Isabel Crook was born in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, to a Canadian missionary family in 1915. When Isabel was young, she would travel all over Sichuan with her parents, and that aroused her interest in anthropology and the many ethnic minority groups in China. At the age of 23, Isabel graduated from the University of Toronto and began conducting field research in China. She was the first female western anthropologist to enter Tibet, and her studies in other areas like Chongqing have helped the world understand China better.