Rob Schmitz is the Shanghai correspondent for National Public Radio. Previously he was the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace. He has reported on a range of topics illustrating China's role in the global economy including trade, politics, the environment, education, and labor. In 2012, Schmitz exposed fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's Chinese supply chain on This American Life, and his report headlined that show's much-discussed Retraction episode. The work was a finalist for the 2012 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. He has won two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an award from the Education Writers Association for his reporting on China. Schmitz first arrived in China in 1996 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Sichuan province. This is his first book.
Enjoyable and illuminating ... Rob Schmitz writes with great affection Guardian A poignant microcosm ... coursing under even the bleakest stories is a sense of optimism that tomorrow will be better The Economist A marvel of place-based reporting Peter Hessler, author of River Town All great cities have a great book that captures their rise or fall; Street of Eternal Happiness is Shanghai's Michael Meyer, author of In Manchuria In this intimate and revealing book, a two-mile stretch of road embodies the dreams and dramas of modern China Leslie T. Chang, author of Factory Girls Poignant [and] enjoyable ... Schmitz's eye for scenes and ear for dialogue give an immediacy to his stories that more expository works often lack -- Adam Rose New York Times Book Review Years from now people will turn to [Street of Eternal Happiness] to understand the China of this era James Fallows Rob Schmitz has given us a treasure: a patient portrait of an impatient country, a China that is utterly true to life in its beauty and heartache, tenderness and greed. His story is told in real lives that are, like Shanghai itself, modern and imperfect, romantic and ruthlessly practical. Reading this is as close as most people will come to living there Evan Osnos, National Book Award winning author of Age of Ambition