‘Pure fate’: China newlyweds share identical names, face endless glitches in life situations

A newlywed Chinese couple has gone viral on social media because they share exactly the same name, written with the same Chinese characters, and work in the same industry. The coincidence has caused a few practical complications, but many people see it as pure fate.

On October 6, the groom, 33, and the bride, 28, both named Zhu Xiaocong, held their wedding in Zhejiang province, eastern China.

Someone shared their wedding poster online, which showed that the couple had exactly the same name, written with the same Chinese characters.

The bride said some relatives who did not know her husband thought the wedding planner had made a mistake.

When they learned it was not a mistake but a coincidence, they said the couple were “completely meant to be.”

The couple not only share the same name and come from Zhejiang province, but also work in the civil aviation industry.

The wife is a flight attendant, while the husband is an aviation safety officer.

They both attended the same job fair in 2016. They recalled that when an interviewer called out “Zhu Xiaocong,” they both stood up.

At the time, they simply noted that someone else had the same name and considered it a minor incident.

Later, the husband’s colleague, who was also the wife’s classmate, noticed the coincidence and introduced them. They began dating in 2019.

The couple have had some amusing difficulties because of their identical names. When they registered their marriage in May and applied for a property ownership certificate, the computer could not automatically process their information, so staff had to take time to enter their records manually.

The wife also shared on her account that they once accidentally swapped boarding passes during a leisure trip. Because the passes did not show their gender, security staff had to check their identities.

The wife told the SCMP that they both used to respond when friends called “Xiaocong.” They later came up with a system: the husband is “Da Cong,” meaning “older Cong,” and the wife is “Xiao Cong,” meaning “younger Cong.”

Social media users found the coincidence amusing, with some suggesting that the couple name their future child “Zhu Xiaocong” or “Congcong,” combining their names.

Another user said the story was like Japanese director Shunji Iwai’s famous romance film Love Letter, in which the two characters who share an unspoken adolescent crush are both named Itsuki Fujii.