Thanks to the perseverance of an extraordinary surgeon, a unique restaurant in Beijing is providing the differently abled a platform to work, be respected, and have hope.
On a hot afternoon in August, I sat alone in a restaurant in Beijing and had a special lunch.
A young waitress guided me inside. After a few steps, the area grew pitch-dark and I couldn’t see a thing. After I sat down, the waitress went away with my order. I said hello several times, trying to gauge if there were other people around me, but there was no response. Apparently, I was alone. I was overcome with a sudden fear. I felt I had been abandoned in the middle of nowhere, swallowed up by darkness without other customers, or companions.
Then music started playing and the familiar songs, To Alice and All I Want for Christmas Is You, made me calm down and my tense nerves relaxed. I could smell food in front of me. Because of the darkness, I could not use a knife and fork and I groped for it and ate with my hands.
It was an unforgettable experience. The food was good, but the feeling of being left alone in the dark was awful.
“It is awful,” Yu Shuang, the owner of the restaurant, agreed with me. “However, many people live in this scary darkness day and night. They are blind.”
Zhou Haoyu (right) playing background piano music for diners in the kitchen area of the restaurant.
Closing the Eyes and Opening the Heart
Yu’s restaurant has a long and unusual name: Trojan Horse Fairy Tale Dark Restaurant. It is inspired by the legend of the Trojan horse in Homer’s Greek epic Iliad. While to some the horse is a symbol of deception, Yu sees it as strength. When the Greek warriors hid in a huge wooden horse, waiting for their enemies, the Trojans, to take the horse inside the walled city of Troy, they did not know what would happen once they came out of the horse. Would it be death or victory? But still they waited bravely in the dark, ready to do their best. Yu wants the people who come to her restaurant to be like the Greek warriors, embark on a journey in the unknown, ready to face what may come.
The restaurant in Xidan, the central business district of Beijing, has been running for 15 years now.
An unusual experience led to its inception. In 1999, Yu, a surgeon, had a retinal detachment and became blind overnight. She spent eight days completely blind. Although her vision gradually recovered after treatment, the experience made her re-examine the meaning of health. She made a decision: “If I regain my sight one day, I will do something for the visually impaired.”
So after 10 years of planning and preparation, the Trojan Horse Fairy Tale Dark Restaurant was opened. Yu hopes the diners will think about the hardships of the visually impaired, cherish their own sight, be kind to others and fulfill their social responsibilities.
In the restaurant, all light-emitting items such as mobile phones must be kept in the lockers. The diners put their hands on the shoulders of the waiters or waitresses, who are blind, and are guided to their table. Inside it is not the romantic dimness of candles or soft lights, but pitch-dark, recreating the world of the blind. Here, the visually impaired are in their element, knowing their way around adeptly. They are the waiters, performers, and comforters, who guide the diners and give musical performances, in this way also passing on their optimism, friendliness, and positive attitude towards life.
A promoter of equal rights, Yu rejects any suggestion that she is using the differenty abled as a publicity stunt. “We don’t tell our customers that our waiters and pianists are blind. People discover it on their own once they have been here. They are both stunned and full of admiration.”
Making Struggling Lives Grow
During these 15 years, the restaurant has witnessed the growth of more than 200 people with different abilities.
“Many people are unwilling to employ people with disabilities, especially the visually impaired. There are not many jobs for them. We have blind masseurs, but not everyone is suitable for this kind of job,” Yu said.
The restaurant has helped over 150 visually impaired and over 50 employees with intellectual, physical or other disabilities, providing them with training and work opportunities. Zhou Haoyu is one of them.
Zhou is a diligent, talented musician. He can play over a dozen musical instruments and is also a tenor and a national senior piano tuner. A Beijing Union University graduate with a major in musicology, he worked as a part-time pianist in the restaurant during his college years, and continued full-time for four years after graduation. Then he was promoted as manager, responsible for purchasing and accounting, training employees, and organizing performances. Zhou has broken people’s stereotypes about the visually impaired.
“Zhou worked here for eight years, after which he was discovered by the famous Chinese tenor Dai Yuqiang. Now, he has become a vocal arts teacher and is approaching his dream to become a singer like his idol, the legendary blind Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli,” Yu said proudly.
For the over 60 blind employees who have worked in the restaurant, it is not only a platform for them to be independent and self-reliant, but also gives them equal opportunities to interact with others.
In addition to the visually impaired, there were also other differently abled employees. Du Chuanwang came in January 2019. He had suffered a serious injury and had just undergone nose reconstruction surgery. A staff of the charity organization that had helped him happened to visit the restaurant, she then urged him to join the restaurant to learn cooking.
Du had only completed primary school education and had no work experience. Starting as an apprentice, he learned well and worked hard. Gradually, his skills gave him confidence and he became cheerful.
On the photo wall at the entrance of the restaurant, there is a group photo of its employees with a message below: We don’t need pity, what we need is equal opportunities to participate in social activities.
A note left by a diner at the message board at the door says to Yu Shuang, “… because of you, there’s no darkness anymore.”
Touching Hearts
Economic pressure is the biggest challenge that daily faces the operation of the restaurant. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Yu has been facing heavy financial burdens.
She has been adjusting the business model and making innovations to pull through but it is still tough. The restaurant is on the eighth floor of a star hotel. The location makes the rent and operating costs high, making its prices higher than other restaurants.
“Our employees work in a dark environment, which means it’s impossible for us to be like other restaurants. Besides, I hope people come here for the experience and not just the food,” Yu told me.
In order to survive, Yu opened the Trojan Horse Fairy Tale Sign Language Coffee Shop near the Fuxingmen subway station, about 2 km from Xidan, three years ago with four hearing-impaired employees. They had strong hands-on abilities and could run the place without any problem. However, the pandemic started and people wore masks, which made it impossible for the four to lip-read. Because of social distancing, the coffee shop tried to deliver food using delivery platforms but the four could not answer the phone calls. So their food delivery business dropped and after two years of struggling, the shop was forced to close down.
“When Zhou worked with us, we provided food and accommodation, and paid for the five basic social insurances and housing provident fund. But now our employees are all part-time as we are not able to hire full-time ones. In addition to economic pressure, the biggest issue is the safety of these employees. We took on a lot in the past, but now we are only hoping to survive,” Yu said.
College students, Yu’s friends and their children often volunteer to help out in the restaurant. The part-time waitress who has worked here the longest is from Beijing and lives nearby.
“The 35-year-old young lady has no visual problems, but she came with psychological and language-related ones,” Yu explained. “She has been working here for five years. In her first year, she couldn’t make eye contact with people, nor could she speak complete sentences. At first, she always cried, often smashed cups, and then became more nervous. To help her, whenever we heard the sound of a cup dropping on the ground, we would force ourselves not to follow our reflex and look at her. Gradually, with the support of her colleagues, she was able to do a good job. Her parents came to me and thanked me with tears in their eyes, saying their daughter had finally become independent.”
To keep the restaurant running, Yu has been using her own income to support it. It means having to curtail her own personal spending and her daughter’s as well.
“The other day, my daughter told me she and her friend spent RMB 150 each to eat outside. I suggested she should spend RMB 50 next time, and keep the remaining sum for more meaningful things,” Yu said. And her daughter agreed.
Yu also has a long partnership with the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center. She is member of a rare blood group and donates blood regularly. She treats other voluntary blood donors to free meals in her restaurant.
Her story touches the people who come here to dine. They bring their friends and recommend the restaurant on online platforms, hoping that more people will experience such a “theme restaurant.”
Many people leave notes on the message board at the door. “Thank you for everything you have done for strangers,” says one. “If it is not easy to use the tableware, just feel the food with your hand,” advises another. “I hope everyone here can see light again. I will become a pharmacologist and come back,” says another.
