The Bridegroom

The story starts out with some background information. Beina’s father deid and the narrator promised him he would take care of his daughter. “He left his only child with me because my wife and I had no children of our own.” He expresses his concerns and says, “As she grew older, it became more difficult, not because she was willful or troublesome, but because no man was interested in her, a short, homely girl. When she turned twenty-three and still had no boyfriend, I began to worry. Where could I find her a husband?” I think it is a interesting part of their culture that although Beina is only twenty three, they are worried that she will never find a husband. It is also interesting that the father figure feels the need to find one for her! He says, “I was afraid she’d end up an old maid.”

There is then a turn of events when, “out of the blue, Huang Baowen proposed to her.” Then two months later they got married. Many young women in the sewing factory were shocked at their marriage and saw it as a slap in the face. This is because, “Baowen had been one of the most handsome unmarried men in the factory, and nobody had expected that Beina, stocky and stout, would win him.” After hearing this, it seems as if there is something we don’t know about why they got married. Even her adoptive parents are suspicious to the union. They say, “Although we had or doubts, my wife and I couldn’t say anything negative about the marriage. Our only concern was that Baowen might be too good for our adopted daughter.” When I read this for the first time, I had to go back and read it again to make sure I had read it correctly. I have never heard parents worry that a man was “too good” for their daughter! This seemed very strange to me. Normally, the father figure is extremely protective of their daughters and don’t think that any men are good enough for their daughters. This is quite a turn of the tables.

Later in the story Beina came to her stepfather’s office in tears and informed him, “Uncle, Baowen didn’t come home last night.” This was his worst nightmare come true. He had these doubts and nervous feelings towards the marriage and this confirmed his worst fears. He later receives a phone call from, “the city’s Public Security Bureau. The man on the phone said they’d detained a worker of ours, named Huang Baowen. He couldn’t tell me what had happened. He just said, indecent activity, come as soon as you can.” He immediately jumps to conclusions and, “figured Baowen must have been involved in a major crime—either an orgy or gang rape.”

He finally meets with Chief Miao of the Investigation Department. What he was told next was shocking. “Without any opening remarks he declared that we have a case of homosexuality on our hands. At that, the room turned noisy. We’d heard that term before but didn’t know what it meant exactly.” Chief Miao then explains, “It’s social disease, like gambling, or prostitution, or syphilis.” This shows the culture’s ignorance towards homosexuality. The fact that they consider it to be a “social disease” is astounding to me. Chief Miao then goes on to inform him that homosexuality is considered to be a crime and, “according to our law it’s dealt with as a kind of hooliganism. Therefore, every one of the men we arrested will serve a sentence, from six months to five years, depending on the severity of his crime and his attitude towards it.” This shows another drastic difference between American culture and theirs. If we were to discriminate against homosexuality, it would be considered to be discrimination.

They were caught because a group of men had formed a club called “Men’s World”, a salon of sorts. They met every Thursday evening. Since the club was strictly men, the police suspected that it might be a “secret association with a leaning toward violence”, so they assigned two detectives to pose as members of the group. When the men were caught they said, “At least we men have a place for ourselves. Now I feel alive! Only in here can I stop living in hypocrisy.” I feel bad for these men, who are forced to live in secret and cannot live openly, and then are considered to be “criminals” because of their sexual orientation.

When he finally gets a chance to talk with Baowen, he asks him if he realizes that he committed a crime. Baowen responds by saying, “I didn’t do anything. I just went there to listen to them talk.” He then asks him if he had done anything with a man. Baowen tells him, “I’d thought about doing something, but to be honest, I didn’t. I liked a man in the club, a lot. If he’d asked me, I might’ve agreed.” This outrages the stepfather. He then asks Baowen why he married Beina to begin with, “To make fun of her? To throw mud in my face?” We are then told that he had informed that Beina had known all along, and that before they got married he told her that he didn’t like women and might not give her a baby. She told him that, “She didn’t mind. She just wanted a husband, a home.”