New focus

In a dialogue with researchers and local journalists, Sears said he is currently researching the connections between Chinese characters and science and has been building a scientific outlook toward the characters.

"I have deconstructed up to 15,000 Chinese characters into 960-1,000 different parts," he explains. "And from the parts, I'm trying to trace every character's story and development path.

"Many of the characters are associated with astronomy, some are even intertwined with the knowledge of textile processing," he says.

His assistant notes that Sears, who now lives in the suburbs of Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu province, frequently visited the Yunjin Museum, which showcases Yun Brocade－a type of fabric with a history dating back to 417－to verify his assumptions and research on certain characters and their connection with the ancient Chinese textile making process.

"Because I majored in physics, I have a profound interest in the scientific meaning of Chinese characters, many theories of which are proven to be true and many of which need to be further verified," he says.