The US "Uncle of Chinese Characters" website can view the evolution of each Chinese character

The Chinese Dream of the Uncle of Chinese Characters: Exploring the Evolution of Chinese Characters

"Uncle Chinese Character" is an American, but he is more famous in China. He created a Chinese character source website where you can search for the evolution of almost every Chinese character, Oracle, Xiaoyan, Jinwen, Traditional and Simplified. In 2019, some people put his website on Weibo and caused widespread concern. The traffic of the website has soared more than four times, and he won the title of "uncle of Chinese characters".

In August 2019, because of a help for Weibo, the "uncle of Chinese characters" was on fire again - "He paid everything for Chinese characters, and now he is in poverty, and his visa expires, facing the predicament of being forced to leave China. He is in Tianjin, I hope to find an English teacher or translator to continue to live and study Chinese characters in China."

"I want to be a Chinese citizen"

"I am coming back to Tianjin for 5 days. I want to live in China. I don't want to go back to the US." On February 5, 2019, the day before the Lantern Festival, American Sreid knocked on these words on Weibo, and he decided to stay. Tianjin is over.

Sreid is the Chinese name used by Richard Sears before the "uncle of Chinese characters". It was made by Taiwanese scholar and expert Li Xiaoding who studied oracle bones. He likes the name very much because he is "smart and moral."

Sreid is a Chinese cultural fan. After studying Chinese, he is attending the local celebration of the Spring Festival almost every year in his hometown of Tennessee. In his study, there is even a Spring Festival couplet.

Sreid went to Tianjin, China, and participated in the award ceremony of "China is more beautiful because of you" hosted by Tianjin TV Station "Parking China". But after coming to China, he suddenly did not want to return to the United States. "I feel very much in China." Ok, this is a different place, not the feeling that I am an ordinary American in the United States, and speaking Chinese will stimulate my mind, I need my mind."

Although his Chinese is not very fluent, Sreid likes to go to every place to chat with people in Chinese. For this Chinese character fan, this country is always full of unknowns. A group of people are surrounded by a road or a cow is transported to the city for slaughter. It will make him think for a long time. "You can't see these in the US, this is interesting. ".

Sreid’s life in Tianjin is very simple. Apart from sleeping, he spends 1/3 of his time online, making simple modifications and maintenance of his website’s database, occasionally on Weibo and Facebook, learning physics, and watching science. Interesting news on technology, war and war. Through the introduction of friends, he gave 3 middle school students counseling in English to maintain their lives.

Today, he is facing the dilemma of having to leave because of the expiration of his visa.

Sreid holds a tourist visa in China. This visa can not be used in China for more than three months at a time. When the last visa expired, he chose to fly to Hong Kong first and then fly back to Tianjin. This time he intended to fly to Vietnam and come back because the ticket to Vietnam was cheaper. However, in early August, he refused to apply for the extension of the tourist visa to the Tianjin Entry and Exit Administration and was confiscated. The Immigration Bureau asked him to time limit. Departure.

Money has also become a big problem. Maintaining the website and traveling cost most of his savings. Two months ago, he moved from an apartment with a monthly rent of 2,400 yuan to Tianjin Beiwu Village. "Because the monthly rent is only 1,500 yuan." The walls of the stairwells of the community are covered with a variety of small advertisements. His living room consists of a bedroom, a narrow kitchen and a toilet. There are only two pieces of furniture in the bedroom: a wooden table with a huge laptop, some paper and books scattered around the computer; a bed with a white quilt on the bed and no pillows. The suitcase and clothes are placed on the window sill in a mess.

After Weibo sent out help information, the “uncle of Chinese characters” became very busy, and the time was filled by the people who visited, the media that asked to meet, and the job interview. Someone asked him to work in the museum. Someone asked him to do market analysis, but most of the work was in English. Cosford does not like to speak English all day, he likes to speak Chinese and be his own website.

Sreid’s 93-year-old mother has weak vision, but both mother and son have video calls every day. For 20 years, my mother was the only person around Sreid who supported him to be a website. Screed told her that someone could help solve the problem. The mother at the camera still had some concerns, reminding him from time to time that he "remembers that he is a US citizen." "I want to be a Chinese citizen," Sreid returned with a sigh of relief.