# P4 Theater Canonical: https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre P4 Theater, 2015–present. Long-term art practice, live work and archives. He Fa’s role: Co-initiated with Zhang Shaohua; long-term host and organizer. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives Spaces, participants, events and documentation change one another through sustained work. P4 Theater documentation. The project connects performances, shared work and the public archive. HE FA’S ROLE Co-initiated with Zhang Shaohua; long-term host and organizer ## Work record P4 Theater, 2015–present. Long-term art practice, live work and archives. He Fa’s role: Co-initiated with Zhang Shaohua; long-term host and organizer. Work / series P4 Theater Date 2015–present Medium Long-term art practice, live work and archives He Fa’s role Co-initiated with Zhang Shaohua; long-term host and organizer Catalogue section Collaborative practice Cite this record: P4 Theater · 2015–present · Co-initiated with Zhang Shaohua; long-term host and organizer · [https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) [2024-05-12 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2024/2024-05-12-p4-剧场-一所生成的大学-一条蜿蜒的迷宫-一块铭刻生命的硬盘-5a35325457/) [2025-03-08 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2025/2025-03-08-p4剧场-十年-7455016cd1/) [2022-08-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-08-29-招募-绞肉机-来了-0feecc6746/) [2022-08-30 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-08-30-绞肉机-杀死宣言-口死戏剧-2ee8b2f01a/) [2022-10-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-10-29-绞肉机公演-派对已经开始-请盛装出席-d7e817a692/) [2023-05-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-05-29-招募-杀死母亲-戏剧沙龙-3856f12c10/) [2023-06-12 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-06-12-新戏交流-旧太阳在新一天升起-a2a2f21104/) [2021-04-27 | Original Chinese source: 似是而非的未来](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2021/2021-04-27-似是而非的未来-baf68e2e9c/) [2023-01-29 | Original Chinese source: p4编年史 | 落选者沙龙与失败者联盟](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-01-29-p4编年史-落选者沙龙与失败者联盟-a29af19957/) [2020-11-09 | Original Chinese source: 《茧房》幕后谈——与p4剧场一起记录“我”的存在](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-09-茧房-幕后谈-与p4剧场一起记录-我-的存在-66b795ecdb/) [2021-01-27 | Original Chinese source: p4U采访 | 七十七岁的小女孩](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2021/2021-01-27-p4U采访-七十七岁的小女孩-7ddeca1b02/) WORK WORLD / OPEN FROM HERE How can a container support works while letting them change it? Year 2015–present Medium Long-term artistic platform, performance, workshops, moving image and writing Role Co-initiator / long-term artistic lead and organiser Further reading The idea of P4 began in 2015 and its first public work appeared in 2016. He Fa has since sustained its projects, spaces, moving images and writing. ## Project statement Around 2015, He Fa and Zhang Shaohua initiated P4 Theater in Beijing. Zhang Aoshuang took part in its early conception and co-curated the first public performance, Shadow Counterpoint, with He Fa in 2016. He Fa has continued as P4’s long-term artistic lead and organiser. P4 projects have entered former factories, a small office, a boxing space, bookstores and private rooms. Site, participant identity, audience routes and filming conditions are not backdrops; they directly alter how the work takes place. A line through the work ## Enabling participants to initiate work In his 2024 retrospective, He Fa describes 510 as an incubator operating from a living-room-sized space, where participants rehearsed and went on to form their own groups. The 2025 ten-year archive explicitly distinguishes projects initiated by participants. Together, these documents show how space, calls, publication and mutual support gave new work a starting point. This website preserves that shared relation while keeping the original creative credits. ## Meat Grinder · Kousi Theatre The August 2022 call for Meat Grinder is credited to Zhao Xuan, followed by Kousi Theatre’s declaration and an announcement for a party-format performance on 1 November. Subsequent texts retain voices including Zhao Xuan and Miaoji. He Fa includes the project in P4’s lineage of participant-led work; this chapter documents that platform relationship without adding a directing credit for him. ## Kill Mother · Guo Qian Guo Qian’s call sets out Kill Mother as a three-hour theatre salon for eight participants on 4 June 2023. Each was invited to bring a chosen text to explore relationships with mothers within a theatrical situation. The archive retains this specific public proposal; a separate 2026 after-show text sharing the title is not treated as proof that this 2023 session took place. ## The Old Sun Rises on a New Day · Jiarui Jiarui announced The Old Sun Rises on a New Day on 12 June 2023 as a half-hour theatre salon planned for 17 June, with a poster credit to Wang Yiwen. The original title uses “rises.” Alongside the preceding projects, it remains part of P4’s participant-led archive, linked to its own announcement and retaining its creators rather than substituting the platform’s organisers. ## Present, photosynthesis, psychology, permanent An early visual draft places four words beginning with P beside the P4 theater mark: present, photosynthesis, psychology and permanent. The P4 Preface layout pairs a photograph of the theatre with a text about mutually watching and performing: stepping beyond definitions imposed by others and holding a present moment in an image. These drafts preserve an early articulation of P4’s connection between photography, live presence and participants’ own experience. Source documents: P4 theater视觉稿（p4-2.pdf）; P4前言. ## 2019–2021: shared photographic research and a public venue A Future That Seems to Be but Is Not places P4’s beginnings in He Fa and Zhang Shaohua’s shared photographic work. Former photography classmates, they explored portraiture, performance and emotion, established a venue in Tiantongyuan in 2015, and continued after He Fa returned to China in 2019. He calls the space their laboratory and treats theatre as recruitment, rehearsal, disagreement and public performance together. The 2023 essay Salon of the Rejected and Alliance of Failures describes the 2019 shift as opening the black box to people with few opportunities to use a stage. ## Questioning the organizers within the interview In the first Cocoon interview, He Fa is one of several respondents. He recalls telling participants that different roles did not remove their right to disagree, and hopes relationships might continue beyond the completion of a performance task. A Rooftop Howler interview preserves a counterpoint: as He Fa asks what a performer observed, Zhang Shaohua questions whether the interview imposes a prior assumption, while Huang Lucang notes its movement toward analysis. Together, the voices show organizing methods being discussed and challenged within the process itself. ## The public opening in a retained report An opening-report manuscript retained by the artist records P4’s public opening in Beijing’s Diaosutai art district on 4 June 2016, together with the premiere of Shadow Counterpoint. This dates a specific event and is recorded separately from accounts of preparations in 2015. The manuscript describes Zhang Shaohua and He Fa as founders and Zhang Aoshuang as a co-founder, and records shared work on the theatre’s design, construction and technical systems. These terms follow the manuscript. Archival document supplement. Source: the retained manuscript “P4 Theater Opening — An Open Theatre as a Cross-disciplinary Laboratory” (title translated). Its original publication has not been verified; passages shared with the project press manuscript are not treated as independent corroboration. English is an editorial translation. Image from the Meat Grinder performance announcement, 2022, retaining the Kousi Theatre credit. Poster for The Old Sun Rises on a New Day by Wang Yiwen; announcement credited to Jiarui, 2023. An early P4 visual draft places present, photosynthesis, psychology and permanent beside the P4 theater mark. No explicit date appears in the source. ## Related sources [2024-05-12 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2024/2024-05-12-p4-剧场-一所生成的大学-一条蜿蜒的迷宫-一块铭刻生命的硬盘-5a35325457/) [2025-03-08 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2025/2025-03-08-p4剧场-十年-7455016cd1/) [2022-08-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-08-29-招募-绞肉机-来了-0feecc6746/) [2022-08-30 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-08-30-绞肉机-杀死宣言-口死戏剧-2ee8b2f01a/) [2022-10-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-10-29-绞肉机公演-派对已经开始-请盛装出席-d7e817a692/) [2023-05-29 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-05-29-招募-杀死母亲-戏剧沙龙-3856f12c10/) [2023-06-12 · Source article (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-06-12-新戏交流-旧太阳在新一天升起-a2a2f21104/) [2021-04-27 | Original Chinese source: 似是而非的未来](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2021/2021-04-27-似是而非的未来-baf68e2e9c/) [2023-01-29 | Original Chinese source: p4编年史 | 落选者沙龙与失败者联盟](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2023/2023-01-29-p4编年史-落选者沙龙与失败者联盟-a29af19957/) [2020-11-09 | Original Chinese source: 《茧房》幕后谈——与p4剧场一起记录“我”的存在](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-09-茧房-幕后谈-与p4剧场一起记录-我-的存在-66b795ecdb/) [2021-01-27 | Original Chinese source: p4U采访 | 七十七岁的小女孩](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2021/2021-01-27-p4U采访-七十七岁的小女孩-7ddeca1b02/) CLOSE READING / 2026 CURATORIAL INTERPRETATION ## P4 Theater How can a container support works while letting them change it? ### Begin with what happens in the work He Fa and Zhang Shaohua developed the early initiative, with Zhang Aoshuang proposing a theatre layout; a black stage adjoined white working and audience areas. Later work entered offices, a boxing venue, bookshops and other spaces, developing particular forms of recruitment, rehearsal, screening and documentation. Calling P4 a venue misses much of its work; calling it one enormous individual artwork by He Fa claims too much. It includes renting and adapting spaces, setting project cycles, recruiting strangers, forming collaborations and making works visible. Each task creates conditions and distributes limits. How audiences enter, whether a newcomer can initiate a project, and when rehearsal must end all affect the art that appears. Its depth should emerge from specific arrangements and encounters rather than a method presumed correct in advance. The early pursuit of photographic truth, time-limited co-creation, participant-led projects and cinema’s later arrangement of the process do not fully coincide. A mature presentation lets these changes illuminate one another and lets individual authors remain findable beyond P4’s shared name. A container’s value lies not only in how much it holds, but in what it enables to develop its own direction. ### The limits of this reading P4 production, He Fa’s organization and his individual authorship are distinct. Different venues do not create an identical spatial experience. Based on What Is Shixiang? (2020), Past, Present, Future, 510 (2022), and the signed 2024 recollection, each read at its own historical date. [Work archive and source documents](#work-record) [2022 | Past, Present, Future, 510 · Chinese source](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2022/2022-07-18-p4剧场-过去-现在-未来-510-73d5a1df7f/) [2024 | A University in the Making · Chinese source](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2024/2024-05-12-p4-剧场-一所生成的大学-一条蜿蜒的迷宫-一块铭刻生命的硬盘-5a35325457/) TAKE A PATH ACROSS ## Other paths from this work. [DOCUMENT RECORD](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/na-magazine) Working together Whose voice appears within a platform [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [N/A Magazine: Founding Contribution](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/na-magazine) N/A separately credits its publisher, editor and founding contributors; P4 Theater enables different initiators to develop projects. Both gather work by others, while a publication’s division of responsibility differs from the relationships among projects within an ongoing platform. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives Date not recorded / Publication collaboration Read the source materials Period document [A publication emerging from a course ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/na-magazine#chapter-1) Chloe Ghillani’s project page lists Fa He as a founding contributor separately from publisher and editors; it does not identify particular articles. Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. [Continue from this work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/crossings#work=na-magazine) Working together ### Whose voice appears within a platform [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [N/A Magazine: Founding Contribution](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/na-magazine) N/A separately credits its publisher, editor and founding contributors; P4 Theater enables different initiators to develop projects. Both gather work by others, while a publication’s division of responsibility differs from the relationships among projects within an ongoing platform. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives Date not recorded / Publication collaboration Period document [A publication emerging from a course ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/na-magazine#chapter-1) Chloe Ghillani’s project page lists Fa He as a founding contributor separately from publisher and editors; it does not identify particular articles. Chloe Ghillani’s project page lists Fa He as a founding contributor separately from publisher and editors; it does not identify particular articles. Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Working together How a collaboration takes another name [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Purples / Purple Action](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/purple-action) Purples was co-initiated by Shen Bolun, He Fa and Shao Yifan; P4 hosts different projects and initiators. Connected platforms do not share identical authorship, and a new collective name establishes a boundary of credit worth retaining. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2021 / Participatory theatre, role-playing and experiments in organisation Read the source materials Period document [Selected project documents ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/purple-action#project-documents) Selected pages of the Purple Action project introduction preserve co-initiation, origins and structure; the spatial presentation plan remains a historical proposal. Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. [Continue from this work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/crossings#work=purple-action) Working together ### How a collaboration takes another name [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Purples / Purple Action](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/purple-action) Purples was co-initiated by Shen Bolun, He Fa and Shao Yifan; P4 hosts different projects and initiators. Connected platforms do not share identical authorship, and a new collective name establishes a boundary of credit worth retaining. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2021 / Participatory theatre, role-playing and experiments in organisation Period document [Selected project documents ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/purple-action#project-documents) Selected pages of the Purple Action project introduction preserve co-initiation, origins and structure; the spatial presentation plan remains a historical proposal. Selected pages of the Purple Action project introduction preserve co-initiation, origins and structure; the spatial presentation plan remains a historical proposal. Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Keeping and losing Continuing events and completing a version [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/human-surrender) P4 continually organizes recruitment, rehearsal and screenings; Human Surrender develops one shared project into a film. The platform enables further events, while the film fixes one version of their sequence. Its collective authors are not replaced by the platform’s overarching name. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance Read the source materials Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Event record [Collective credits in the film ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/human-surrender#film-credits) The film credits retain collective direction and screenplay plus He Fa’s initiation, production and editing credits, which cannot be replaced by a platform name. [Continue from this work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/crossings#work=human-surrender) Keeping and losing ### Continuing events and completing a version [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/human-surrender) P4 continually organizes recruitment, rehearsal and screenings; Human Surrender develops one shared project into a film. The platform enables further events, while the film fixes one version of their sequence. Its collective authors are not replaced by the platform’s overarching name. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Event record [Collective credits in the film ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/human-surrender#film-credits) The film credits retain collective direction and screenplay plus He Fa’s initiation, production and editing credits, which cannot be replaced by a platform name. The film credits retain collective direction and screenplay plus He Fa’s initiation, production and editing credits, which cannot be replaced by a platform name. Working together How a project inhabits a platform [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Shixiang](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/shixiang) Within P4, Shixiang extends portrait photography into repeated meetings. P4 also accommodates screenings, rehearsals and projects initiated by others. The photographic project defines its own terms of publication, while the platform must retain different authors’ ways of working. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2019–2020 / Photography theatre Read the source materials Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Period document [Participants decide whether their photographs become public. ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/shixiang#chapter-5) The original project description leaves publication of photographs to participants; this is a specific project rule. [Continue from this work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/crossings#work=shixiang) Working together ### How a project inhabits a platform [P4 Theater](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) ↔ [Shixiang](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/shixiang) Within P4, Shixiang extends portrait photography into repeated meetings. P4 also accommodates screenings, rehearsals and projects initiated by others. The photographic project defines its own terms of publication, while the platform must retain different authors’ ways of working. 2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives 2019–2020 / Photography theatre Later account [Enabling participants to initiate work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre#chapter-6) He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship. Period document [Participants decide whether their photographs become public. ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/shixiang#chapter-5) The original project description leaves publication of photographs to participants; this is a specific project rule. The original project description leaves publication of photographs to participants; this is a specific project rule. 2026-10-04 / ARCHIVAL ADDITION ## Source materials, process and versions The 510 discussion recordings and photographs of the theatre space serve different purposes. Space photographs are not assigned to an undocumented event. 小图.jpg · Web access copy from the preserved source [小图.jpg ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-space-0cb8afb92d0e) 小图2.jpg · Web access copy from the preserved source [小图2.jpg ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-space-06c3a5ca7789) [2022-03-28 20-42-18 NTNE 1920x1080 30fps.mov ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-space-c00d7f0e56e8) [Follow the other material strands ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/reading/materials-and-process#space) FROM HERE, ELSEWHERE ## Passages between works [The container takes part](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/paths/container) Different venues change recruitment, rehearsal, filming and gathering; organizing space becomes part of the practice. Different venues change recruitment, rehearsal, filming and gathering; organizing space becomes part of the practice. ### Related records in the archive [Iceberg ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/iceberg) 2021–2022 [The Rooftop Howler ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/rooftop-howler) 2020–2021 ## [Archival research index：P4 / US period ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/reading/p4-and-us-archive#p4-records) Return to related manuscripts, versions and process leads. Research status and work credits remain distinct; this link does not imply that source footage is playable online.