Marketing man Fred Schneiter travelled from San Francisco to Asia in the 1960s, and stayed for 30 years. Schneiter starting writing in his teens, and went on to a journalism degree while working as a University News Bureau reporter. He worked for three US newspapers before Korean War service in Troop Information and Education, editing an army newspaper during the occupation of Germany while freelancing a column in the US on the lighter side of army life. Whetting an early appetite for adventure by riding freight trains across America during high school vacations, Schneiter lived and worked in Asia for more than 30 years, covering more than 40 countries in the process, and every province of China. He was in Tiananmen Square the day the tanks moved in, lived in Hong Kong during its final years as a colony, and witnessed first-hand modern China's monumental rise after opening to the West. He's won national awards in communication and management, lectured at Stanford, and was a member of a small group of China Hands invited to testify on US-China trade on Capitol Hill shortly after China's opening to the West.

“Everyone working with Chinese, in or out of China, should read this and send a copy to their boss.” — Daniel Ng, managing director, McDonald’s Hong Kong/South China

“Fred Schneiter knows the Chinese.” — China Business Review

“Should be required reading for everyone setting out for China for the first time. Lighthearted and highly readable.” — Donald M. Anderson, president, US-China Business Council

“A sensitive and humorous treatment of the similarities and differences between East and West… I learned a lot about both.” — Burton Levin, U.S. Ambassador