A doctor in Los Angeles when Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid find him. He left Moon Orchid in China but continued to support her and their daughter financially. He has remarried a younger woman who works as a nurse in his office. He is displeased to be reunited with Moon Orchid and tells her that he left her in China because he did not think that she was strong enough to survive in the United States. Though he obliges Brave Orchid’s request for lunch, he does not want to see his first wife again. Brave Orchid notices that her brother-in-law, who never divorced Moon Orchid, seems more American and looks significantly younger than his first wife, whom he mistakenly refers to as “Grandmother.”
Moon Orchid’s Husband Quotes in The Woman Warrior
The The Woman Warrior quotes below are all either spoken by Moon Orchid’s Husband or refer to Moon Orchid’s Husband . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Vintage edition of The Woman Warrior published in 1989.
).
4. At the Western Palace
Quotes
“A long time ago,” began Brave Orchid, “the emperors had four wives, one at each point of the compass, and they lived in four palaces. The Empress of the West would connive for power, but the Empress of the East was good and kind and full of light. You are the Empress of the East, and the Empress of the West has imprisoned the Earth’s Emperor in the Western Palace. And you, the good Empress of the East, come out of the dawn to invade her land and free the Emperor. You must break the strong spell she has cast on him that has lost him the East.”
Related Characters:
Brave Orchid (speaker), Moon Orchid, Moon Orchid’s Husband
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Woman Warrior LitChart as a printable PDF.

Moon Orchid’s Husband Character Timeline in The Woman Warrior
The timeline below shows where the character Moon Orchid’s Husband appears in The Woman Warrior. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
4. At the Western Palace
...was finished, she insisted on getting down to the “business” of reuniting Moon Orchid with Moon Orchid’s husband .
(full context)
...wanted to move to the United States. She waited for him to suggest it, but Moon Orchid’s husband never did. So, Brave Orchid found a Chinese-American husband for Moon Orchid’s daughter who was...
(full context)
...and because he had sent their daughter to college. Brave Orchid insisted that she make Moon Orchid’s husband feel bad for marrying someone else and for leaving his parents behind in China. She...
(full context)
...from the Western Palace. The second wife, like the Western Empress, had connived to win Moon Orchid’s husband ; Moon Orchid had to win him back.
(full context)
...Orchid asked to see her grandchildren, but Brave Orchid insisted that they go see to Moon Orchid’s husband first. Brave Orchid’s son drove to a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles.
(full context)
...a brain surgeon and did not take drop-in patients. It occurred to Brave Orchid that Moon Orchid’s husband had simply left her for a younger woman.
(full context)
...“grandmothers” what was wrong. Brave Orchid was outraged that he did not recognize his wife. Moon Orchid’s husband then asked Moon Orchid what she was doing there. Brave Orchid made up a story...
(full context)
Moon Orchid’s husband insisted that she did not belong because she did not “have the hardness” for America....
(full context)