Refreshing memories

Zhang says the show helped to raise his awareness about issues affecting the elderly and reminded him to offer them more care and attention.

"After I took part in the show, I immediately took my grandparents to get a physical examination," Zhang says. "The older generation needs more care from us."

The production team vetted 1,500 people with cognitive disorders nationwide to prepare for the show, and referred to experts on medical ethics to check whether the project adhered to the rules.

Jia Jianping, one of the medical consultants for the show, who's a neurologist from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, praised it for being productive.

"Allowing patients to participate in projects helps them to practice using their minds," says Jia. "When society cares for patients and offers them hope, these diseases will no longer be regarded as undefeatable."

The production team estimates that China has around 10 million people with Alzheimer's disease, and this number rises to nearly 50 million when all the cognitive disorders are combined.

And, as the program's team reveals, life can often be cruel. For instance, one of the waiters on the show, Hu Gongying, previously taught English at a community college for the elderly but had kept her disease as a secret from the school. However, when she was contacted by the production team, Hu was forced to make the difficult choice: Should she expose herself as a patient or not? Hu finally stepped up to speak out for patients' interests but at the cost of losing her teaching position at the college.

"Maybe the disease cannot be thoroughly cured, and we can only slow its progression," Hu says. "But we can prove that we're not useless people through this show. We enjoy our lives very much."

But as with all things, the cafe in the show will eventually have to close its doors.

Huang recalls that one participant in the show broke into tears during a break, saying: "I really don't want to go back into the real world. Here, I feel I'm a more valuable person."

"These five people have set an amazing example," he says. "I'm sure they will touch more people. Things will become different."

The show is rated 9.3 out of 10 points on Douban.com, a TV-and-film-review website, as one of the highest-scoring Chinese reality shows in recent years.

Li Yang, the producer, says she expects Forget Me Not Cafe to inspire more enterprises and institutions to open up more positions to people with cognitive disorders.

"They deserve more interaction with people," she says. "If the whole of society can move in the right direction, our goal will be realized."

Contact the writer at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn