Sofia Yablonska was born on 15 May 1907 in Germaniv (now Tarasivka [uk]),[3] in the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, near Lemburg (now Lviv).
[4] During the Great Retreat, the withdrawal of the Russian Imperial Army from Halychyna in 1915, Ivan, who held Russophile views[5] took the family to Taganrog, in southern Russia.
[8] Her career would take her to Morocco, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Java, Bali, Tahiti, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
[6] She later used her experiences there to write Charm of Morocco (Char Marokko; Ukrainian: Чар Марокко),[7] published by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in 1932.
[10] The book is a collection of Yablonska's encounters with traditional Moroccan culture, structured like a diary and was illustrated with 12 photographs.
[6] found work making documentaries with the Societe Indochine Films et Cinema and inspiration from Levynsky, and decided to travel to China.
Yablonska used a fake business as a front to record daily street traffic in China, and introduced Chinese passers-by to Ukrainian culture.
[4] Yablonska wrote From the Land of Rice and Opium (Z kraïny ryzhu ta opiiu; З країни рижу та опію), published in 1936, from her experiences in China and Southeast Asia.