Jan Berris (left) making a speech at a subnational symposium in 2019. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In February 1979, one month after China and the US normalized their relationship, Deng Xiaoping, the vice-premier, visited a number of US cities. Berris was asked by the State Department to coordinate the Chinese media activities for the visit.

In Simonton, Texas, while watching a rodeo show, Deng symbolically donned a cowboy hat, wowing the world media present, including more than 30 journalists from China.

"It was a real surprise… Deng had the intuition to sense what would play well for the American public, and had the confidence to do it, " says Berris, who had also organized the program for and traveled with Xi Zhongxun, the late father of the incumbent Chinese President, Xi Jinping, when he visited the US in 1980, as the governor of Guangdong province.

"He was a very thoughtful man," says Berris, who calls herself "a strong believer in engagement and exchanges", and who, at the end of Deng's visit, arranged for a Chinese journalist to sing Getting to Know You from the 1950s American musical film King and I, joined on stage by American security personnel involved in the landmark visit.

Only days before, there had been friction between the security men and the reporter as she, trying to get her job done, ignored certain security rules, to the great chagrin of the latter.

"Getting to know you, getting to like you, getting to hope you like me… this is really what I thought would be a lovely way to end something that had been difficult and intense for a while," says Berris, who had taught the Chinese reporter the song.