Producing exemplarity: Performance making in a Chinese prison
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221085693 |
| Author | Zhang Xiaoye |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
Producing exemplarity:
Performance making in
a Chinese prison
Zhang Xiaoye
East China Univeristy of Political Science andLaw, Shanghai, China
Abstract
Penal order is closely linked to the broader social order in China and the disciplinary
side of its maintenance. This article seeks to demonstrate, through the case of perform-
ance making, what order means to the Chinese prison authority, and how prisoners
comply with and sometimes defy the system based upon various motivations. Using
data from an ethnographic study on performance making in a men’s prison during
2015–2018, this study aims to understand how an ’exemplary order’is maintained,
and what kinds of compliance and resistance can be found. The findings suggest that
“theatre in prisons”is not a Western invention to be borrowed, but a long-established
institutional mechanism of order mainetence in China, as participation in prison’s activ-
ities represents compliance with the regime order. However, compliance is also utilized
by the prisoners not only for hedonistic gains but also for gaining social capital, which
can have a strong positive influence on their quality of life inside and earlier release.
This study will also demonstrate how the Chinese penal order maintenance shares simi-
lirities with modes of soft power found in British prisons, as well prisoner-officer collab-
oration found in other Global South countries, with a twist
In recent years, theatre in prison has begun to enter the field of criminology as a way of
bringing about positive, prosocial changes among offender-participants (Cheliotis and
Jordanoska, 2016; Davey et al., 2015; Colvin, 2015; Oliver, 2017). Studies on this
subject range from participatory theatre as correctional intervention to an emphasis on
its creative process and intrinsic values. With the striving of participatory theatre pro-
grammes and research, critical concerns that ‘theatre “can be put to use”and can serve
the performance of punishment’have also been raised (Thompson, 2004).
Corresponding author:
Zhang Xiaoye, East China Univeristy of Political Science and Law, 555 Longyuan Rd, Songjiang District,
Shanghai, China.
Email: 2944@ecupl.edu.cn
Article
Punishment & Society
2023, Vol. 25(3) 725–741
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14624745221085693
journals.sagepub.com/home/pun
In looking at various forms of artistic expression found in penal systems across the
globe, Cheliotis (2014: 20) powerfully argued that there is no such thing as the ‘intrinsic
moral worth to the arts in and about prisons’as they have historically been routinely sub-
jugated to unjust and even abusive ends. He went so far as to proclaim arts in prison a
form of ‘decorative justice’,defined as ‘the function of masking the injustices and
painful nature of imprisonment behind claims of fairness, benevolence and care’
(p. 17). Citing Cohen’s criticism of rehabilitation as propaganda stories for penal manage-
ment (Cohen, 1985: 175), he argued that ‘there is an obvious theatrical element at work
here, with arts provision to prisoners being itself a play directed by the state for self-
promotional ends’(Cheliotis, 2014: 24). At the critique of theatre’s relationship with
the power to punish and the politics of propaganda, the performance of social control
meet the social control of performances.
The relationship between performing arts and social control in China has also been
discussed, but only within the field of historical and political studies (Wang, 2014;
Liu, 2009). Based on an ethnographic study between 2015–2018, the present study
focuses on performance making and its relationship with the maintenance of social
order in a Chinese prison. In this paper, I use and expand on the concept of exemplary
order proposed by Bakken’s (2000: 1) seminal study, which defined China as a society
where ‘“human quality”based on the exemplary norm and its exemplary behaviour is
regarded as a force for realizing a modern society of perfect order (…) both educative
and disciplinary’. Specifically, by looking closely at the mobilization and organization
of performances inside the walls, this paper will examine how exemplary behaviour
was constructed, what motivated individual contribution towards the representation of
exemplarity, and finally the effectiveness of the exemplary performance.
Performance making and social control in prisons
Over 1.7 million people are incarcerated in detention centres and prisons across China,
making the penal system the largest institution for the education and discipline of adult
deviates (Brief, 2020). Penal order is thus a reflection of the disciplinary side of social
order maintenance in China (Zhang, 2020; Zhang, 2019; Wu and Vander Beken,
2018; Li, 2018). The Chinese prison system falls into the ‘official governance’category
according to Skarbek (2020)’s classification of prison order across different countries,
and yet the type of governance that Chinese prison officials exercise is widely different
to Nordic prisons which he used to illustrate official governed prison systems. Prisons in
China not only shoulders the legal responsibility for punishment and correction, but also
they ‘have to be seen in terms of defending the social and moral order in a society in the
throes of rapid transformation’(Bakken, 2000: 398). The presence of performances in
Chinese prisons is loosely based on the belief that ‘active improvement of all should
be made possible through parading exemplary deeds’(Bakken, 2000: 174). The
pursuit of perfection takes place by means of learning from exemplary models, believed
to have the power to mobilize self-improvement within communities and individuals.
Exemplarity can only be used to enhance social order when it is performed and imitated
in various ways; therefore, theatrical performances have long been utilized to these ends
726 Punishment & Society 25(3)
To continue reading
Request your trial