4,300 helpers

University administrators arranged for physics lecturers to wear microphones during class, recording their lessons and delivering the cassette tapes to Zhou.

A year later, a more structured system took shape: students from the School of Physics and Technology began reading for Zhou on a daily basis for no fewer than three hours each day. Over the past few years, this has been carried out online during the week and in person on weekends.

Over the past three decades, some 4,300 students have taken part in this long-running endeavor. As the effort expanded to include the School of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Zhou's relentless pursuit of knowledge weaved together the shared memories of generations of alumni.

The earliest helpers were Zhou's peers; those who come today belong to a different generation altogether. They call him "Uncle Shun", and in their sessions with him, learning moves in both directions.

"Sometimes I haven't even finished reading a paragraph before he is already explaining the ideas behind it," said Xing Lu, a volunteer and classmate of Chai's in the school of physics. "He asks questions, cross-checks details — you can feel how deeply he thinks."

Xing joined the project out of a desire to meet a near-legendary figure long spoken of among students. In the past semester alone, more than 90 students from her school read for him.

"What I discovered," Xing said, "is that whatever Uncle Shun may have lost in sight, he has more than made up for with a curiosity that has no obvious endpoint."

During their weekly sessions, Xing reads to Zhou from physics texts written in English, among which is Mathematical Physics: A Modern Introduction to Its Foundations by Sadri Hassani.

"To be honest, I don't always understand what I'm reading," Xing said. "I pronounce each word as best I can from its spelling. But he understands it. He must have had these passages read to him many times before."

At times, Xing was asked to read in parallel from an English text and a Chinese book covering the same subjects. When additional references were needed, Zhou would direct her to the exact passage — sometimes even the precise page.

"It isn't realistic to expect every good physics book to have a Chinese translation," Zhou said. "When I encounter an unfamiliar word, I ask my reader to pronounce it and spell it out. The spelling gives me a sense of the word, but more often I remember how it sounds. The equations and formulas help anchor its meaning."