Chuang will never forget the first time she met her husband: the kind man who offered her a lift on a rainy day, back to her hometown, outside Xian, Shaanxi province. During the ride she found out they hailed from the same village and she was impressed by his thoughtful, attentive manner.
Chuang thanked him by text message. When he called at her parents' home the next day, she took it as a sign of an honest courting.
The man turned out to be a maestro in the kitchen. His dress sense was impeccable, both in his own attire and the clothes he chose for her. When they talked, there was real empathy. Then there were the elegantly crafted poems he wrote.
Before their marriage, he made an awkward attempt to kiss her - but only once, and then only after he had been drinking. She reached for his hand and he withdrew it, a reaction she rationalised: 'I had friends whose boyfriends were quite physical in their advances, so I thought, 'This is a man who treats me with respect.''
The first two months of their marriage, however, were not good. They didn't make love once. He would go out at night and leave her alone. When he got into bed, he would turn his back to her and keep well away. Then, one night, she reached across to caress him and he turned and struck her across the face.
'My eyes were smarting from the blow,' Chuang recalls. 'I was dismayed and I thought, 'Who is this man who was so nice and now will not come near me; who never wants to touch me and looks through me as if I'm not here? Is he the same person? How are we going to live together?''
The union was sinking fast and soon things came to a head. Chuang discovered a URL on their computer that led to a website used by gay men to 'cruise' one another online.
