In the long story of bittersweet relations between China and America the positive bridging work of a few Americans stand out. One of these was Helen Foster Snow (1907-1997), from Cedar City, Utah. Helen’s niece, Sheril Bischoff, has worked tirelessly with Chinese scholar An Wei to document Helen’s efforts to help China and the Chinese during the critical decade of the 1930's when the Chinese were struggling for survival against Japan's invasion. I will summarize here three aspects of Helen’s work: 1) She played a crucial role in organizing a nation wide student movement of December 1935 that forestalled an early Japanese takeover of north China.  2) Helen spent months in the Chinese communist capital of Yen’an to record for history and to announce to the world the background and the rise of a new generation of Chinese leaders, including Mao Zedong, Zho Enlai and many others; 3) She was a prime mover in promoting a cooperative movement, (Gung-ho or INDUSCO). These helped sustain China in the dark days of the war with Japan.  For her efforts Helen was nominated twice for the prestigious Nobel Prize.

Ironically, while Helen and husband Edgar Snow are famous and highly regarded in China, Helen's work has not been well known in the United States or in the cradle of her family in Utah. Conversely,  the Chinese are unaware of the influence of Helen’s early life in the religious environment of Mormonism (officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / LDS). The Latter-day Saints, including Helen's early family, lived in a unique society and culture that helps to explain Helen’s life and work in China.  I will comment briefly on early LDS society and the culture that influenced Helen her work in China.

Thirteen of Helen’s grandparents the Foster, the Moody and the Davis families were Mormon pioneers who settled in the West.  Some of them suffered religious persecution, were driven out of the United State and were forced to flee into Mexican territory in the West. They traveled some 1,200 miles by horse and wagons and pushcarts.  Helen’s family settled in St. George and it was here that there was first initiated a cooperative, communal life called “the United Order,” this by their leader Brigham Young. The “United Order” was soon set up in Cedar City where Helen was born (1907). Planned as a model, the Order was followed by some 150 United Orders in other Mormon settlements in Utah and surrounding areas.  The tradition and values of that early experiment are well known among Mormons even today.

Reference:  See Leonard Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day economic cooperation economic cooperation Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge Mass. 1958) See also, Feramorz Fox and Dean L. May. Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons. Salt Lake City. 1976.]

The purpose of this unique movement was essentially for survival under poor pioneer living conditions. The “United Order” was seen as a model Mormon society, the Christian ideal of a "Zion Society.” Property was held in common, in some cases there were cooperative kitchen and eating facilities and members had a voice in decisions. The movement emphasized equality, group cooperation, self-sufficiency, and the elimination of poverty.  Many Chinese could identify with the situation and culture.  The United Order Movement continued until a few years before Helen’s birth and continued in the living memory of her family in her formative years.  In her childhood Helen lived for a time with her mother’s Davis family in Samaria, a pioneer settlement in southern Idaho.  Her grandfather, David W. Davis was a leader in their “United Order” settlement and Helen often heard stories of her family’s experience in earlier days.   It was here that Helen was baptized into the LDS Church.

My view is that Helen’s understanding of LDS cooperatives in the early experience of her family was a factor in her promotion of cooperatives in wartime China, for which she later gained much fame. Professor Gary Hansen of Utah State University, a specialist in the study cooperative movements, interviewed Helen Snow regarding her China cooperatives. In a conversation with Paul Hyer, Hansen confirms that there could very well be a link between Helen’s awareness of the United Order experience and her promotion of cooperatives in China.  Helen’s book “China builds for Democracy,” was essentially about the democratic nature of cooperatives. This book came to the attention of India’s leader Jawaharlal Nehru and led to the development of some 50,000 cooperatives in India.    

Those persons familiar with the cooperatives of wartime China, known as gung-ho or “working together,” can readily see similarities with the early Mormon “United Order” experience.  The harsh living conditions Helen found when she lived in Yen’an in 1937 were not too different from the conditions her family experienced while pioneering in the bleak environment of Western America. Farming was difficult, food was limited, water was scarce, and the weather was challenging. Pioneering Mormons were hard working and frugal in their communal life – and Helen found life in Yen’an was much the same.  Pioneering Utah and the “Yen’an Spirit” of Mao’s China were both rather puritanical and Spartan.  After returning from Yen’an to Shanghai and seeing the horrendous devastation caused by the Japanese, Helen then began promoting the idea of a cooperative movement to sustain the people and she persuaded other important people to become involved.

After noting a few similarities between Mormon cooperatives and those of China, I should note that there were important differences. The religion of Helen’s family had daily group prayers and everyone was strongly encouraged to abstain from using liquor, tobacco, coffee or tea. Leaders were presented to the people to be sustained by common consent. They were not imposed on the group as in China. Also, person who would not voluntarily cooperate with the group could freely leave the "order."  Not so in China. And while Mormon society was essentially agricultural, there were also mercantile cooperatives in Utah.

It should be understood that while Helen was certainly influenced by her Mormon heritage, in China she did not make a point of her Church membership.  During the ten years Helen lived in China the Church had not yet been established there and it was not possible for her to continue an association.  The LDS society and culture of Helen's childhood was still quite isolated and conservative.  Nevertheless, Helen maintained LDS ethics and morality and her friends and associates commented on her commendable attitudes and behavior.  These served her well during her service in China.  Now, after one hundred years since her birth, many old friends have continued to honor her memory and even had a special memorial service in her honor in the Great Hall of the People just off of Tenanmen.

But Helen was not a missionary type. Moreover, in the 1930s, when Helen was in China, the Church had not yet “come out of obscurity” and was not the admirable organization that favorably impresses people as it does now.  The membership of the Church was not even one million members and the prevailing image of the Mormons was that of a peculiar people known for polygamy, farming and mainly concentrated in the valleys of Utah. Helen was not inclined to talk about it.

The "informal LDS education" Helen received during her formative years was very important in preparing her for her work and the challenges she met in China.   She was prepared for leadership in a student movement, for interviewing, writing, reporting, and for her involvement in organizing cooperatives during the war.  Much of Helen’s self-image, values, vision and aspirations came from her mother and from her network of relatives.  Helen's mother, Hannah Davis Foster (1880-­1952) was a role model. She was dedicated to the Church of Jesus Christ restored in modern times. Helen learned leadership from her mother who was very active in Church and civic organizations and who involved Helen in her activities. For quite a few years mother Foster was a leader in many community organizations including President of the Relief Society, a Church organization involved in education, service and charitable work. More recently it has come to the attention of the Chinese.  

From her active, civic-minded mother, Helen learned many elements of leadership and involvement.  As a young lady her mother taught at what is now the Idaho branch of Brigham Young University. She also worked for women's suffrage -- Utah women were the first in the United States to vote. Hannah was president of the Parent and Teacher's Association (PTA) She actively supported community schools and she was involved in many other civic activities.   Helen herself was a leader in the public schools and at the University of Utah. It was natural for her to relate to the students at Yenching University in Peking.  The famous student movement of December 1935 was planned in Helen’s home.  Some of these students became top leaders in the new China that emerged.  Huang Hua, for one, became the Foreign Minister and Vice Premier of China.

  One may speculate that Helen's years in China influenced her interest in family history which is a dominant characteristic of Chinese culture. Helen was childless and in her later years her heart turned to her ancestors. Much of her later life was devoted to genealogy and she became one of the few certified genealogists in her area. When Helen was a young girl her mother imbued in her an interest in family history, especially family biographies – and much of her writing in China was biographical.  Her mother stressed the importance of their family "roots." Helen believed she had special genes, intelligence and talents inherited from noble ancestors and important people of Great Britain (Helen’s pseudonym, Nym Wales, used in some Chinese publications was taken from her Welch ancestry).  It may not be a coincidence that Helen focused on biography as an approach to writing about modern China. A biographical approach came natural when she interviewed Chinese leaders in Yen’an. Her Mormon roots may also have been a factor that inclined her to focus not only on important leaders but also on the common folk. This approach differed from the usual orientation of some foreign reporters at the time. 

Some persons may be interested in the fact that recent increased interest in Helen Foster Snow and her work in an important period of modern China and her Mormon background has become a positive factor in a developing interest of some Chinese in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   Members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have been conducting studies on the Church and delegations have come to check us out.  The Bureau of Religious Affairs in the State Council of the People’s Republic of China has been very positive towards us.    

Finally, more study remains to be done on the significance of Helen's formative years and their influence on her life and work in China

        Much of the factual information contained in this essay was derived from records in the possession of Sheril Bischoff, executor of the Helen Snow trust.  Much of the paper was presented in China at a special symposium honoring Helen Foster Snow.

Paul Hyer, Emeritus Professor  

ChineseHistory  

BrighamYoungUniversity Provo, Utah