It is one minute past 11 on Tuesday night. With a flick of a switch the studio light comes on and Su Jingping swings into action. Almost one million people are tuned in to the state-owned Beijing People's Radio on 828 AM for one of the hottest programmes in town.
For the next hour the 51-yearold Chinese radio host takes call after call from members of the public who have jammed the phone lines in the hope of getting on air. They are not telephoning to give their opinion on the economy, to have requests played or to seek advice on their love lives.
No. These people want to apologise.
Apologies are complicated matters in China, where "saving face" means everything. They are rarely offered, but when they are they must be delivered with the proper gravity. While China is slow at giving apologies, it is good at demanding them. For example, pushing for Washington to say sorry is a national pastime.
But with the opening up of China, this is all changing. And the success of Mr Su's Apologise in Public Tonight show since it was first aired four months ago is a reflection of a deeper transformation sweeping the country.
The apologies range from the really serious to the more innocent.
There was the man who contacted the show to admit he had raped his daughter. He was not allowed on air.
There was the government official who admitted corruption. He was told to come back after he had gone to the authorities. And there was the AIDS victim who admitted having sex with several partners in revenge for contracting the illness.
He was due to go on air to apologise two weeks ago but backed out at the last minute for fear he would be identified.
On a lighter note take Mrs Li. The elderly lady told listeners she wanted to say sorry to the sweetheart she had not seen in 53 years. Her parents made her break it off because he was poor. He was heartbroken, and more than half a century later she had not forgotten her first love.
"She made a plea on air to the man to call if he was listening," Mr Su told The Irish Times. "The problem was we had calls from six elderly men after the show claiming they were the one!"
According to quiet-spoken Mr Su, there are not many places in China where people unburden themselves. This is a by-product of years of social conditioning which has placed great emphasis on "sinners" obeying orders and the "sinned against" taking it on the chin.
"In China apologies are seen as a weakness that should not be displayed," said Mr Su.
He said 25 per cent of calls to his show relate to things that happened during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and early 1970s, when hundreds of thousands of intellectuals the length and breadth of China were targeted in a campaign of terror.
This black period in history has left deep scars. While the Communist Party has admitted that major mistakes were made, and that the period was a disaster, Chinese officials have never openly apologised to the millions imprisoned, beaten and killed at the time.
Through Mr Su's show, small purges are taking place. Recently a man called to admit that during the Cultural Revolution he stole an antique from his family and sold it. His uncle was arrested and tortured by the notorious Red Guards for the theft and his nephew never owned up.
"Even though he called anonymously, nearly 40 years later, the man's uncle was listening to the programme and contacted us afterwards. Both men made up and are now great friends," said Mr Su.
"The Cultural Revolution was a very difficult time for China. People were afraid to apologise or to admit to wrongdoing then because anything could have happened them. At last people are beginning to find it in their hearts to open up now."
Mr Su says there is a limit to who is allowed on air to purge themselves publicly. The programme producers have taken a policy decision not to air confessions that involve serious unpunished crimes, or that invade people's privacy.
"Like the man who raped his daughter, we have told many callers to come back only when they have been punished by the authorities. Repentance should lead them to the law first," he said.
The programme also offers prison inmates a chance to say sorry by holding special sessions in jail. Last month a drug-trafficker who had been sentenced to death apologised from behind bars in Beijing to his family. He asked his 18-year-old son never, ever to touch drugs.
The growing apology business is not confined to the airwaves. Last August a former lawyer with an interest in psychology, Mr Qing Liu, established the Apology and Gift Centre in the north-eastern city of Tianjin. The company motto is "We say sorry for you."
Mr Qing's company charges from $4.50 upwards for an apology. Employees who deliver apologies are all middle-aged lawyers, social workers and teachers with training in counselling.
Most of the apologies so far have been from estranged lovers, or people in business or family disputes. The apologisers write letters and deliver gifts.
It appears that in China "owning up" is becoming part and parcel of "opening up".