since 2021. The craftsman uses porcelain as "paper" and a chisel as a "pen" to "draw" flowers, birds, humans and landscapes on the plate.
A delicate work needs to be struck hundreds of thousands or even millions of times so it can let the artisan temper and school themselves in patience.
The craft was introduced into the prison in 2017 with the help of Chen Yinfu, a fifth-generation inheritor of Dafeng porcelain carving, and his group.
The workplace of Chen's group is near the prison in Jiangsu's Dafeng City.
"Many inmates committed crime on impulse, I believe they can be transformed through such traditional Chinese craftsmanship," said Gu Aijun, deputy director of the prison.
A prisoner carves on a porcelain plate at Shanghai Wujiawa Prison.
"The offenders who have good behavior will be invited to take porcelain-carving classes, as a kind of incentive," he added. "After being released from prison, they can have the skill to support themselves."
Cooperation between the two parties is not easy. The biggest barrier is prejudice.
"How can elegant art be done by people who have done wrong?" Chen told Shanghai Daily. This was his initial thought when he got the invitation from the prison director.
Finally, Chen was moved by Gu. He realized that introducing the intangible cultural heritage courses to the prison is positive for society, and even agreed to teach the inmates for free. He also wanted to take this opportunity to find more talented practitioners in porcelain carving.
Chen remembered the first time he went to the prison in 2017. He was surprised that the convicts did not seem to be ferocious, rather they were just ordinary people. This led him to drop his suspicion and get close to his students.
Chen Yinfu, a fifth-generation inheritor of Dafeng porcelain carving, shows the skill to prisoners at Shanghai Wujiawa Prison.
Xi is one of the first batch of more than 10 students. While the prison guards were anxious that Xi refused to tidy up the living area and ran counter to the rehabilitation, they found he often drew pictures, such as flowers, birds and fish in his notebook in spare time.
"We were amazed that Xi, who only received a junior middle school education, draw well," said Zhang Kuang, deputy director of the prison's Cell Block II.
"So we invited him to attend the porcelain-carving class. We hoped it could become one of his meaningful pursuits."
Xi told Shanghai Daily that he had no idea about what porcelain carving was at the beginning. But he accepted the invitation because learning something for the lengthy prison term seemed not bad. However, when he got started, he realized it was a terrible struggle.
"At first, I got annoyed with striking and the cling-clang sound," Xi said.
But he didn't want to give up, so he forced himself to persist.
After a period of time, he received praise from teachers and won the second prize in a calligraphy and painting competition. The sound is no longer a noise to him. Instead it makes his life colorful.
"I like to ponder the carving skills in my free time," he said. "I am not impetuous anymore and now I know how to concentrate on a task."
A prisoner carves on a ceramic tile at Shanghai Wujiawa Prison.
Chen said his group had various tasks and the weekly prison workshop often interrupted others, so they once thought about giving up.
But they finally decided to keep on after learning from the police that all these lawbreakers treasured the opportunity of study and those who were bad-tempered had learnt to behave well from the carving course.
"Maybe this is the glamor of intangible cultural heritage," Chen said.
"We have noticed with our eyes that they do keep calm and focus on the work, judging from the density of engraved dots and the thickness of knife tips.
"We now treat the project as a work of art."
At present, more than 100 inmates have attended the class, and porcelain carving has become popular in the prison. Dozens of convicts have applied for future classes.
Inmates carve on ceramic products at Shanghai Wujiawa Prison.
Chen said if offenders pass the examination and are prepared to join his team after being released, he is willing to sign employment agreements with them.
"It can encourage them to better rehabilitate, because if they violate discipline, their employment agreements will be canceled."
In recent years, through social media, a large number of people know that in Shanghai prisons, there are different kinds of intangible cultural heritage classes, such as Gu embroidery, traditional opera and paper-cutting.
Many netizens marvel at the achievements of those inmates.
Chen said that intangible cultural heritage skills are easily accessible in society and his team welcome all those who are interested to join them.
