Observations of a city

Vincent Hein and his Chinese wife, Ma Xiaomeng, with whom he says he has more in common than any French woman. [Photo provided to China Daily]

By keeping notes on his life hanging out in local restaurants, in the hutong, old-fashioned tailor shops and other daily encounters, Hein has observed aspects of life that are not necessarily specific to Asia.

"Man is fundamentally the same everywhere," he says, sipping an espresso.

"If you feel a place is strange, the problem isn't the place. The problem is yourself," says Hein, who won the Prix Litteraire de l'Asie (French Asian Literary Prize) in 2013.

Hein first arrived in China 25 years ago, when he came to Beijing to study Chinese for a year as an exchange student from Paris-based Sorbonne University.

"I was worried that I would misbehave and shock people," he recalls, a train of thought that was the result of years of learning about the "mysterious" and unfathomable Chinese culture.

"We learned that Chinese (people) think in loops, which is completely different from us. We are supposed to be straight-forward," he says. "China should be all about dragons, opium and Zen spirit."

But he was nevertheless attracted to the country. He came to Beijing and tiptoed around the first few days until a Chinese teacher told him to relax.

"He said, 'if you're well-educated in France, you're well-educated in China'," Hein says. "And I realize that is correct. We do know how to understand and care for others despite the cultural differences. We are the same."

When Hein first started his post in China in 2004, his friends back in France were under the same erroneous impression - that China was beyond understanding.