Mr. Cheng is our narrator of Ha Jin’s “The Bridegroom”. He was asked by a close friend that was fatally ill to take care of his daughter, Beina, when he passed. Huang Baowen, the factory’s local heartthrob, suddenly proposes to her and they get married and receive a new 2 bedroom apartment. Then there is an 8 month time skip where Cheng is upset that Beina has not gotten pregnant yet. She says that she doesn’t mind though because at least Baowen doesn’t sneak around with other girls (quite the opposite really.) It is revealed to us that he has been meeting up with a men’s club suspected of homosexuality. One night he doesn’t come home because he is arrested. He didn’t do anything, but had a crush on a man and so he was sent to a mental hospital. It turns out that Beina knew all of this before they got married. After about a month, Cheng and Beina go to visit Baowen and he seems very happy. At first, readers are believed it’s because the treatment is working, but that is not the case. Nurse Fuhai had developed a relationship with Baowen. He was in such good spirits because he was in love. It is later revealed that Fuhai has turned Baowen in and he has been sent to jail for 3 and a half years. Beina decides to wait for him and Mr. Cheng disowns her.
It is mentioned in the story that homosexuality is viewed as a disease by society. The doctors, however, know this is not the case and even state to Mr. Cheng there is no cure. If you are caught being intimate with another person of the same gender then you are arrested and branded a criminal. If you are branded a criminal in China then you are now considered an enemy to society and no one wants to associate with you. One could argue that these issues do not occur in America; this is not true. Although people are not arrested for homosexual actions, they can be arrested for other things such as violent protests. 50 years ago during the Stonewall Riots hundreds of people were arrested after violence was incited outside the gay bar. Also, surprisingly, many states still offer conversion therapy like the ones from the story (such as electrocution). As of 2019, the torture is still legal in 19 out of 50 states.
I would also like to point out a few other things about Chinese culture in the story. When Mr. Cheng is describing Baowen for the first time he says that he is extremely well educated. He then states that he graduated from middle school. It bewildered me that in China at that point in history that he was considered well educated. He wasn’t even from the country side. This just shows how little education was valued at the time, although it has since changed.
The other thing is the fact that Nurse Fuhai feels guilty. Is it possible that he actually loved Baowen? When Mr. Cheng comes to give Nurse Fuhai a gift of a pack of cigarettes for his help with Baowen’s treatment he rejects the gift. He even says that Mr. Cheng should give the cigarettes to the doctor. In my opinion this is a sign of guilt. He even admits to smoking, so why would he deny the generosity otherwise?