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Store manager Pan Peng is waiting for customers to place orders.

When talking about Huaqiangbei, many people think of electronic components and mobile phone accessories first. Recently, a "silent coffee" has come into everyone's view. The store clerks are all hearing-impaired. Customers need to scan the code to complete the order. If they have additional needs, they can express them through the voice recognition system and communicate with the clerks with a handwriting tablet.

This is the second "Silent Coffee" shop in Huaqiangbei. The owner, Yang Yuancheng, is the only healthy person in the project. Yang Yuancheng from Taiwan led these hearing-impaired people to start a business in 2020. They have experienced snack bars and juice shops. In 2023, coffee categories were added to make the project more diverse. The development of this public welfare project started five years ago.

Started a business with 4 hearing-impaired partners and opened the first light food restaurant in Futian

"Lao Yang" is written on Yang Yuancheng's disposable cup, which is also the name the store clerk calls him. As a brand planner, he founded an ecological technology company in Shenzhen in 2017. The continued profitability made him choose to hand over the company to professional managers. One day in 2019, while dining, he found that a rice noodle shop hired people with hearing impairments, "I thought this project was good." After getting to know the boss, considering that public welfare needs commercial support, he asked the boss if he could help with brand promotion. After a few visits, he also became familiar with the hearing-impaired staff in the store.

In order to communicate with employees, Lao Yang learned sign language. Lao Yang found that hearing-impaired people in each place have their own regional expressions, "because it is divided into natural sign language, international sign language, and local sign language."

Lao Yang realized that the waiter job could not meet the needs of hearing-impaired employees, and after having a disagreement with his boss, he chose to leave. "Some employees thought that since Lao Yang was leaving, we would leave too, so they also left." After discussing with his wife, Lao Yang wanted to try to lead them to start a business. In this way, they founded Benwuque Catering Brand Management Co., Ltd. "I wanted to tell them that you don't lack anything in the first place, you just changed the way you communicate with society."

In 2020, Yang Yuancheng brought four hearing-impaired partners to a shared kitchen in Zhuzilin, Futian, to try to do takeout (Benwuque Light Food Kitchen). "We make light meals such as juice and salad, and the business is very popular. The team's story is supported by many people, and the product taste is also recognized by the market. The aisle outside the entire shared kitchen is full of people." In 2021, he and his hearing-impaired staff opened a physical store in Futian CBD, named "Youyi Jialun (Youyi Family) Low-calorie Smoothie", which is their first physical brand store. "Fortunately, there are many young people around, and they are very accepting of hearing-impaired people starting a business, so the business took off immediately."

In 2023, Lao Yang came into contact with the Deyi Foundation. With the strong support and help of the foundation, he participated in the "Yijia Station Charity Store" project in 2023, which also allowed the Benwuque brand to officially embark on the road of public welfare. "Under the guidance of the foundation, we will also regularly provide skills training for the hearing-impaired. The most important thing is the mentality training. We want to teach them not to have the mentality of 'waiting, relying on, and asking'. We hope that they can step out of their comfort zone and face the society bravely."

"If they want to open a store in their hometown in the future, I am willing to support them."

When he was in Taiwan, Lao Yang was involved in public welfare donation and charity assistance projects. "Is there any way to create a hematopoietic public welfare model, where we support ourselves first and then help others?" After being exposed to the project of hearing-impaired people participating in the service industry, Lao Yang believed that this was the first step in hematopoietic public welfare. "It is impossible to be a waiter for a lifetime, right? So I will ask them to learn more skills and push them to the front. If you can't become a store manager in our store within three years, I will ask you to leave. If you want to come back, you can re-interview and start again as a waiter."

In addition to paying a corresponding basic salary, Lao Yang hopes that they can receive profit dividends from the company. With the incentive mechanism, employees are more motivated. Pan Peng from Anhui is the store manager of the "Silent Coffee" project in Fuqiang Community, Huaqiangbei Street. He has previously worked in catering projects in Shanghai. In 2020, he heard in the industry that Lao Yang was working in catering with hearing-impaired people, so he came here. Shenzhen's tolerance has strengthened his determination to take root in this city. Hearing-impaired employees are more focused. They often master new skills in three days. "On average, one cup every two minutes. Even during the peak dining hours in the CBD, we can meet the needs of customers." In 2021, Pan Peng became the store manager, and since then he has become the person in the store who takes the initiative to contact customers. "In addition to store management and operations, I also need to communicate with customers." Although they can't hear, the hearing-impaired staff's handwriting speed is much faster than that of healthy people. "How is this cup of coffee?" "Are you satisfied with the sweetness of the juice?" The handwriting board has become an important tool for them to communicate with customers. After obtaining the customer's ideas through the voice recognition system, they will respond on the handwriting board.

Lao Yang would bring them along on many occasions - in the sign language class of the CBD business district Party Committee, Lao Yang would bring them to demonstrate sign language on the spot; when Lao Yang went to give lectures at the Southern University of Science and Technology Sign Language Club, he would also bring his employees along as teaching assistants, "They were very excited and kept taking pictures with their mobile phones, just to tell their mothers that they were standing on the university podium." In the youth coffee training experience class, Lao Yang would encourage them to take part.

"Cultivate abilities so that everyone can become a store manager" was Lao Yang's original intention. "If they want to return to their hometown to open a store in the future, I am willing to support them, because eventually they will have to return to their parents to help." Pan Peng wrote, "He is a very good person, just like a father." "Dad" is the concept of Lao Yang for most hearing-impaired employees. They came to Shenzhen to join him and stayed in this city under his care.

A corner of the Party and Mass Service Center was transformed into a coffee shop for free

As the number of customer orders increased, Lao Yang's reputation in the hearing-impaired circle also became more and more famous. After all, there are not many stores with all hearing-impaired employees. "I received a call from a father. He said that his daughter heard about my store from a hearing-impaired friend and had been confirming for several days whether my store really existed." In order to find out, the girl's relatives in Shenzhen personally brought her to the interview. After confirming the authenticity of the project after a field investigation, they entrusted their daughter to Lao Yang. "She came to the interview with her luggage, just to tell me that she must come to work." Since all of them are hearing-impaired partners, this atmosphere is what the hearing-impaired like. "They don't have to worry about being discriminated against, and there is no distinction between big and small. I rarely come to the store. When facing customers' problems, I try to let them solve them themselves." From the initial 4 people to the current 13 people, more and more hearing-impaired people have followed Lao Yang to stand on the front line of the service industry.

Thanks to the help of Fuqiang Community in Huaqiang North Street, a corner of the Party and Mass Service Center was converted into a coffee shop for free. The shop not only has seats, but also provides free lemonade to couriers, deliverymen, and sanitation workers passing by. Compared with the atmosphere of CBD where young people gather, the community store in Huaqiang North needs to face more parent-child families and some older audiences. "There may still be some reservations about hearing-impaired employees, but I will still set up a sign in the store with a reminder of 'Hearing-impaired Entrepreneurship Store' or 'I can't hear, please wave if you need anything', just to tell everyone why this store is silent. Our store does not need donations or assistance, you can just come in and buy a glass of juice like you usually do.

The money that he used to earn from brand planning is now basically spent on public welfare projects for the hearing impaired. "My other company is now supporting this project. The original intention of this project is to help more hearing-impaired people who want to change their current situation and break through themselves. I feel very happy to see that they can stand on their own. In terms of investment, it may be more than 2 million so far."

Fortunately, Lao Yang's good deeds have been understood and supported by his family. His 5-year-old son took the initiative to learn sign language and often comes to the store to interact with employees. "He will take the initiative to say thank you. I also hope that the child can see me interacting with them (hearing-impaired employees) and develop stronger empathy."

Written by: Nandu reporter Zhang Xinyi

Photo: Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Xu Songlong