A French Chinese or a Chinese Frenchman?

Fascination with Sino culture started more than four decades ago.

A pair of worn black shoes has accompanied Joel Bellassen all over the world.

Sitting at the window in the hostel at the Beijing International Studies University, the 64-year-old Frenchman says he doesn't recognize where he is, although he has been to 24 provinces and autonomous regions of China more than 200 times and speaks Mandarin like one born in China. "It's easy to find skyscrapers in almost any large city in this country," he says, "but it's hard to distinguish one from another."