A Chinese man who cryopreserved his deceased wife’s body has sparked widespread online debate after revealing he is now in a new relationship.
Gui Junmin decided to have his wife, Zhan Wenlian, cryogenically preserved after she died from lung cancer in 2017 at the age of 49. She was China’s first person to undergo the experimental procedure.
Following her death, Mr. Gui signed a 30-year agreement with the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute. Ms. Zhan’s body is stored in a 2,000-liter liquid nitrogen tank at an extreme temperature of -190 degrees Celsius (-310 degrees Fahrenheit).
Chinese media reported in November that Mr. Gui, after living alone for two years, began dating Wang Chunxia in 2020. He cited a severe illness with gout, which left him immobile for two days, as a turning point that led him to reconsider living alone.
Despite the new relationship, Mr. Gui told a Chinese newspaper that the bond with Ms. Wang is “utilitarian.” He added that she has not genuinely “entered” his heart.
The disclosure has ignited a polarized discussion across Chinese social media platforms like Weibo.
Supporters expressed understanding for Mr. Gui, suggesting enough time has passed since his wife’s preservation for him to move forward.
Critics, however, labeled his actions as selfish, arguing he was “only satisfying his emotional needs.” Some questioned if Ms. Zhan would have approved or if the situation was fair to Ms. Wang.
Cryonics is a process where a body is cooled to freezing temperatures and injected with cryoprotectants, similar to antifreeze, to prevent ice crystal formation. The goal is to preserve the body in liquid nitrogen with the hope of future revival through advanced technology.
While cryonics is used on a micro-scale for preserving living cells such as blood, sperm, and embryos, no successful whole-body human revival has ever occurred. Scientists widely consider the preservation and revival of an entire human body a distant scientific possibility.
Globally, more than 500 people are estimated to be cryopreserved, with the majority located in the United States.