Richard Sears, 65, was relatively unknown in China until 2012, when his story—spending his life savings, $300,000, on studying Hanzi (Chinese characters)—captured the attention and hearts of many Chinese people. 

Now, Sears has more than 20,000 followers on the micro blog Sina Weibo, and is called "Uncle Hanzi" in China, where he has become an internet sensation. His etymology website for Chinese characters can trace the origin and evolution of 6,552 of the most common modern Chinese characters.

His love affair with the Chinese language started 44 years ago, when he woke up one day in the U.S. city of Boston and decided that he would like to learn Chinese, a language then spoken by approximately one-fifth of the world's population. He bought a ticket to Taiwan to begin his studies.

After several years of studying, Sears still found writing Chinese characters incredibly difficult. One piece of advice he received was to learn the evolution of Chinese characters, which might then help him to memorize them.

In 1990, he came up with the idea of making the etymological information of Chinese characters available online so people could trace them back to their original form. In 2002, Sears came to China and put his website online, free for anyone who was interested.

"People thought I was crazy when I was in the United States, spending all my money and time on the website. But for me, it's just an interest," Sears said in an interview with Chinese media.

Years of living in China has turned Uncle Hanzi into Grandpa Hanzi, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the love Sears has for Chinese characters.