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 to politely 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 reletively 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.

A new book coming soon

Currently, Sears is working on his new book, which is a compilation work from the database of Chinese characters he's created in the past twenty years.

"Previously, my work was building a data-base of Chinese characters where the etymologies could be traced. Now I'm trying to write a book helping foreigners learn Chinese characters."

The book, which Sears started working on since September, is expected to come out next March.

"After carefully examining over 9,000 characters on my website, I extracted about 900 single characters. These 900 characters would serve as the basis for learning complicated Chinese characters, as most Chinese characters consist of simple characters."

According to Sears, this is not a book of only half a year's work, but an accumulation of all his previous works. And this book is creative to some extend as it surpasses the conventional explanations of characters.

"Eighty percent of the content has been approved by Chinese character experts, 10 percent is disputable, and the rest is completely explained by myself."

A Chinese publishing house has already contacted Sears about publishing the issue next year.

"The big problem now remains that the book needs to be carefully proofread again and again, and I need to find a helper."

When asked whether he has confidence in the book, he said he's not sure whether it could make a lot of money - as books in China usually don't. But he's confident about the content of the book.

"The books on Chinese characters in the market are not compiled by Chinese character experts, a lot of them are just characters put together. Mine is not."

Once a hippie, always a hippie

"I do not go to bed on time, and I don't feel the need to sleep for certain hours a day. I'm an old hippie."

For Sears, hippies are those that live on free will, always interested in the world at its current state, and are never tired of exploring the possibilities of life. Sears takes pride in calling himself a hippie.

In 1972, Sears, then a 22-year-old physics freshman at the University of Portland, felt that life in Oregon was "boring". Having found his interest in Chinese, he bought a one-way ticket to Taiwan.

In 1979, Sears began looking for Sanmao, a famous Taiwanese novelist who he admired. Sears travelled to the Sahara desert, only to find information that Sanmao has gone back to Spain. When he finally met Sanmao in 1981, he encouraged Sanmao to try areca nuts. Sanmao tried the areca nuts, swallowing them in one-shot, and felt dizzy on the street.

Three years ago he declined offers to teach English despite his lack of employment and his shrinking bank account. For Sears, teaching English would be a waste of time.

"I would prefer teaching physics because it can exercise my brain."

Last Monday, when he was told to wear a suit to attend the 2015 Symposium on China Studies, he told the host he hasn't owned a suit or tie in over 30 years. He attended the symposium wearing a red jacket while everyone else wore a black or grey suit.

Last Thursday, while walking with a group of professors in Ningbo, he suddenly stood in front of a horning no-stop tricycle rushing to them from behind, as if he was superman. He spoke in clear-cut mandarin to the Chinese rider saying, "don't honk your horn in a narrow street where people are walking." The rider obeyed.

"I always do that in China. I think those people are disrespectful to pedestrians. I know you are supposed to get used to it, but I like forming my own social protocols."

When asked whether he's bothered by life in China, the old hippie quickly said no.

"People at my age have difficulties finding a job back in my home country, but not here in China. Besides, it's safe here. You won't get a gun pointed at you for stopping those big car honkers."

As an enthusiastic hippie, Sears has kept a habit of writing stories on facebook about the Chinese society - its culture and people he observed. "I love China, I hope I can help more people understand China."

You can try taking the China out of Uncle Hanzi, but you can't take Uncle Hanzi out of China. He's here to stay.