Two years ago, US attorney Eddie Mears found a photo of his late grandmother when he and his father were going through her belongings in the state of Michigan. It showed three Western ladies and an Asian man, with the inscription 鈥淭o Veronica. With love. Ben.鈥�

On the back of the photo, his grandmother wrote the name Benjamin King and indicated the photo was taken at a farewell party for him in May, 1933.

The discovery led Mears on a personal odyssey to peel back the years and reveal who the mystery man was.

鈥淢y grandmother, Veronica Estelle Mears, died in 1992 when I was 6 years old, so I don鈥檛 have many memories of her,鈥� Mears, an attorney now based in Japan, told Shanghai Daily on a long-distance call. 鈥淏ut there were years when we interacted quite frequently because she lived not too far away. She was very warm and spent a lot of time reading books to me and my sister. I remember she once broke an arm, so we started referring to her as 鈥榞randma with the broken arm.鈥欌��

Mears鈥� sleuthing took him to the University of Michigan campus where his grandmother studied in the 1930s. He said she had always been an adventurous woman, traveling solo to places like Europe, Mexico and Canada, which was unusual for women at that time. In that era, it was also unusual for American students to befriend Asian foreign-exchange students.

鈥淚 read a book entitled 鈥楾he Cultural Experiences of Chinese Students who Studied in the United States during the 1930s-40s,鈥欌�� said Mears. 鈥淢any struggled with their coursework, with some were placed in classes not suited to their linguistic abilities. As a result, these exchange students tended to stick together and rarely made friends with American classmates, who likewise were reluctant to make friends with them. That was what made the apparent friendship between my grandmother and Benjamin so intriguing.鈥�

The intrigue led Mears to the University of Michigan campus to search through the archives, where he found several articles referring to Benjamin King. A profile of the student gradually emerged. He was very likely from China, a political activist who often attended rallies and gave several talks to student organizations and church groups about China and its ongoing tensions with Japan.

Mears also found a campus World Politics Commission led by Benjamin King, with Veronica as the group鈥檚 secretary. There was the link he was searching for.

He then did research at the Bentley Historical Library on the campus and found out Benjamin鈥檚 Chinese name was Gin Bo-min, who hailed from Hangzhou and graduated in 1930 from the then University of Shanghai, which is now the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

Mears鈥� next step was to find the Chinese characters for Gin鈥檚 name.

With some digging, he managed to find a 1949 membership roster for the Rotary Club of Shanghai, which included a picture that give him his first close look at Gin.

However, the Chinese characters were so blurry that Mears had to turn to some Chinese friends and then to artificial intelligence tools to recognize them. He finally got a result: Gin was 閲戜集閾�.

鈥淭here were several references to his studies in America in the 1930s and his subsequent profession as a banker with the National Commercial Bank,鈥� Mears said. 鈥淚 was confident that I now had enough information to delve deeper.鈥�

He added, 鈥淚 utilized ChatGPT鈥檚 translation function, which was terrific in translating Chinese-language sources,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was even quite good at translating classical Chinese and scans that were blurry or degraded. Without this technology, I would have had a very hard time finding information on my own.鈥�

Gradually, the life of the 鈥渕ystery man鈥� in the picture unfolded.

In Hangzhou, Gin鈥檚 father ran an antique bookstore that included tomes collected by an ancestor who was once a high-ranking official in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He also discovered that Gin published a book in 1940, entitled 鈥淏anking Practices,鈥� and that Gin had divorced a wife who appeared to have been the daughter of a former president of Tsinghua University. Gin died in 1990; his three children emigrated to North America.

Several months ago, Mears visited Shanghai and Hangzhou to follow in Gin鈥檚 footsteps. In Hangzhou, he found that Gin鈥檚 old street address no longer existed.

One significant stop was the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, where the campus library yielded a big surprise.

鈥淭he library was built soon after or during Benjamin鈥檚 time there,鈥� Mears said. 鈥淏enjamin or his family had donated money or books to the library when it opened. And there鈥檚 a little QR code on the outside of the library that you can scan for its history. So I scanned it, and I was shocked to see an article that mentioned Benjamin鈥檚 name. I thought, 鈥極h my God, here he is! He is a real being.鈥欌��

Last week, Zhan Qingyun, a Chinese friend of Mears, posted the story of his search for his grandmother鈥檚 friend on the social media platform Weibo. The post went viral.

Soon Mears鈥� WeChat account was flooded with 鈥渇riend鈥� requests, and among hundreds of messages of 鈥済ood luck with the search,鈥� some netizens actually provided more information about Gin. He had two sisters who went on to become accomplished artists named Jin Qijing (閲戝惎闈�) and Jin Naixian (閲戣�愬厛).

Looking back on the past two years, Mears said he was amazed how an old photo blossomed into such a heartfelt story.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just amazing what we can do when humans pool our collective skills and talents,鈥� Mears said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been overwhelming. Just think about it. This is all just came from one picture in my grandmother鈥檚 photo book.鈥�

The search left Mears, who went to live in Japan in 2016, with a much deeper understanding about China.

鈥淚 had visited China a few times before, but I really knew nothing about this era of history in China,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was really cool to learn more about Shanghai and Hangzhou, and what circumstances were like back then. I鈥檝e developed a new respect for Chinese history and feel motivated to learn more.鈥�

Mears said that the chances of finding a surviving family member of Gin鈥檚 who knows anything about his grandmother are probably pretty slim, but he would love to make connections with any descendants.

鈥淛ust so I could get a deeper sense of who Benjamin King was,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 have this image of Benjamin in my mind based on my research, but I鈥檓 sure there are sides of him that I don鈥檛 know.鈥�

He added, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get to know my grandmother all that well until I started looking for the origins of the photo. I think learning more about Benjamin, perhaps from any surviving relatives, might shed more light on my grandmother, too.鈥�