Man who planned to resurrect frozen wife faces backlash over new relationship

The husband of China’s first cryogenically frozen woman is facing backlash after the media revealed he had a new girlfriend.

Gui Junmin made headlines in 2017 when he decided to freeze his wife Zhan Wenlian's body after she died from lung cancer, aged 49, hoping that one day technological advancements would bring her back to life.

She was 'volunteered' for the project by her husband, who handed her body over to a team of Chinese scientists who used cryonics to freeze her.

Following Wenlian's death, Junmin signed a 30-year agreement to preserve her body with the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute, reports the BBC.

The institute had partnered with Qilu Hospital of Shandong University to carry out experimental human cryopreservation trials, and at the time, they offered free procedures to early volunteers, as per SCMP.

To this day, she remains in a 2,000-litre container at the research facility in a vat of -190C liquid nitrogen, but it looks like her husband has found a new love, prompting backlash online.

A Chinese man has divided opinion after getting into a new relationship while his deceased wife is cryogenically frozen (Getty Stock Image)

According to the publication, an interview Junmin did this month revealed he has been in a new relationship since 2020 and has since moved in with this partner.

Chinese media reported that for the first two years following Wenlian's death, her husband stayed single. However, he missed the human connection and struggled with daily life alone, with a severe attack of gout changing his way of thinking.

As per the NHS, gout is a type of arthritis that causes sudden, severe joint pain.

Metro reports that in 2020, he suffered an attack so bad that he couldn’t get up or reach his phone to contact anyone and so had to lay there until family members broke down his door and realised what had happened.

He reportedly told Southern Weekly: "If something really happens to a person when they are alone, there is nothing they can do. You could die at home and no one would even know."

Junmin was introduced to his new girlfriend Wang Chunxia through a mutual friend, however, it gets more complicated as he told the publication he sees their relationship as 'utilitarian'.

He explained: "‘She has not entered my heart yet. I feel a sense of responsibility towards her, but this is a complicated matter.

"She can never replace my wife. I cannot just forget the past, but I still need to move on with life."

The very unique situation has divided opinion online, with some people expressing sympathy and urging him to move on with his life, and others arguing that it's unfair.

One person on the Chinese social media site Weibo user wrote: "Now he is holding one woman in his arms while hoping to reunite with another in 30 years. What is this: emotional polygamy?"

Someone else penned: "What will he do in his old age if his wife is resurrected after 30 years? Or, when his wife wakes up, he will no longer be alive, and she will be all alone, facing a new and unfamiliar world."

However, some defended him, as one person argued: "The past is the past, and the living must continue to live."

Some people think he's right to move on while others have issued criticism (Getty Stock Image)

Another wrote: "This man is an honest and good person. First of all, he must have loved his deceased wife very much, otherwise he wouldn’t have wanted to preserve a last vestige of memory through cryogenics, just as he said, so he could visit her whenever he missed her; he didn’t truly want to forget her.

"But humans are emotional beings, and it’s normal for people to develop feelings through interactions with others, so finding a new partner isn’t surprising. Life goes on, but his deceased wife still holds a place in his heart; these aren’t contradictory."

Reports say that Chunxia now acts Junmin's carer, as he had coronary stent surgery so requires a lot of help.

When he was asked how he feels about the public anger towards him, he responded: "‘You don’t need to worry about me. I was mentally prepared when I accepted the interview. I have a clear conscience, so what is there to fear?"