It is a great honor for me and my colleagues to attend this grand celebration honoring Helen Foster Snow in her hometown. As an American citizen going out to the world from Cedar City 78 years ago, Helen Foster Snow eventually became a heroine of the Chinese people and is considered by many as one of the 10 greatest women in the world in the 20th century. In China her name is a household word, and a synonym of Sino-American people’s friendship.
In her lifetime Helen Foster Snow received several honors from China, including the first Literary Prize for International Understanding & Friendship in 1991, and the award of Friendship Ambassador in 1996, which was the highest awards the Chinese Central Government had ever given to any foreigners. After her death in 1997 her funeral in Madison, Connecticut, was attended by four Chinese ambassadors and representatives of her friends from various parts of China as well as over 200 people from 12 states and 4 countries. In Beijing, Helen Snow was officially memorialized in the Great Hall of the People. In Xi’an, a permanent exhibition on her life was inaugurated, a documentary film was produced and a book was published in memory of this great American woman. The Helen Foster School was dedicated on her birthday a year later, and her statue was set up on the campus. Since 1980s five institutions were set up one after another in China, specializing in the study of Helen Snow’s life and works.
Why was Helen Snow so well respected and honored in a country with 1.3 billion people?