Love for Birds Generates Romance

On the afternoon of March 1st 2010， Zhou Yanfang， a 26-year-old girl from China， knew what she was looking forward to seeing in Kenya， an eastern African country. Accompanied by a local guide， Zhou was on a journey into wilderness to see Macrodipteryx longipennis， a special kind of nightingale native to eastern African. The bird was also called standard-winged nightjar. The adult male has a bizarre wing ornament during the breeding season. In normal flight， these feathers trail behind， but in display flight they are raised vertically like standards.

Zhou had been traveling for a long while after her graduation from a prestigious art school in China and successful art work. After reading about the special African bird in a magazine， she decided to travel and see the bird.

But she did not expect to meet her future husband on this special trip. When she finally arrived at the appointed place and saw some birds， she decided to take some photographs. But she was stopped by a young man who looked liked an Asian. Seeing her reaching into her bag to get something out， the young man thought she might be taking out a gun. The misunderstanding was soon explained away. He turned out to be a Vietnamese named Ruan Xingqiang. The young man said he was a businessman and he was there watching the precious species， too.

They found each other attractive and began to go together watching the birds.

Ruan Xingqiang was actually a pop singer of some popularity from Ho Chi Minh City. In 2008， he visited China with his father and spent one year studying at the Central Academy of National Minorities in Beijing. In 2009 he published his first album in Vietnam. His love songs were popular. However， a singer is not a great honor in the city and Ruan never boasts his identity. For fear of losing Zhou Yanfang， Ruan did not tell her what he did for a living back home.

The two formed a pair and watched the birds for a few more days before Ruan received a phone call from a record company back home. Ruan got a contract to make a new album. The call came on March 7， 2010. That night， Ruan invited Zhou to have a cup of coffee. He invited Zhou to go to Vietnam with him. Zhou declined， but promised she would go see him in Vietnam if she had time in the future.

The two kept in touch. On March 16， 2010， Ruan attended a cultural event in his home city， which was televised alive. Zhou happened to watch the event on television. When she discovered Ruan had lied about his identity， she did not feel so sure about the future of the two.

She continued to watch the birds for about a month and left for home on April 13. After losing contact with Zhou， Ruan was extremely worried. He flew to Kenya again. On April 15， he arrived and to his huge disappointment， he found that Zhou had checked out of the small hotel two days before. He decided to fly to Changsha to find Zhou.

With a portrait of Zhou painted by an artist， Ruan began to look for his sweetheart everywhere in Changsha. His efforts came nowhere. On April 19， 2010， the young Vietnamese singer started his unusual way of finding his sweetheart. He came to downtown， set up a large poster with her photo and a brief account of how he had met her and lost her. He sang a song he wrote for his love.

A week elapsed before someone came forward and said she knew how to contact Zhou. Ruan was given a number of QQ， the most popular instant online messaging service in China. Zhou used that number to chat with people online. Ruan hastily went to an internet bar and went online. With the help of the assistants at the bar， he got a QQ number and started chatting with Zhou.

They chatted about themselves， about the loss of her phone， about the possibilities of their future.

On April 27， Zhou and Ruan went to visit Zhou’s parents. The parents were reluctant. They worried about the cultural gap of the two countries and they preferred that their future son-in-law would be a local resident. But finally the parents decided to accept the Vietnamese.

On June 13， they applied for and got the marriage certificate in Changsha. And on June 24， the wedding took place in a church in Changsha.