Zhuo Zhao learned the traditional arts of cooking and healing from her family in Beijing and spent an additional two years of intensive research to create this book. George Ellis traveled extensively in Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, writing and translating texts on Yoga, Ayurveda, and Naturopathy. He is the author of "The Breath of Life: Mastering the Techniques of Pranayama and Qi Gong," Zhuo Zhao and George Ellis met in Beijing in 1985 and married in 1988.