Prisoners 'connect the dots' to aid reform
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.