Tributes poured in to Stephen Hawking, science’s greatest star, who passed away peacefully aged 76 on March 14 at home. To the sadness of millions of his followers in China, it means Hawking’s Sina Weibo updates stop forever.

Since opening his Weibo account in 2016, 20 posts have been published by Hawking. Looking back to his posts, we have found some other facets of the brilliant scientist.

(Stephen Hawking opened his Weibo account in 2016.)

It’s known to all that Hawking is an expert on space and time. But what is he like in his life? On May 2016, he wrote on his Weibo: “You all know me as Professor Stephen Hawking, the physicist wrestling with the great concepts of time and space. But there is another side to me that you may not know: Stephen Hawking the actor. I have always wanted to be in a movie playing the part of a typical British villain.” That is true. He really liked acting. For instance, he made seven appearances on “The Big Bang.”

He was also a music fan. He once shared his excitement of meeting Placido Domingo, the King of Opera, with his Chinese fans: “I visited New York where I met Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera. I am a lifelong opera fan and it was a great privilege for me to meet one of my musical heroes.”

As a British man, Hawking had a unique sense of humor, just as his Weibo post on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2016 indicates: “Please share some of your favorite Mid-Autumn festival traditions, your fondest memories of moon gazing with your loved ones, and your favorite flavors of mooncakes. Especially the mooncakes.”

(Stephen Hawking's Dream Jar)

Hawking enjoyed communicating with his Chinese fans. One of those talks is about Zhuan Zhou's Butterfly Dream. He designed his Dream Jar while taking inspiration from the ancient story. One of his Weibo posts says: “Communicating with you all here and learning about Chinese culture has been a source of great inspiration. That's why when I was asked to take part in Save The Children's initiative to design my Dream Jar, I decided to bring the question posed around Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream to life.” His Dream Jar can now be found in front of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

(The last Weibo post of Stephen Hawking)

The last post of the talented star of modern cosmology was written on November 24, where he presented a video response to a question raised by Wang Junkai from Chinese boy band TFboys regarding how humanity should prepare for interstellar migration. He said Wang’s question granted him insight into Chinese millennials on their thoughts and curiosities regarding the future. “It is this curiosity and confidence I hope to see grow as you pursue science and other creative ideas.”