Born in Cedar City, Utah, Nym Wales (Helen Foster Snow) moved to China in 1931 and reported extensively on the Chinese Revolution, the Korean independence movement, and the Sino-Japanese War. Writing under the pseudonym of Nym Wales, she wrote and published over 40 books, including Inside Red China, My China Years: A Memoir, as well as Song of Ariran. Her clear-eyed, detailed accounts of life in revolutionary China have come to be considered some of the most valuable historical records of the era. In 1993, she was awarded the first China Writer’s Association award, and in 1996, she became the first American ever to be honored as a Friendship Ambassador by the Chinese government.