China Daily
2nd January 2022
Restaurant in Beijing comes alive in silence
By Du Juan
Mina's Restaurant in the Songzhuang suburb of Beijing is distinctive not only for its impressively quiet atmosphere and frequently seen artists but for its deaf waiters.
Sign language is the first language at Mina's, and even though most employees are deaf, the restaurant runs in good order serving Sichuan-style dishes.
Since 2008 when it first opened, Mina's has provided jobs for more than 60 hearing-impaired people, which helps to solve the problem of deaf people's employment.
The owners are a couple with kind hearts — Mi Na and Su Qing.
Su, who born in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 1969, used to work in the advertising industry. He was also a TV director and had made a documentary film called The Age of Sign Language, with Mi, his girlfriend.
Mi, who was born in Chongqing in 1973, used to be a costume designer and art auctioneer. She is now a cook taught by her father.
"Su Qing and I have done a wide range of jobs, but shooting films and documentaries is what we enjoy and keep doing in our spare time," Mi said.
It later became the reason for opening the restaurant.