Helen Foster Snow

former wife of the late Edgar Snow (the world-famous writer of Red Star Over China), died in the United States on January 11, 1997, at the age of 89. With roots deep among her own American people, she was a lifelong friend of the Chinese people and a bridge-builder between China and American.

A small-town girl born and schooled in the southwestern U.S. State of Utah, Helen Foster came to China in 1931 when she was 23. Clever, attractive, eager to be a writer, she first worked as a secretary in Shanghai. There she met and married Edgar Snow, still a young and little-known journalist. Together they began to observe, study and write.

In 1936, Snow made his first-ever foreign journalistic visit to China’s then tiny Communist-led areas, which resulted in world famous work, Red Star Over China. Within a few months, Helen followed with an equally dangerous trip alone, producing Inside Red China. Both books reflected their belief that they had seen the most important center of China’s future.

Helen’s interest in industrial cooperative in China was lifelong. Her study of Chinese history, society, culture and women’s movements was also very valuable. In celebrating Helen’s life, Chinese leaders sang high praise for her contribution to the friendship and understanding between Chinese and American peoples. For all these reasons, the new China conferred on her the title of Frindship Ambassador, its highest prize to foreigners.