What you don't know about Uncle Hanzi

Sears, 65, was relatively unknown in China until 2012, when his story of spending his life savings ($300,000) on studying Chinese touched many resulting in a lot of publicity for the man now known as Uncle Hanzi. [Photo by Ruan Fan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Richard Sears, known as Uncle Hanzi in China, was standing in line for security check at Ningbo airport Friday when he took out two cans of beer, a can of coke and a bottle of water before asking people around him to help gulp them down.

Uncle Hanzi offered a French passenger, who was standing next to him in line, a can of his choice. The French politely declined because he didn't want to drink while standing up. Uncle Hanzi saw an Israelite passenger, upon offering the Israelite a can he was quickly rejected because the man was just not that thirsty. Desperate to not put all these cans of beverages to waste, Uncle Hanzi reached out to a Turkish passenger politely to take one of his cans, the Turkish passenger accepted and the two shared a memorable drink.

"I forgot that drinks weren't allowed to bring on the plane. I didn't want to just waste them," he said while showing an innocent smile and opening two cans of beer.

Sears, 65, was relatively unknown in China until 2012, when his story of spending his life savings ($300,000) on studying Chinese touched many resulting in a lot of publicity for the man now known as Uncle Hanzi.

"I was told to leave China as my visa was expired, but I got this one Chinese netizen who posted my story on Sina microblog which made me an overnight celebrity. I managed to stay by taking a teaching position at Beijing Normal University."

Now, Sears' three-year work contract with the university is coming to an end. He lost his 8,000 yuan (about $1,266) a month apartment assigned to him and moved into a 3,000 yuan room where he has to boil the water for half an hour before taking a shower. He is currently seeking a new job to sustain living in Beijing.

To many, it seems like Uncle Hanzi is falling back to where he was before the fame, but he remains optimistic.