Man facing major backlash after cryogenically freezing wife’s body then finding new love years later
Topics: China, Health, Science, Social Media
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Southern China Weekly
Topics: China, Health, Science, Social Media
A man who ‘cryogenically froze’ his wife has found a new partner years later, and social media users are not happy.
Imagine dating a man, only to find out that his wife is sat in a vat of sub-freezing liquid nitrogen in the hopes she can one day be revived.
It’s not a story many can tell, but it’s one a woman from China can reveal to all as her reality ,now that it has been confirmed that she’s in a relationship with 57-year-old Gui Junmin.
In 2017, he made the choice to freeze his late wife until a cure for her lung cancer could be found.
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Zhan Wenlian was China’s first-ever cryopreserved person, and she’s still floating in a -320°F unit labeled ‘Container No. 1’ at the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute.
Currently, around 500 people have been cryogenically preserved worldwide, with most patients being preserved in the US.
Wenlian was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2017, and with no hope of survival, Junmin signed her up for the experimental program.
“When she left, my world collapsed; I didn’t know what to do,” he reportedly said at the time.
But in November 2025, Chinese news outlets claimed that Junmin had started dating and even began living with a new girlfriend in 2020.
For two years, he was living alone and single until a severe gout attack left him thinking differently about his situation, alleged the Maeil Business Newspaper.
According to the paper, Junmin collapsed during the attack, and was discovered two days later by concerned relatives who broke down his door.
“If something really happens when you’re alone, there’s nothing that that person can do. No one can know even if they die at home,” Junmin said.
This led to him being open to meeting and living with Wang Chun-sha.
People online have since slated him for the relationship, questioning how his wife would feel about him moving on, if enough time has passed, and claiming he’s only ‘devoted’ to himself.
Online, one person wrote: “Now he is holding one woman in his arms while hoping to reunite with another in 30 years. What is this: emotional polygamy?”
“If that is the case, why start a new relationship? If you do, why not treat your new partner with genuine care? This kind of so-called devotion is not noble; it is selfish,” another commented.
Others defended him, with one arguing: "The past is the past, and the living must continue to live."
Another said: "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."
But despite living with his new beau and being in a relationship, he claims he’s still in love with his wife.
“She hasn’t entered my mind yet,” he said, as per Dexerto. “I have a responsibility for her, but it’s a complicated matter. She can never replace my wife. I can’t just forget the past, but I still have to live my life.
“I don’t care about her, she can go wherever she wants.”