Chinese fans mourn Alan Rickman’s death, who gave them their first taste of Britain

Tributes and condolences have poured in on China's social media for British actor Alan Rickman, who died on Thursday at 69 and was nicknamed "old man" by Chinese movie fans.



As of 11 pm Beijing time, the key Chinese words "Professor Snape" have had 150,000 searches on China's twitter-like service Sina Weibo.



Though Rickman had portrayed a number of classic roles, Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series is how most Chinese audiences got to know him.



Old man (Lao Tou in Chinese), or professor, is how Rickman fans in China refer to him.



"It was he who brought me into the [world of] British films and his biography helped me learn about British political parties," Sunny Huang, 23, a financial employee in Shanghai, wrote on Rickman.



After watching Harry Potter in senior high school, Huang found herself captivated by "the old man with thin lips" - all electronic devices had Rickman's pictures stored.



Huang said Rickman's death came as a surprise to her for she never heard of any of his health issues. "I will not go so far as crying and hugging the screen, but it is as if a part of my youth is lost," Huang explained.



Besides the deep impressions Rickman left through his films, his personal romance moved many Chinese audiences as well.



"He is a very loyal lover," said Philia Zhu, 26, also from Shanghai. "We are still young and have not had the chance to prove that in our lifetime."



More fascinated with the novels rather than the films, Zhu said he did not pay much attention to Rickman's performances in the first six films. But after reading the seventh book he was curious how an actor can portray "a character with such complicated moods."



And Rickman's Professor Snape in the last film shocked him.



"By that time I even thought that was a novel written for Professor Snape's romance," Zhu told the Global Times.

