Homosexuality has been a very sensitive and controversial topic for a long time in human society.  Take “The Bridegroom,” written by Ha Jin, as an example: Huang Baowen, who is a gay man, marries Beina, “a short, homely girl” (Ha Jin 35), and ends up in prison because of the so-called crime—homosexuality.  Baowen’s trying everything to cure himself and people’s attitudes toward homosexuality in the story demonstrate their ignorance of homosexuality at that time in China.

Baowen’s way of trying to cure homosexuality by himself shows clearly his ignorance of homosexuality. It is said, “Years ago I tried everything to cure myself. I took a lot of herbs and boluses, and even ate baked scorpions, lizards, and toads.  Nothing helped me.  Still I’m fond of men” (Ha Jin 38).  It’s hard to believe that in order to cure homosexuality, he relies on scorpions, lizards or toads!  Yes, traditional Chinese medicine has special ways of treatments for various kinds of diseases, but it is usually based on doctor’s judgments and prescription, not toads, herbs or boluses as Baowen shall wish to take as some kind of treatment.  Not to mention that “homosexuality is not an illness, so how can it have a cure?” (Ha Jin 45)  What’s more, “Baowen was good-natured and well educated—a middle school graduate”, but still he doesn’t know that “It’s not a disease. It’s just a sexual preference” (Ha Jin 45).  This is really ironic.

People’s attitudes toward Baowen describe a picture of society’s ignorance of homosexuality. From Chief Miao’s point of view, who comes from “the Investigation Department” (Ha Jin 37), homosexuality is “a social disease” (Ha Jin 37) and that it “originated in western Capitalism and bourgeois lifestyle. According to our law it’s dealt with as hooliganism” (Ha Jin 38).  This is something ridiculous, especially when these words are spoken by a Department Chief, who is supposed to be knowledgeable.  Homosexuality is just a kind of human nature; it exists among human beings. From the perspective of Baowen’s family, homosexuality is a disease which can be cured. Beina “broke into tears at the good news” (Ha Jin 41) that her husband Baowen is being sent to the mental hospital for treatment. And that’s why Old Cheng who is Baowen’s father-in-law, “feels relieved” (Ha Jin 41). They think Baowen can be cured and return home early before the New Year.  Neither of them knows that there is no way out for homosexuality, even with the Electrotherapy, as “so far it has cured only one out of a thousand homosexuals” (Ha Jin 45).

As to people in the factory, some say “Baowen was impotent” (Ha Jin 39) while others believe “he was a hermaphrodite” (Ha Jin 39).  These are the strange views most people at that time have for homosexuality.  At the beginning of the story, however, there are many young women in the factory who are attracted to Baowen, and one of them is described as follows: “A brazen one even declared she’d leave her door open for him all night long” (Ha Jin 36). What a contradiction! From the above we can easily get a sense of the society’s ignorance of homosexuality.  They don’t really know what homosexuality is, but rather come up with answers based on their imagination, not evidence.

Homosexuality, as a human nature, shouldn’t be regarded as a physical or mental disease. It is just a sexual preference and it has nothing to do with socialism or capitalism. So through the ways of treatment adopted by Baowen and people’s strange views toward homosexuality, we can see people at that time in China, including ordinary people, the upper class and even the homosexuals, don’t know much about homosexuality and they are really ignorant of homosexuality at then China.