制戒毒所].pdf

Fighting the white monster: Three stories from the Chinese Compulsory detoxification centre Shing, Cheng Abstract Heroin, in many Chinese literatures, was called the “white monster” (bai mo) [ 白魔]. Monasteries of exorcism were set up all over China to fight the “white monster”. In China, they called it “compulsory detoxification centre”. (qiang zhi jie du suo)[强 制戒毒所] This presentation is about how inmates in compulsory detoxification centers in today’s China cope with the difficult lives during their incarceration. Data was obtained through in-depth interview with three ex-convicts in a coastal city in China last summer. The presentation will be divided into two parts: the first part is a description of the lives of inmates in compulsory detoxification centers; the second part is about how the inmates cope with the difficulties faced. The compulsory detoxification centre as a product of modern society to correct inmates backfires and opens gates to feudal types of societies creating a second “monster”, that of the incarceration itself. Keywords: compulsory detoxification centre, incarceration, domination, resistance Content Heroin, in Chinese literature was called the white monster (bai mo) [ 白魔]. The white monster had different images in Chinese propaganda. A white skeleton, or a white monster, its image was a portrayal of a monster that once you were seduced by it, you had few chance to get rid of it by yourself. In order to help the heroin user to get rid of heroin, 583 compulsory detoxification centres were set up all over China.1 The centre can be seen as a kind of monastery of fighting