The frustrating thing is that many Asians are starting to reverse their names when working with the rest of the world. If "Kai-Fu Lee" sends me an email, I'll have no idea how to address him ("Hi, Lee", "Hi, Kai-Fu", "Hi, Mr. Lee," and so forth). :-P

If it helps, chinese often address other chinese using their given name rather than the family name, otherwise it would be pretty annoying to address each other within the family. If it's a formal greeting, use the family name, otherwise use the given name.

Unless I misunderstand you, isn't that basically the same thing we do in English?

I understand Asian family names work, but the proper way to address him in English is "Dr. Lee".

Or is it "Dr. Kai-Fu"? That's the question I'm asking... how can I tell if my correspondent has already swapped his names in the belief that he's following the Western custom?