A cartoon of Sears and his etymology research by a Chinese netizen. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Now Sears is fond of chatting with his Sina Weibo fans in Chinese. He tells stories about how characters evolve and answers questions from Chinese netizens.

Two months ago, Sears bought a computer at a much higher price than he should have been charged. He blogged about his experience on weibo and was inundated with responses from his loyal fans pledging to get him his money back. A few days later, Sears got his money back from the salesman, who had been overwhelmed with phone calls from angry netizens.

"Many Chinese netizens care about Uncle Hanzi online. When he is not well, his fans will express their concern for him," says Jiang Lihui, a volunteer who helps run Uncle Hanzi's Sina Weibo. Jiang is a scholar who is studying at Beijing Normal University for her PhD. She says Sears is a simple man who devotes himself to enhancing the Chinese etymology website.

Uncle Hanzi is now satisfied with his life in China. His job at the university provides him with a house and money for his website. Teaching two classes a week gives him enough time to build his website.

His next goal is to collect pictures related to those Chinese characters and turn the evolution of each character into a cartoon film. "The cartoon project is huge and needs more time and effort. But I don't have enough time left to complete it," he says.