For the uninitiated, the appearance of a blazing colored beam in a darkened theater can be jarring.

“I remember the first time I saw the lasers, it was shocking to see that little red dot in the middle of a performance,” said Joanna C. Lee, a consultant for American symphony orchestras touring China. “Like someone was pointing a gun at the audience.”

Indeed, the narrow shaft of bright light can connote danger. Laser sights are a popular feature on firearms, and there have been numerous incidents in which lasers aimed at cockpits have impaired pilots’ ability to fly safely. (There are more benign uses for a laser pointer, of course, like making presentations and playing with cats.)

But laser pointers have been used for years as disciplinary devices at many of China’s leading performance halls, including the National Center, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center and the Shanghai Grand Theater.

This may be a response to a particularly acute problem here. Audience numbers have surged in recent years, along with the number of new performance spaces. And theatergoers are often noticeably younger than in the United States and Europe, with a corresponding lack of experience with Western-style concert etiquette. The lasers, theater managers say, are part of a larger effort to teach audiences how to behave during live performances.

Are the performers bothered by the use of lasers?

“No, it’s very smart, very fast, very effective,” Giuseppina Piunti, an Italian mezzo soprano, said backstage last month after singing the title role in “Carmen” at the National Center. “They should use the lasers all over the world. I can see the lasers from the stage, but it’s much less distracting than the flash cameras, and the ushers running up and down the aisles.”