Overview
- Gui Junmin cryopreserved his wife, Zhan Wenlian, in 2017 after her death from lung cancer, arranging a 30-year storage at the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute in Jinan.
- Zhan’s body is stored in a 2,000-liter liquid nitrogen tank at roughly minus 190°C under a formal agreement with the institute.
- Gui told Southern Weekly he began seeing Wang Chunxia in 2020 after a severe gout attack left him immobilized, describing the relationship as “utilitarian” and saying Wang has not entered his heart.
- Coverage this week by Southern Weekly and the BBC drew intense criticism and debate on Chinese social media over grief, loyalty and fairness to the living partner.
- Reports indicate Zhan may have consented to preservation, and coverage reiterates that cryonics remains speculative with roughly 500–600 people preserved worldwide and no proven method of revival.