Letter

A letter has come.

Three women who discovered their husband's true identity after marriage were planning to attend the meeting, but none could make it here in the end.

A gay couple is invited to talk about their life together to students at a "Homosexuality Study" seminar of Fudan University in Shanghai.

Some are busy divorcing their husband and some changed their mind at the last minute, Wu says.

She reads aloud the words of an organizer of the Gay's Wife Association, who declined to be named.

There are about 16 million women married to gay men, she writes, and many feel depressed, helpless and doubtful of their feminine attractiveness.

"If you are a gay man planning to marry a straight woman, please don't. I beg you!" Wu reads.

"No matter what reasons you have, you'll regret them in the end. If you think your feelings for men would disappear if you just got married, you are so very wrong.

"You must tell your fiancée the truth before marriage and let her decide what she wants from the marriage."

Nice boy

Hearing this advice, some mothers voice concerns about finding a good man for their son.

A mother surnamed Wang seizes the day.

"I wish I could find a good boy for my son," she says. "He must be nice, healthy and understanding."

Another mother surnamed Cai says she often checks out gay websites and chats with gay men online to find a date for her son.

"Sometimes I ask them to send me pictures to have a look, then they ask for my picture back or ask me out,'" she says.

"I have to say 'Sorry, I'm his mother.'"

The meeting host asks, "Is anyone interested in her son?"

A young man sitting in front looks over his shoulder at the mother and raises his hand immediately.

Everyone roars with laughter.

Shy boy

He is tall, slim and shy, but Peng Peng, 28, from Liaoning Province, stands up and walks deliberatively to the center of the room.

He looks straight at his mother sitting next to his boyfriend, takes a deep breath and begins.

"I tried to commit suicide," he says.

He had realized at age 10 he was gay, he says, but kept it to himself.

If anyone found out in this world, he concluded, he would have no choice but to leave it.

Time flew, the silence grew.