Carl Crow (1884-1945) was a Missouri-born businessman and author who opened the first Western advertising agency in Shanghai, China, which he ran for more than 25 years. In the 1930s and 1940s, Crow wrote 13 books, including his most popular work 400 Million Customers (1937). Crow was also founding editor of the Shanghai Evening Post. In China, - a shopkeeper chooses his employees not for their intelligence, industry and honesty, but because they are members of important and influential families whose trade the shopkeeper desires; the women will not accept, even as a gift, a packet of assorted needles; orthodox poker is played as it was played in Texas thirty years ago; a man likes to conduct his business in the open so that every passer-by may see and comment upon his industry; an empty beer bottle is counted a precious gift.... The pages of this candid and hilarious book are crowded with these and thousands of other diverting facts which Carl Crow had the opportunity to gather through his more than twenty-five years in China as newspaper correspondent and advertising man. Brought up to date by the author before his death, this is a book of endless delight and rich human wisdom, a book that brings you valuable knowledge of a great people.

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Carl Crow，Crow在1937年写了《四万万消费者》(400 Million Customers)一书，记叙了关于中国人和在中国作生意的精彩故事和深刻见解，书中的很多内容到今天都是正确的。

Crow对中国发自内心深处地尊敬和赞赏，如他所道：“有趣的、恼人的、费解的，以及总是那么可爱的中国人”。我亦有同感。

我写本书的目的，也是希望能够和Crow一样，让读者了解那些跨越时间的对在中国做生意的见解和常识，中国人骨子里的思考和行为模式。

书中包括了来自学术界的观点、第一手的经验、生动的叙述，以及轻松的幽默，力图将读者真正带入到中国的商业界中去。