Man of red letters
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After a brief stint as a university instructor, Hudelot became a radio producer at the French national public radio station, France-Culture.
In 1979, Hudelot returned to China with his French crew for seven weeks. They visited Beijing, Luoyang, Xi'an, Chongqing, Wuhan, Kunming, Yangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The material they gathered was used to create a 50-hour radio program that won a national radio award in 1980.
"That was the first time a French crew had visited China," he says.
"We wanted to make a long and in-depth radio program at that very important moment, when China was really opening its doors under Deng Xiaoping."
The changes that had taken place since 1964 were immediately apparent.
"We saw more colorful clothes and women's dresses, and restaurants," he recalls.
"People were dancing at night in Kunming. You could feel the greater sense of freedom.
"But there were still no big changes in the cities, no new buildings. Life was moving forward but slowly compared to today."
The program sparked international interest in China. Serving as director of the International Arles Photo Festival, one of the most important of its kind, Hudelot organized a China-focused photo exhibition. The event featured works by more than 80 international photographers, about half of whom were Chinese.
"What was very impressive about that year's festival is that through the exhibition and a 1-hour film we produced called 5 Chinese Photographers, people from not only France but also the whole world discovered Chinese photography existed."
Some Chinese photographers who captivated international attention included Wu Yinxian and Ling Fei from Beijing, Gao Yuan from Chengdu, Chen Baosheng from Shanxi, and Xia Yonglie from Shanghai.
Wu's portraits of leaders and the Red Army in Yan'an appeared on the festival catalog's cover. Chen's images of the farmers and horses in Shanxi were widely covered by French, Spanish, Italian, US and English newspapers.
The zenith of Hudelot's career was when he became the French Embassy in Beijing's cultural attach in 1993, he says.
He helped organize the first exhibition in China of works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) at the National Art Museum in Beijing. More than 60 statues were displayed, including The Thinker.
News reports recorded the long lines of visitors waiting to get tickets. Some said they went seven times.
The show inspired pantomime actor Wang Deshun to create "living sculpture" performances in which he "resuscitated" Rodin's sculptures, posing like them in the nude.
Hudelot says the most important transformation he has witnessed over the decades is a shift in Chinese mentality.
"During the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese people were focused on China and their revolution," he says.
"They had no idea about the outside world, and they didn't travel at all. They were poor, and nobody was really rich. China, as a country, was on its own, isolated."
Now, Chinese people travel, and see the world through TV and the Internet. Many youth study abroad, he says.
"Some people are still poor - and in some remote regions are very poor - but many Chinese live well and some are incredibly rich."
But Hudelot believes these huge changes mainly impact urban people.
"There's one other problem worth mentioning: The young generation isn't involved in politics and doesn't want to be," he says.
"This is a complete change."
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