US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
    China / My Chinese Dream

    Uncle Hanzi is quite a character

    By Deng Zhangyu (China Daily) Updated: 2014-04-25 09:43

    Uncle Hanzi is quite a character

    Richard Sears studies the etymology of Chinese characters in his office at Beijing Normal University. [Photo provided to China Daily]

    Uncle Hanzi is quite a character

    Foreign celebrities try their hands at calligraphy  

    Uncle Hanzi is quite a character

    Foreigners enlightened by Chinese calligraphy  

    "If you look at the strokes of the character, it has no meaning and is difficult to memorize. If you know how it evolved and find the logic behind the character, it's easy for foreigners like me to remember," says Sears in fluent Chinese, although he jokes about his Chinese with an "American accent".

    Sears' love affair with the Chinese language started 42 years ago, when he woke up one day in the US city of Boston with the idea that he would like to learn Chinese, a language then spoken by one-fifth of the world's population. He bought a ticket to Taiwan and started to study.

    He spoke to everyone he met on the street in Chinese. But he found writing Chinese characters incredibly difficult. A professor told him that if he studied the evolution of every character, he might find them easier to remember.

    In 1990, he had the idea to make the etymological information of Chinese characters available online, so people could trace them back to their original form. More importantly, he thought it would help foreigners better understand the logic behind Chinese characters. Sears did some research but didn't start the project, until he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1994. He did not know how long he had to live and kept asking himself questions like: "What should I do if I only have one day left? One year or 40 years?"

    "I finally decided to live like I only have one year left. And to computerize Chinese characters was what I want to do the most," Sears says.

    "The experts I visited in China didn't believe I would be able to digitalize Chinese characters while the computer scientist had no interest in doing so. I was alone."

    He started reading etymology books and writing programs that made 96,000 archaic Chinese characters available online. To scan the huge number of Chinese characters was also demanding and time-consuming and Sears hired a Chinese to help him.

    In 2002, Sears put his website online, free for anyone who is interested. For many years, Sears worked quietly on his website in the US when all of a sudden, in January 2011, he received 600, 000 page views in a single day. A Chinese netizen had written a micro blog about Sears' website and the unassuming academic suddenly found himself thrust into the spotlight.

    Sears' story was covered in newspapers and on TV, and he soon became known as "Uncle Hanzi". His website also received many donations from Chinese people. He moved to China in 2012.

    Highlights
    Hot Topics
    ...
    国精品无码一区二区三区左线| 亚洲中文字幕无码永久在线| 亚洲国产精品无码中文字| 亚洲AV中文无码乱人伦在线观看| 国产 亚洲 中文在线 字幕| 色欲狠狠躁天天躁无码中文字幕| 中文在线√天堂| 亚洲av无码不卡私人影院| 无码日韩精品一区二区三区免费| 中文字幕在线免费观看| 亚洲成?Ⅴ人在线观看无码| 亚洲av日韩av无码| 免费无码又爽又刺激高潮软件| 制服丝袜人妻中文字幕在线| 成 人无码在线视频高清不卡| 亚洲AV无码片一区二区三区| 无码国产精品一区二区免费虚拟VR| 中文字幕乱码人妻一区二区三区| 88国产精品无码一区二区三区| 亚洲欧洲日产国码无码网站| 高清无码午夜福利在线观看| 中文网丁香综合网| 久久国产高清字幕中文| 亚洲高清无码专区视频| 精品一区二区无码AV| av无码久久久久不卡免费网站| 日日摸日日踫夜夜爽无码| 一本无码中文字幕在线观| 中文自拍日本综合| 最好看的最新高清中文视频| www日韩中文字幕在线看| 国产中文欧美日韩在线| 免费A级毛片无码A∨中文字幕下载| 亚洲精品无码99在线观看| 无码精品人妻一区二区三区免费| 毛片无码全部免费| 日韩免费a级毛片无码a∨| 亚洲 另类 无码 在线| 亚洲中文字幕无码一去台湾| 亚洲天堂2017无码中文| 亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码喷水|