Addie Viola Smith (November 14, 1893 – December 13, 1975), also known as Shi Fanglan (Chinese: 施芳蘭; pinyin: Shī Fānglán),[1] was an American attorney who served as the United States trade commissioner to Shanghai from 1928 to 1939.

She was the first female Foreign Service officer in the United States Foreign Service to work under the United States Department of Commerce, the first woman to serve as an assistant trade commissioner, and the first woman to serve as trade commissioner.

In October that year she joined the Foreign Service and was assigned to Beijing as a clerk in the trade commissioner's office.

[4] Smith also served as a confidential clerk to an assistant secretary of labor, assistant chief of the Women's Division of the United States Employment Service, and chief of the Information Division of the United States Training and Dilution Service.

[10] Early in 1922, Smith requested permission to sit for a civil service examination so that she could obtain a promotion to assistant trade commissioner.

[11] Despite support from her immediate supervisor and American businesses operating in China, the assistant director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, O. P. Hopkins, denied her application.

[11] The former chief of the Woman's Division of the United States Employment Service, Hilda Muhlhauser Richards, also intervened on Smith's behalf—threatening to "take the issue to New York women's organizations"—prompting Hopkins to reverse his decision.

After an initial rejection, she sought help from Clara Burdette, president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs, who appealed to Herbert Hoover, the then-Secretary of Commerce and a personal friend.

Barbara Miller, in 1936, wrote for the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine: "Business men visiting China generally agree, 'If you want accurate information on foreign trade—and want it today—go to Viola Smith.

[20] As trade commissioner, she prioritized building roads as a means of increasing the import of American automobiles to China.

[17] In 1935, Smith began lobbying to bring shortwave radio broadcasting to China, believing that there was demand among American expatriates in Asia and estimating the Shanghai market at approximately 12,000 listeners.

[22] In 1937, she persuaded General Electric to open W6XBE, which rebroadcast NBC's domestic radio programs to China from the San Francisco Bay Area.

From 1952 to 1964, she was the representative of the International Federation of Women Lawyers to the United Nations in New York; in her later years, she conducted much of her work from Sydney.

[33] According to the historians Alexandra Epstein and Sarah Paddle, Smith and her contemporaries also adopted colonialist or imperialist mindsets, seeking to instill American values in China through intellectual exchange and philanthropy.

Smith and Hinder were memorialized in 1977 by their friends and women's groups with the placement of two stone seats at the E.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens in Caringbah.