My point of view.

How comes nobody view this thing from the point of being a good hu*****and. This is how I will do if I am her hu*****and (hahahaha, I am not, and I am not trying to eat tofu here. LOL). I wouldn't condemn my wife for asking me to stay at home and not going to her place just because she worried about I couldn't finish my thesis in time, and not getting the degree. Yes, one night may not mean much in terms of writing the thesis. But image if you had something like that hanging on your head, and you knew you were not going to have a nice job based on this Ph.D you were going to get (because he was going to switch to computer field after this Ph.D, so you know the job market was not good at all in his field). I would be able to understand my wife's worry, and concentrating on what I really need to do that night. After all (at least in my case) is Christmas really that important to a Chinese couple? We definitely have to show our love in whatever way possible, but what LZ was doing was really out of good intention, and to me her hu*****and was condemning her as using him as a stool, that's really way too much. Well, if LZ is really someone who keeps pushing her hu*****and around all the time, then I am wrong.
To be a good hu*****and, to love your wife dearly, you have to be first a man who is going to be able to support the family in whatever way possible. And if you have done your best in that regard, then the wife should understand you well even at your worst time.