Broken Fact: Fu Ping's (In)Famous Three English Words

The Original Story:
On Page 3 of Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping wrote about her lack of English skills when she left China for America:

..yet I knew little about America. I had no home, no friends, and no sense of what awaited me there. I didn't have a single spare dollar in my pocket or speak more than three words of English. 

When we were airborne, the flight attendant came by, wheeling a cart. She was an American with blond hair, blue eyes, and a warm smile. In English, she asked me if I wanted something to eat or drink. I didn't understand her since I knew how to say only "Hello," "Thank you," and "Help,"...

The tale of "three English words" is so cute that it was repeated in almost all her speeches and media interviews. The trouble is, she doesn't always know which three words she knew at the time.

For example, on March 9, 2010, she told The Story:

Fu: I took basically a English phrase book and hecticly remember some of the useful words. By the time I get here, I can only remember three. [laugh] I can't remember many.
Gordon: which were?
Fu: which is "thank you", "help", and "excuse me".

The Changing Story:
After being criticized, Fu Ping issued a clarification on February 1, 2013:

Forbes said you arrived in the United States knowing only three words of English, yet there are different sets of those first three words: Inc.: Please, thank you, help; Bend, Not Break: Thank you, hello, help; NPR: Thank you, help, excuse me. 
In college, English language classes were offered, but not required. I had "level zero" English, just like most Americans know a few words of Spanish or French. I tried to learn more English when I knew I was going to the U.S., but when I arrived, I only remembered a few. 

Two weeks later, she produced yet another version on NC Bookwatch:

Fu: I didn't have money and I didn't speak English.
DG: You have 3 words in English, didn't you?
Fu: I tried to remember more than 3, but by the time I get here I only remembered 3. That was help, thank you, and sorry. Very useful words. 

In subsequent interviews, she did apear to be modifying the story slightly to allow the possibility that she did learn English while still in China. On March 1, 2013, she talked at the Downtown Speaker Series:

I had 80 dollars traveler's check and only a few words of English. I tried to learn English when I was in China when I knew I was going to come to the United States. I tried to memorize them but somehow by the time I landed in San Francisco I only remembered 3 words. That was "help", "thank you", and... there was another word that I can't remember. 

On March 19, on John Batchelor Show:

Batchelor: You could not speak English at the time. What did you say? You had the words "Help", "Hello", and "Thank you". That's all the English you have.
Fu: I did try to study English when I was in China but when I arrive I couldn't remember most of them and I couldn't speak. 

The Debunking:
In her clarification, she claimed that English language class was not required in her college. That's a lie. Ever since the reinstatement of college entrance exam in 1977, colleges in China has always required English classes regardless of students' major. A letter from Suzhou University also confirmed that it was the case for her and she actually earned pretty good scores in her English classes.

In addition, she has stated that, in her senior year in college, she was planning to go to graduate school and might have taken the entrance exam for it. All graduate school entrance exam include English language tests. It would be impossible for her not to study English while hoping for getting into a graduate school.

Furthermore, her earlier autobiography Drifting Bottle included several passages of her learning English while in China and boosted that she found her English was pretty good upon arriving at University of New Mexico.

As a young Chinese arriving to an unknown, foreign country in the 1980s, it is understandable that Fu Ping might have felt intimidated and awkward when she was forced to communicate in English for the first time. There might be occasions that words simply escaped her. But to claim that she only knew three English words is just not a factual truth.

Fu Ping's Interview on John Batchelor Show

On March 19, 2013, Fu Ping had a lengthy interview on the John Batchelor Show. She appears to consciously walk back or provide justification on some of her stories that have been questioned, such as her knowing only three English words or not knowing fractions. She also stayed away from some of the more outlandish tales.

The host, John Batchelor, on the other hand, appears blissfully ignorant of the controversy of her story.

The entire interview can be heard online. Below is a transcript:

Batchelor: I am John Batchelor. This is John Batchelor Show. Late summer, 1966, Shanghai, a quiet street that is presented by the author Ping Fu of her autobiographical production, Bend, Not Break, a Life in Two Worlds. It was presented as an oasis in the midst of a China that has been through a turmoil for the last 40 years and will continue to go into turmoil after this summer of 1966. Ping is 8 years old. She is living in a large and happy family. She is the youngest of several children and suddenly there is a crash downstairs and she is grabbed upstairs by young people -- she doesn't know their names -- One of whom she referred to as Bent Star. Ping, congratulates and good evening. That day, you have painted a vivid picture in your autobiography. Who are those young people coming upstairs and grabbing you? What do they want? Good evening to you. 

Fu: Good evening. Those people in 1966 are teenagers and some of them are referred as Red Guards. Between 1966 and 1968, they are roaming around the country and being given the power of doing things. They will take me away from the parents who raised me -- they are actually my aunt and uncle -- and take me to Nanjing which is where my biological parents live. 

Batchelor: So, they grabbed you and they took you to a train and put you on a train all by yourself. Their authority was just because they say you were born in Nanjing and not in Shanghai so they had the right to take you, as an 8-year-old, and put you on a train. That is all the authority they have. 

Fu: Well, at that time the train is full of people so I wasn't alone. It is very very crowded. Unlike America where children can not move alone, when we were young, it didn't have that kind of regulations. It is unusual to put a child on a train by yourself but the train was full of people, full of adults. I was placed on that train to go back to Nanjing. In China, there is this registration of where you were born you are supposed to live there. I was 8 and I couldn't go to school in Shanghai because I don't have registration there. So I have to go back to Nanjing. 

Batchelor: This is the first day you learned that you had been born in Nanjing. So it was not only a disruption of your life but also you have been thrown into the revelation that your mother and father was from Nanjing and your father is actually an intellectual who worked at a space institution. 

Fu: Yeah, at an university. When I was young, I thought I was born by my Shanghai mama. My siblings actually teased me so I asked my Shanghai mama and she said that I am so special that I took two mothers to born me. I believed her. 

Batchelor: Now  at 8 years old, your memories are brilliant and very careful. They read like a novel, very much like you are thrown into this world of revolution. But I take that, for the first 8 years in Shanghai, the experience was not a disruption. You were well behaved. You were educated. You are going to school. Your mother and father are there every night. Your house was well taken care of. There were memories of family reaching back to before the revolution. Is that all correct, Ping? 

Fu: By large, when I was little, yes that is correct. Close to the time I was taking away chaos has already started. I wrote in the book about a neighbor disappearing, the struggle session that conducted in my house. I started to notice the chaos erupted everywhere. But I was really too young to understand it. My Shanghai parents kind of sheltered me from all that. 

Batchelor: Now Ping Fu is a very successful American entrepreneur and now an executive of a very large software company. Her success is entirely based on her ability to survive the Cultural Revolution and the years that follow, and then leaving China in 1984. She was thrown out because she was regarded as a counter-revolutionary and in some fashion scarred by having an independent mind. Her success since 1984 is entirely on her shoulders and the shoulders of people who were assistance to, with her, educated her and the skill. The reason I am concentrating on this, the ugly experiences of the Cultural Revolution is because this is the darkness. For Americans it is very difficult to see that because the success of China we see today. What I learn from you today is that the China I think of as a tyranny did not really exist in an overwhelmingly brutal fashion before 1966. That's the period starting when you were grabbed until, I don't know the date, perhaps late 1979, after the death of Mao Zedong, and the solution of the Gang of Four, all of that upset and Deng Xiaoping became the head of the state. It was that 13 year period that is actually the darkness of China  Is that correct? Is that a fair memory? 

Fu: That is the darkest period of China. There were some period before Cultural Revolution but they are more regional or more focused like the Anti-Rightists movement earlier and there was a movement the year I was born in 1958. In terms of largest purge of intellectual that started in 1966. 

Batchelor: Ping's book is extremely romantic in its success. It's everything you wanted in a novel. It is part of the facts that here at the 21st century, that your generation, your cohorts is now the same as the new leadership. This fifth generation of the leaders since revolution, Xi Jinping and the others on the standing committee are standing on the stage of the People's Congress. Those are all your classmates once upon a time. Is that correct? Not the physically classmates but they are the same age as you in 1966. 

Fu: Same generation, yes. 

Batchelor: They experienced this disruption of their lives, this crash-in of these illegitimates,  these brutes in many incidences. There are many people who were murdered, who are scarred, their houses were broken in and their properties were stolen from them. These leaders today, they all experienced that as well and remembered their childhood. Do you think that is true? 

Fu: Absolutely. Actually Xi Jinping and also the premier Li Keqiang, they both went through Cultural Revolution. So we are certainly the same generation. If you believe what doesn't break you makes you stronger, I do believe they are strong leader because they have gone through the atrocity. 

Batchelor: But I mean as an author, they haven't gone through the burden of remembering and writing them done and publish it worldwide. 

Fu: Well, I think you are right. I do hope that China will be opening up and be willing to talk more openly about Cultural Revolution. There are a lot, not a lot, but some books published about Cultural Revolution outside of China. But inside China, some time earlier we had some literature about it but now there is not quite a lot. I hope that China will be able to openly say that. 

Batchelor: Your modesty and humility are blocking me, Ping. Because I mean to flatter you because what you have done is you provided a window into a life that is, we can't reach it except your book. I did not know this kind of violence was visited upon children. You were thrown into a dormitory where there is nothing for you. You are not provided with any food. You were 8-year-old, you are in charge of taking care of your younger sister who is 4 years old and crying all the time. You had no parents. You had no supervision. There is a times strangers, yes, but I could imagine, were you in a different universe you would have perished. You and your sister would have perished and I could guess that there were thousands, tens of thousands, who did not survive that brutality. 

Fu: That is correct. There are as many who didn't survive the brutality as who survived. I thank you for saying that I provided a window into the lives we live. I would also say that there were many who lived similar or worse lives that I described. 

... 

Batchelor: You finally are driven into exile by the brutes and the cruelty of a system that is  deemed pretty much out of control, random. They don't destroy you, they throw you out. Not because something you did wrong but because you are a truth teller. Rather than investigate what truth you did at the time on the one-child policy, you arrived at America. No scene I loved more because of its anonymity  You don't have enough money in the transfer flight. When you arrived at San Francisco, you are 5 dollars short. How did you get that 5 dollars paid? 

Fu: There was an American standing behind me, heard my situation and gave 5 dollars to the counter so I could buy my ticket. That was my first impression of America. That taught me a lesson that, when in doubt, always error on the side of generosity. 

Batchelor: You don't know who that is. Do you picture who that is? Can you see the face? 

Fu: I kind of can see the face. I am not sure if my memory is right. That was 29 years ago and I am still hoping with the publication of the book, someone will come out and say, hey, that was me.  

Batchelor: You could not speak English at the time. What did you say? You had the words "Help", "Hello", and "Thank you". That's all the English you have. 

Fu: I did try to study English when I was in China but when I arrive I couldn't remember most of them and I couldn't speak. 

Batchelor: Well, the only word I had in Chinese when I was at Taipei was "Thank you". I forgot it now so I can't repeat it to you but it helps to practice a lot to say "thank you". Now, your success since 1984 was entirely your genius. I love the fact that you apply from very early on to a computer science master's program. You were accepted because they are not aware that you haven't been through grammar school and study fractions. You didn't have any of that. So you would have to go and get a book for 2nd graders and learn it quickly before you got your master's. That's a joy but you were 25 years old. Have you wondered how your brain could pick up all this subjects so quickly? Usually at 25 the brain is shutting down from learning other languages. 

Fu: I lived with my English teacher. When I came to United States, I didn't know if I could go back so I really am trying to adopt to the society and try to learn the language. I guess I was not gifted to the language also. As I said, I did study English before, I just couldn't speak. When you have the language environment it does come back. As to computer science, I wrote this thing about fractions, it wasn't like I didn't know anything, I was trying to show the knowledge gap. When you don't have a formal education, you cannot pick up those things. It's just pieces here and there. I was working in a factory. I study from workers and farmers. I actually picked up some academic information here and there. What I found when I came to United States is that I have a lot of knowledge gap. Some thing everybody thinks they know but I didn't. Then there are some things I just know. Sometimes I feel I am quite smart, I feel like I am the most stupid person in the room because I didn't know what people are talking about. This fraction is just one example of it even though I may know some more advanced math. It is this particular thing that 3 over 5 that I didn't know. I just didn't study it because I wasn't in school in the 2nd or 3rd grades. So I skipped over those knowledge and then later it catch up on you. 

Batchelor: You go on to educate yourself in Illinois and you found Geomagic in the early 1990s with your then husband and you have a child -- all of the successes of an American entrepreneur. In fact, I remembered reading at one point you hired a young man named Marc Andresseen to work for you and he went on to found Netscape. So you are at the beginning of the foundation. You were there when the Wright brothers who were putting the airplanes together. You were there at the digital beginning  At that time, did you keep contact with all the people you know in China? Or did they emerge after hearing your success and find you? How did you contact them so you are so conversant with their lives today? 

Fu: No. With my families of course I have connections. Other people whether they were victims with me or in the same study groups I did not have contacts with them until 30 years later. I did go back to China a couple of times after I become US citizen. I have various contacts with different people but to really have a deeper connection with them it took me 30 years. 

Batchelor: Today, because you have a unique position here, being able to look back to the Cultural Revolution, the China today, is it some thing you could dream when you arrived at America, that it succeeded despite all of its brutality? Is this a success when you think China today? 

Fu: Absolutely. China today is so much better than the China I was in about 29 years ago. It made huge progress. Average life, average living is so much higher. I do think there is a lot of issues in China, just like any country there is a lot of issues. It's not going to be easy for China to resolve any of those issues. But I think we made huge, huge progress. I also realized that, when I was in China, the atrocity happened during the time I was supposed to go from K to 12, the very formidable years. I had this quite bad experience. Now I realized that China has a really long history. My experience does not define China. Majority of Chinese people are good and kind. I wish them well. The other thing I think that is really, really important is in the 21st century I do believe that China and US relationship, the policy of the two country to collaborate are far, far deeper than anyone understood. We need to get it right. 

Batchelor: I agree with you, Ping. But you and I both read the news very carefully and there are some shadows emerging between the two states especially in the area that you are an expert, which is digital. You know this. It's going on right now. Is that something worries you? You see the President and other leaders of the United States talk about cyber-crime and cyber-spy. And that's your field. 

Fu: Yes, that's becoming an issue of national awareness. I believe big success and big fear come hand-in-hand. Sometimes it takes this kind of big fear for us to innovate for a resolution. Really, we don't really know how to deal with cyber-crime, cyber-terrorism, or cyber-bullying yet. A lot of time people are not using their true identity and you don't know who you are dealing with. The scale and the speed of that attack one can use on the Internet is both damaging and scary. So I think we need to innovate. We need to have a policy. We need to have some normal behavior of how to use the Internet and the technology. 

Batchelor: Well, I am very thankful that you are on the American continent now.

Fu Ping's Speech at the Downtown Speaker Series

On March 1, 2013, Fu Ping gave a speech at the Downtown Speaker Series at Las Vegas. In the speech, she made a couple of subtle changes to her story. For example, she now says that she tool the Pan Am flight to US instead of United and it was not a direct flight. Instead of baby girls being killed with plastic bags, it is now pillow cases. She didn't mention the more outlandish claims surrounding her infanticide research (not even mention newspaper any more) or kidnapping.

More significantly, she used the opportunity of answering a question from the audience at the end to once again claim the "attack" she received on Amazon is a smear campaign originated from China, elevating its status to an "attack to democracy."

The speech can be viewed in its entirety here. Below is a partial transcript. Thanks to Jean and Z. Wang for helping out the transcript work.

I'm going to break this talk into three components. The first one I'll talk a little bit about
my life, which most of them are in the book. Then, I'll talk a little bit about my
entrepreneurial journey. And the third part will be what will be the future for 3D printing, sensors, and the digital world.  

So let me take you back almost 40 years, to 1966. At the dawn of Cultural Revolution, I was 8  years old. I was living with a loving family. My Shanghai papa and mama had 5 children and I was the youngest of the 6, the youngest one. i didn't know when I was little that they were not my biological parents. They were the only parents I knew. And they were incredibly loving and it's a normal family. 

When the Cultural Revolution started, I was taken away from them. That day when Red Guards came to my family to taken me away, to send me to Nanjing, which is a
city about 300 miles north of Shanghai to stay with my biological parents. That was when I was told that they were not my parents. I went to Nanjing in a very crowded train on myself and arrived only a little too late. My biological parents were put on a truck being sent away to exile also. And I was then placed in a dormitory room in a college where my dad used to be professor. It was there I found my little sister. She was 4 years old. And then for the next 10 years, I lived in a dormitory room, and taking care of my younger sister. My father was away for 11 years. I almost never seen him. My mother came back when i was 13. Life was very confusing at that time. One day I lost the parents who raised me, the parents who born me, and I became the surrogate mother to my sister. 

The first two years of the Cultural Revolution, the entire country turned upside down. Family, educated family been sent away, households are confiscated. I was out there to witness much of the atrocity scene, watching teacher being killed. Been sent to struggle sessions which I would be put on stage denouncing myself. Screaming very loud that I was nobody. That I wasn't worth the dirt beneath their feet. That was the very beginning of my education. I was supposed to be in the 1st grade. The schools were closed. I didn't have any academic education. 

But rather Chairman Mao, who was the head of communist party said that we need to study from farmers, workers, and soldiers. So I was working in the factory, many years, and also worked in the country side, planting rice, and doing some farming. Then when I was a little older, I also went to military camp to be trained on long march, shooting. So in the essence, although I didn’t have much in formal education, I learned how to make things with my hands, I built radios when I was 9 years old, I built speedometers, and later televisions, I put the lights up so on and so forth. 

When I was 10 years old, I also experienced a very dramatic event. I was gang-raped by a group of teenagers, and i was left on the soccer field to die. I had cuts on my body, probably more than 40 stitches because of a knife   It was not just the physical abuse that was hurtful. it was the emotional abuse that followed. I was called broken shoes. at 10, I was a broken woman. 

Fast forward 10 years, Culture Revolution was over, China re-opened university. Given that I have not had much formal education. I really wanted to go to college. I studied like mad. I was called the girl whose lights never turned off. I took the first college exam i didn't pass, the 2nd year i took it again. in 1978, I past the national exam and went to college. I really wanted to be an astronaut, but i didn't really have much choice. My father was a professor at Nanjing Aeronautics and Astronautics University before he was sent away. So when I grew up, my playground was airplanes and the slider was airplane wings. I have seen a lot of planes on the field.  But i was assigned to study Chinese literature. My mother said, oh please, don’t go study literature. A writer has no future in China. but i wasn't going to listen. I really wanted to go to school.  

So I was admitted to Suzhou University, majoring Chinese literature. I absolutely loved it. I couldn't believe that reading a novel, going to see a play or see a movie, and call that study. It was really fascinating time and China is completely changing its ideology and very open at the time. 

In my senior year, I decided I wanted to pursue graduate school. I wanted to be a journalist. I chose infanticide as my thesis topic, and i went to research the phenomenon of killing baby girls in the country side due to one child policy. In 1979, Chinese government decided that people can only have one child and they enforced one-child policy quite severally. In many countries, people, farmers, or families favor boys over girls. It's not a unique thing for China. But in China, what's unique at that time was the one-child policy. There was this policy called illegal pregnancy. You can be illegal to be pregnant for a second child if it is within 4 years of having the first child. The policy was enforced by local communities, the neighborhood communities. A lot of time, those enforcements are very cruel. 

When I went to the countryside to look at that, I saw baby girls are being killed and I saw babies being thrown into river when their embryological cords are still fresh. I saw baby girls being suffocation in pillow cases and being thrown into garbage dumpsters. What I saw broke my heart. 

Even though I was punished for missing schools and not return to college dormitories, I was possessed to do those research. So I went to many remote areas and interviewed hundreds of women. I heard many stories. I put my research in paper and gave them to my teacher. I haven't written my thesis yet. I just gave the teacher my raw material. 

Unbeknownst to me, she turned those material to the press and the material was apparently passed up and got the attention of the Chinese government. For that I was kicked out of the school. Actually I was put in jail briefly for 3 days. I thought I was going to die. They wouldn't tell me why I was arrested and I didn't know it was because of the infanticide research. I was just put in jail. There was no interrogation, no telling why I was there. 

But fortunately I was let out 3 days later. I was told to go home and wait to be told what I should do. Then I was told that I have two choices.  

One is to leave China and never talk about this again, just quietly leave. I was told to be careful what I say because my sister and family is still in China. This is fairly common in Chinese history back then, probably today also, that the threat to you is not yourself but your family. Or, I will be put in a place remote in China. I thought leaving was a better idea. 

So, it took me a year and half actually for me to get a passport to leave China. My family helped me to pull all the strings and eventually I was able to obtain visa and passport to leave China. I applied to many countries but the US was the easiest to get a student visa so I ended up coming  to the United States. How lucky I am. 

In 1984, January, I stepped on a Pan Am airline and flew from Shanghai to San Francisco, stop by Tokyo. I landed in San Francisco. I had 80 dollars traveler's check and only a few words of English. I tried to learn English when I was in China when I knew I was going to come to the United States. I tried to memorize them but somehow by the time I landed in San Francisco I only remembered 3 words. That was "help", "thank you", and... there was another word that I can't remember. 

Anyway, so I was in San Francisco. I have a traveler's check. Back then, Chinese dollar was not exchangeable with dollar so you should go to a bank, give them RMB and they issue you a traveler's check. For me to go from San Francisco to New Mexico where I got a student visa. The ticket price changed. It become 85 dollars and I only had an 80 dollar traveler's check. Because in China, it's a Communist society that the price doesn't change. I didn't know what to do. 

Of course, blessing San Francisco, there was a lot of Chinese-speaking people so one of the agents was able to explain to me the price changed. There was an American man standing behind me who gave 5 dollars to the counter so I can get my ticket. That was my first impression of an American. That taught me a lesson: when in doubt, always error on the side of generocity.  

To this day, I still haven't found that person who helped me. I was hoping someone who read to book would say, hey, that was me. Five dollars may not have meant much to me but it meant the whole world to me. 

So that's how I landed in United States and went to New Mexico. 

I enrolled in English as Second Language and I thought I was going to study comparative literature. I quickly realized that I didn't have enough English to do that. Also, my teacher who has a Ph. D. in literature couldn't find a job.  I was told to leave China and never to come back again so I don't have the luxury of studying something I couldn't find a job with. So I have to very quickly find something that's marketable. But I didn't have formal K-12 education so I couldn't quite go to study science. 

I asked around what I could study. Someone said why don't you go study computer science. It's a new field. I never heard about computer science so I asked what is that. The student said that is a man-made language used to make stuff. I was like, great, I am good with language and I know how to make stuff. That's what I am going to study. So, that's how I got into computer science. I was very lucky that it's a new field. 

Computer science of course at that time, and maybe today also, has a lot of group projects. It's not always individual projects. I wasn't the best programmer. Programming wasn't really a strong suite of mine but I quickly realized that I was a pretty good software designer. Being trained in literature, in structure, compositions, flow, I found software design to be very easy. So I end up with always having the best programmer in my group because, being a good software designer, our project always get the high scores from the professors. So that's how I got through my computer science career. 

I worked for a start up company and then I went to work for Bell Labs and then I went to work for University of Illinois at their supercomputing center. I went to the supercomputing center because they were doing graphics and visualization and I totally fall in love with that field. It's like art meeting science. 

At the supercomputing center I hired a student, his name is Marc Andreessen. Marc didn't quite like the match and geometry I was doing and decided to work on a browser. So Marc and severl other students wrote the NCSA Mosiac that became Netscape and was also licensed to Microsoft and became Internet Explorer. So he went to start Netscape and the rest was history. 

The university started to push me to start a business. They said, Ping, everything you touched turning into gold. I had no idea how to start a business. At university we have really good jobs. I love my job and also my daughter was 3 years old at the time. But one day my boss Joe Harding said, "All this talk and nobody is doing anything. I am really frustrated." So I said, okay, I will do it. So that's how I started Geomagic. 

[Talk about Geomagic and 3D technology...]

Q:  How is China like you now? What’s the potential of technology like this to solve the humanitarian crisis that factory in so many countries like China poses?

A: I certainly is on the attack by the Chinese at this point. The day after New York Time had a story broke on Chinese hacking on New York Time, I woke up with 2000 hate mail in my email. And I’m still on the attack by the Chinese. If you go on Amazon and look for Bend not Break Ping Fu, and you will see the full scale of the attack on me. They completely bombarded my book site, and if you saw the titles of five hundred comments, doesn't matter it is one-star or five-stars, they are all smear. 

You can’t see any good comments because it will... if you put a good comment, hundreds of them are gonna come and say this is not helpful. And if they call me a liar, fat liar, bitch, traitor, whatever, you will get one thousand five hundred people will say that is helpful.  

In comparison, the most helpful comment review on Harry Potter in its entire life is five hundred. And in twenty second, a smear comment on amazon will get three times more comments on this is helpful. How does that happen? It happens in twenty seconds! So someone is writing a program... notify something there. You can just go there to see it. It is incredible. 

So I look at it. My book is not available in China. None of those reviewers have read my book and they even say they have never read my book. So there are three things they really don't like me. They don't like me write about “gang rape,” “No, China has no rape.” That’s one. And they don't like I wrote about “infanticide.” “No, China didn’t kill baby girls.” It didn't matter the statistics says thirty million girls were missing. “It didn’t happen.” And of course I’m a traitor because I’m talking about bring job to United States. Actually i was talking about bring job locally ,distributed. And it is not just bring back to United States. For China, I talked about China should make product that carries Chinese Culture. And China has 1.3 billion people there, it is a huge market. It is good for China also. 

But it didn't matter, because, you know, that’s the attack. 

It is interesting, because I love Amazon, don’t get me wrong. I love Jeff. He is probably one of the most respected entrepreneur ever in my life. He is my hero. 

But I always believe failure and success go in hand in hand. Ironically a long time ago, I help to create Internet or the browsers. Today I become the victim of that technology. So the question is to the technologists here, what can we do to prevent this happen. Because those people hiding behind internet with fake ids are so cruel. The attack is so vicious and I don’t understand that phenomenon. And I don’t understand why we allow that happen. And it is more vicious to women than to men in general. It is not Chinese or American, cruelty has no nationality. But allow people to hide behind Internet to be cruel is something we should solve. Because that shouldn't happen to anyone. 

They are not just attack me, my family, my colleagues, but anyone who go voice something authentic get attacked. This is attack to democracy.

ZiLanZhai Master: Story always belong to those who have Stories

The author of this blog remains anonymous but claims to be a former classmate of Fu Ping's in college. Based on the story he told in this blog, even Fu Ping herself thought that is most likely to be true.

The post, published on January 26, 2013, is a reaction to the initial Forbes profile of Fu Ping. The author describes that some former classmates in their own social group had tried to recall various facts in Fu Ping's story but,

1. None of them had heard anything about her childhood suffering before, including their guidance teacher.
2. None of them ever heard about her thesis research on infanticide. Some remembered that Fu Ping was good at writing, but mostly novels.
3. Their class was separated into two classes for English lessons. Fu Ping was assigned to the "fast class" based on her English skills at the time. So, she knew a lot more than "three English words."

    信息时代，每天要在媒体上读到一些故事，成功人士的事迹催人奋进；偶一的失败让人叹息，但教训也能值得人借鉴。更多的时候，那些人和那些人的故事是我们绝对陌生的，自然也就没有任何可评判的了。一旦读到熟悉的人的陌生故事，情形就不一样了。
    今天，在我们为了迎接大学毕业三十周年而建立的QQ群中，得知了大学毕业之后就一直没有消息了的一位女同学的消息，这位同学的“事迹”或者说“故事”这些天已经成了媒体的热点。而且那故事是从“福布斯中文网”上用双语发布的呢（点击这里来看看）。
    这是一个在我们大学同学中年龄算是偏小却故事不断的同学，四年的时间里故事多多。从1982年大学毕业之后但一直没有了消息，如今，一下了成了名人，成了美国总统奥巴马团队中的人物了，而且那篇题为“从劳改犯到高科技企业家”的文章，还是从“福布斯中文网”上翻译转载过来的呢。真让人吃惊！而读了网友们的评论，更吃惊，也就不得不说一说了。
    在群上，我们同学就在努力地搜寻记忆。30年，毕竟还不是太久远，大家还能记得许多的事情。
    “在南京劳改队里度过了十年。她在那里接受思想改造，忍饥挨饿，饱受折磨，惨遭轮奸，被迫在工厂里当了一名童工，没有接受良好的教育。”我们都是从那个时代过来的人，文革不过是十年。当年的中国，再黑暗，还不至于将一个女孩关到牢中十年，去做童工的。再说，我们那些同学都是恢复高考后的1978年考取大学的，不要说是在在劳改营中度过了十年，就是曾经被派出所抓过关过的，“政审”就过不了关，怎么有可能被大学录取？就算是侥幸进了大学，四年的时间里，以彼人的性格，也不会不向同学们展示那一段“历史”的。可我们中文系的同学中没有一人，甚至是当年录取我们进校，后来又做了我们的年级辅导员的老师也从没听说过有此事。故事。
    “童工”一说，倒还是有些另一种可信的。我们那些人在那个时候是没有什么“童工”的概念的。当年能找到一份“童工”去做，算是有关系有后门的人了，我们普通人家的子女是连“童工”也做不到的。还是故事。
    “在毕业前几个月，傅苹发表了一篇毕业论文，讨论中国农村溺杀女婴的现象，引起了全国新闻界的关注。但她也因此入狱，被判劳教。”我们同学在群里互相问了，没有任何人知道在那个时候有过那么一篇文章——这个故事的主人公是能写些东西的，这是事实，但文学性的小说多，偏又不及另一位高我们半级的范小青同学。更不曾听说当年我们的同学中有哪一位因为文章而被劳教了的。因为我们的同学全是江苏的，没有一个外地人，如果哪一位因为文章而出了事，至少是会有人知道的。可没有一个人知道有此事，甚至三十年同学聚会五六次之多，没有人知道此人在何处。又是故事。
    那文章用不着细读，就可看出问题来，“劳改”与“劳教”，我不知道在英语中是不是有什么区别——我甚至不知道在英语中是不是有这两个词汇。“劳教”怎么会有十年之久的？故事啊！
    “在美国开始了她的新生活，当时她独自一人，身无分文，只会说3个英文单词”，那就更是故事了。当年我们中文系1978级两个班，这个人的英语水平算是高的，在快班。就我这个高考英语只考了4分（我们1978年高考英语不算分数，只好将精力集中在算分数的科目上去了），大学里只能在慢班的笨人，也不至少只有四五个单词啊。还是故事。
    讲惯了故事的人，有时会连一些真实的事情和经历也弄不清了呢。这位同学2012年“在接受中新社记者访问时说，1977年她在苏州大学学习中文（点击这里查看原文）”，我们这明明是1978年入学的，是在1978年的10下旬才上学的，就连高我们一届的1977级学生，因为特殊的历史原因也是在1978年的3月才入学的，她怎么会跑到1977年去？那时她不还在“做童工”吗？
    我们的这位同学现在在资本主义国家里，还发达了，这是事实，不是故事。我估计。
    钱钟书先生曾说过“暴发户续家谱”，那一年高考语文的现代文阅读还曾以此作为材料的呢。现在看来，有些暴发户还会“编”家谱，走的是与老暴发户们不一样的路数，是先将自己往最低处损，以显得自己“奋斗”的光彩！
    由此，再回过头来看许多的事迹，许多事迹的评论，冒出一个词“起哄”。至少我知道，在这个人的故事及评论中是有不少不了解情况而起哄的。
    突然想到一句话，“牛皮不怕大，就怕当场炸”。故事，永远只属于那些有故事的人。    

xgz: Bend, Not Break: A Lie in Two Worlds (Part II)

The following post is published by xgz on The Daily Kos on February 2, 2013:

Many Americans who do not know much about China are puzzled by the outrage displayed by Chinese Americans against the lies of Ms Ping Fu in her book. These Americans are "naive to the point of cute", quoting one commenter on the Amazon website. They seem to think that as long as her message is against something evil, it is ok to lie. What they do not understand is that such lying is adding insult to the injury already suffered by the millions of Chinese. It makes it harder to promote democracy in China, and reinforces the image of American ignorance and arrogance. 

Many of these Americans have accused critics of Ms Fu, including myself, as shills of the Chinese government. This angers me more than the lying by Ms Fu. It is a combination of MccArthyism and racism that any card-carrying liberal should be ashamed of. I have been a kossack for seven years and have a long track record of diaries from which you can judge whether I am a shill of anything. In fact, this kind of personal attack shows me that they have lost the argument. 

In part II here, I will address the questions arising from Ms Fu's clarification to her story. Simply put, she is still lying. 

My previous diary, the first part, is here. The next part, part III, is here. 

In her clarification, she is walking back on essentially all the claims published on Forbes, NPR, Inc, and other media outlets, and putting the blames on "editorial" errors by these media outlets. She claims that the book does not contain most of these errors. 

Here is a summary of her clarification:

1. She was never sent to a labor camp. She lived in a university dorm for 10 years, not a labor camp.
2. She was not a child labor, and did not work in a factory.
3. She was not deprived of an education. Instead, she studied nonstop.
4. She did not enter college in 1977, but entered in 1978. The college she entered was Jiangsu Teacher's College, which was renamed Suzhou University in 1982.
5. She did not witness the execution of a teacher.
6. She was gang-raped.
7. Her thesis on infanticide in China was never published.
8. The newspaper article on infanticide was not authored by her. She only read it. And she is not sure which newspaper it was.
9. She read about UN cutting funding to China while waiting for her passport.
10. She had been planning to attend graduate school in Nanjing to study comparative literature, but was able to because she was prevented from graduating from college.
11. She never studied English in college.
12. She was not a Red Guard. The photo was taken in front of a Red Guard flag at school.

Although she pretty much retracted most of her incredible story, she made more lies in these answers. I will focus on three of them, those highlighted above. 

She read about UN cutting funding to China while waiting for her passport.
Her text of clarification:

A: I heard about the sanctions in China while awaiting my passport. I was told that the UN was unhappy about this issue. A quick web search shows that the American-based journalist Steven W. Mosher wrote about female infanticide in China in 1981. His book, called Broken Earth, was published in 1984 -- the same year I was waiting for my passport. Knowing this, it makes sense that I was asked to leave quietly. Anything else would have drawn more attention to the issue. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mosher successfully lobbied George W. Bush to cut UN funding for China. His story and the timeline are consistent with my experience.

George W. Bush did not become president until 2001, by then Ping Fu was already a US citizen. Did GW travel back in time to cut UN funding for China in 1984? 

In fact, the only thing that an US president can do is to withhold the US contribution to the UN agency, in this case UNFPA. The controversy regarding China's birth control program with UN was not over infanticide, but with forced abortion and coerced sterilization. Japan and EU decided to fill in the gap left by the US withholding the funds, so there was no impact on China's program. So neither the story nor the timeline are consistent with what Ms Fu is claiming. 

She never studied English in college.
Her text:

In college, English language classes were offered, but not required. I did not study English ever. I had "level zero" English, just like most Americans know a few words of Spanish or French. I tried to learn more English when I knew I was going to the U.S., but when I arrived, I only remembered a few.

This is a blatant lie. English language class in Chinese colleges since 1978 has been mandatory for all freshmen and sophomores. In addition, one also has to pass English language test in order to be admitted for graduate school. 

I originally had been planning to go to graduate school to study comparative literature in Nanjing, but that could not happen due to the circumstances.

She could not make this plan if she did not study English. 

She was not a Red Guard. The photo was taken in front of a Red Guard flag at school.
Her text:

If you zoom into that picture, you only need to look closely to see I have no red band on my arm. The image was taken in front of a Red Guard flag at the school that I attended in the late 70s. I wrote in the book that the situation got better after 1972. Still, I was never a Red Guard.

This is another lie. Look at the photo. She was proudly displaying her left arm, like all others in the front row of the photo. Because of the shadow, it is hard to see what is on her left arm. Notice everyone in the front row was wearing the armband. If she was the only person not wearing it, why would she put her arm forward like that to show it? 

This was not at school either. This was a park in Nanjing. Notice the two towers in the background? It is this place, called Linggu Temple. It is believed to be the best Buddhist temple in the world, and is surrounded by a park. This picture was a picture of a field trip by the Red Guards. 

There are other lies in her clarification. We may need more diaries to analyze them.

Fang Zhouzi: Fu Ping's "Clarification" is Full of Lies

On February 2, right after Fu Ping published her "clarification" blog on Huffington Post, Fang Zhouzi published a response in his own blog, calling the clarification as full of lies. This blog has been translated into English by an associate professor of University of Florida. Fang Zhouzi also posted the translated version on Amazon himself.

The original Chinese version follows the English one below.

Ping Fu posted a clarification article on her blog today in response to my criticism. Her article can be found here. 

Ping Fu claimed that although my comments are correct, they are made based on the inaccurate Forbes report, not based on her new book. The Forbes report has since been corrected. 

In fact, if you read my article, you will know that the Forbes report triggered my criticism, but I made my comments not just based on this report, but also based on a series of reporting, radio and TV shows, and video interviews on American news media since 2005. I also read the two chapters of her book that are available on Google Book. All of them provide a consistent picture. If the Forbes report made mistakes, then the reports by other US media and what Fu said by herself on the interviews will also be wrong. It is useless to single out Forbes (as an scapegoat). 

In her clarification, Ping Fu said, "I did not say or write that I was in a labor camp; I stated that I lived for 10 years in a university dormitory on the NUAA campus. Chinese children don't get put in labor camps. I also did not say I was a factory worker. I said Mao wanted us to study and learn from farmers, soldiers and workers." 

Just ten days ago, in a video interview with Google, [7:15] Ping Fu said that she lived in a ghetto for 10 years of Culture Revolution. 

In a different interview with NPR, [15:50] she said that she was sent to a correctional farm when she was 10 and stayed there for about 10 years. She vividly described a story of how she brought food from the correctional farm back to feed her sister. 

How could she blame the US reporters for mistaking what she actually meant? 

In her earlier interviews with US news media, she always claimed that she had been forced to work in a factory since nine years old, without education (schooling) for the entire Culture Revolution. Now her factory experience becomes "Mao wanted us to study and learn from farmers, soldiers and workers." That's what every Chinese student experienced in that era. Not forced labor, it is just a part of the normal school curriculum at the time. How come it becomes her personal tragedy? In her logic, should every Chinese student from Culture Revolution claim that they worked for 10 years in factory without being educated? 

But Ping Fu now also said that since the schools reopened in 1972, she studied tirelessly. In fact, schools reopened in 1968 during Culture Revolution. Let's just accept that Nanjing schools were special and they somehow reopened in 1972. But why would all previous US reports say that she was not schooled for 10 years? Here are a few examples: 

Inc. Magazine's report
WeNews report
NPR even said that she never set foot in a classroom for those 10 years.
Illinois Alumni said she was locked up for 10 years and released when she was 18.  

Why did all these US media make false reports? Why would they all believe she was different from other Chinese students of that time, not receiving any normal education while others did? 

Regarding the extraordinary story about her witness of a teacher being torn into pieces by four horses, Ping Fu clarified, "To this day, in my mind, I think I saw it. That is my emotional memory of it. After reading Fang's post, I think in this particular case that his analysis is more rational and accurate than my memory. Those first weeks after having been separated from both my birth parents and my adoptive parents were so traumatic, and I was only eight years old. There is a famous phrase in China for this killing; I had many nightmares about it" 

She acknowledged that she might have treated nightmare as reality. The famous Chinese phrase was killing by five horses, not by four. Killing by four horses was a western way of execution in ancient history. If she had a nightmare when she was a Chinese kid, she would have dreamed about five horses, not four. A possibility is that she fabricated this story to meet western mindset. 

Ping Fu acknowledged that her undergrad thesis on female infanticide was never published, nor was it reported by People's Daily (#1 newspaper in China). But she said she read an editorial on gender equality on People's Daily in 1982. 

However, she also claimed in earlier US interviews that her thesis made big public impact, with Wen Hui Bao and People's Daily reporting her findings, though her name was not referenced. Listen to what she said on NPR [18:00] 

If her thesis was never published, how would newspapers know her findings? All right, granted that those newspapers had secret channels to learn her findings. How come the People's Daily report was about gender equality? It was commonplace for Chinese newspapers to promote gender equality in those years. What makes her to connect that editorial with her thesis on female infanticide? 

Ping Fu claimed that she heard UN sanctioned China (due to her findings) while awaiting her passport. This is a significant but ridiculous event (UN sanction needs the blessing from China and other four permanent council members). She heard it from someone, and then made this claim (as a fact) everywhere in US media!? 

In response to questions about UN sanction, Ping Fu mentioned a Stanford student, Steven W. Mosher, who wrote about Chinese female infanticide in 1981 and published his book in 1984; "the same year I was waiting for my passport," Fu claimed. Then she continued with, "According to the Los Angeles Times, Mosher successfully lobbied George W. Bush to cut UN funding for China. His story and the timeline are consistent with my experience." 

Ping Fu arrived at US in January 1984. In order to draw connection with Mosher, she changed gear by stating that she was waiting for her passport in that year. As for Bush's cut of UN funding, that's Bush sanctioning UN (due to China's birth policy), not UN sanctioning China. Moreover, Bush became the president in 2001. That's 17 years after Fu moved to US. What will all these have anything to do with her story of being forced to leave China? 

Ping Fu claimed in her clarification that the government told her to leave, not giving a specific destination. (She said she waited her passport for a year.) She got a student visa, which was secured through a family friend at the University of New Mexico. 

However, in earlier interviews, she had repeatedly claimed that the government told her to leave China in two weeks. She even repeated this statement to the Forbes reporter the day before yesterday. Listen to what she said 10 days ago in the Google interview: Her thesis caught national and international attention, UN sanctioned China, she was jailed for three days, Deng Xiaoping (China's paramount leader after Mao) intervened, she was released and given a passport two weeks later, and told to leave China. See Authors at Google record, [10:30] 

She got her passport in two weeks after her three-day arrest! Yes, she said that, facing the camera, just 10 days ago. Now she changed her words, stating that it was very difficult to get the passport and she got hers more than one year after her release. Is she lying? 

Fu said in interviews that she knew only three English words when arriving at US although the specific words varied in different interviews. She now says, "English language classes were offered, but not required. I did not study English ever. I had `level zero' English, just like most Americans know a few words of Spanish or French. I tried to learn more English when I knew I was going to the U.S., but when I arrived, I only remembered a few." 

A few, not three anymore? But what she says now is still a lie. First, since 1978, English is a required course in college. Second, her classmate (Zhi Lao Zhai, blog name, acknowledged by Fu as her classmate) stated in his blog that, "the 1978 students in the Chinese literature department were placed in two English classes. Fu's English is good among us. She was in the fast-track class."Third, Fu acknowledged that she passed the entrance exams to become a graduate student in Nanjing University. Graduate entrance exams had English. 

In her clarification, she claimed that, "One of my classmates also responded to Fang's article on his blog. What he says is consistent with what I wrote in the book, so he must be a classmate."
That's another lie. She can fool American readers who do not know Chinese (the classmate's bog is in Chinese). In fact, her classmate's blog was entirely dedicated to reveal her lies. The blog is here.

Fu claimed that she didn't apply for political asylum. (It was a common routine to apply for green card through political asylum with claims of mistreatment by Chinese government on its one-child policy in late 80s. ) 

However, in February last year, when Singtao Daily reported on the first immigrant entrepreneur forum sponsored by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, it clearly stated that Fu received her green card through political asylum: "The four immigrant entrepreneurs on the speakers' stage all have their stories. Geomagic's Ping Fu was born in the mainland of China, grew up during Culture Revolution, received residence status through political asylum after coming to US in 1983, and then created her own business." 

If Fu didn't get her green card through political asylum, how did she get it in 1987 when she was an undergrad international student? Other means for green card could not been applied to her. 

Ping Fu said, "Criticism is not a form of defamation; it is a form of speaking or seeking truth. I welcome constructive criticism." 

But she has been lying, for many years. Now, as she finds that she can no longer hold up the old lies, she creates new ones to cover the old. How can that be constructive? Revealing a liar's lies, exposing a cheater's cheats, that is not defaming. That is merely pointing out the truth.

　傅苹今天在其博客上针对我的批评，贴了一篇澄清声明：
　　http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ping-fu/clarifying-the-facts-in-bend-not-break_b_2603405.html
　　傅苹声称，虽然我的批评是正确的，但是是根据福布斯不准确的报道，而不是根据她新出的书，福布斯的报道后来更正了（意思是我的批评成了无的放矢）。
　　事实上，看过我对她的批评文章的就知道，虽然福布斯的报道引发了我的批评，但是我的批评并非仅仅针对福布斯的报道，而是针对自2005年以来美国媒体对傅苹的各种报道、傅苹的电台和视频访谈。我也看了傅苹新书放在google book上供试读的前面两章。它们的内容都相当的一致。如果说福布斯的报道有错的话，那么此前美国媒体的其他报道、傅苹接受电台和视频访谈亲口说的话，也全都错了。怪罪到福布斯上面是无济于事的。
　　傅苹声称，“我没有说过或写过我是在劳改营；我说的是我在南航校园的一个大学宿舍里生活了10年。中国儿童不被送去劳改营。我也没有说我是一个工厂工人。我说毛要我们向农民、战士和工人学习。”（我的翻译）
　　就在10天前，傅苹接受谷歌的视频访谈时，还说整个文革十年她都生活在隔离区（ghetto）（http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vRtvswO8s 大约7分15秒开始）。NPR采访她时，说她十岁时被送到劳改农场（correctional farm）达10年之久，她有声有色地讲述如何从劳改农场带东西回来喂她妹妹的故事（ http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_988_Ping_Fu.mp3 15:50开始）。她好意思怪美国记者理解错了她的意思？
　　在此前她接受美国英文媒体的所有采访中，她从来说的是从9岁起她被迫在工厂工作，整个文革期间没有受过教育，何时说过她在工厂的工作指的是“毛要我们向农民、战士和工人学习”？（只在中文媒体上这么说过）那不就是当时每个中国学生都经历过的学工、学农、学军吗？那不就是正常教育的一部分吗？怎么就成了她个人的苦难了？是不是所有经历过文革的中国学生都可以向她学习，声称自己在十年间都在工厂工作，没有受过学校教育？
　　傅苹声称，自1972年开始学校复课，她从此不知疲倦地学习。
　　文革期间的学校复课是从1968年就开始的。我们姑且相信南京学校比较特殊，迟至1972年才复课吧。但是此前美国媒体的报道全说她整整10年没有上过学，例如《公司》的报道（http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/ping-fu.html ），WeNews的报道（http://womensenews.org/story/women-in-science/100505/geomagics-ping-fu-rises-in-tech-firmament?page=0,1#.UQzHxqVkw1I ），NPR甚至说她十年间没进过教室(http://www.npr.org/2006/03/18/5279787/ping-fu-recreating-the-world-in-all-its-dimensions )。《伊利诺校友杂志》则说她被关了10年，18岁时才被释放。（http://www.uiaa.org/illinois/news/illinoisalumni/0707_b.html ）
　　为什么所有这些采访过她的美国媒体全都搞错了？都认为她和其他中国学生不一样，没受过任何正常教育？
　　傅苹声称，到现在她还记得她目睹了教师被红卫兵四马分尸。但是在看了我的分析后，她承认我的分析比她的记忆靠谱。她说中国对这种虐杀有一种说法，而她为此做了很多噩梦。
　　这意思是她承认把噩梦当成了现实。中国的说法是“五马分尸”，而不是四马分尸。四马分尸是西方的酷刑。她小时候要做噩梦也应该梦的是五马分尸，而不是四马分尸。更可能的是，她根据西方人的口味来编造四马分尸的故事。
　　傅苹承认她关于一胎化政策导致溺婴的论文从未发表过，也从未被《人民日报》报道过。但是她说她记得在1982年读过《人民日报》一篇呼吁男女平等的社论。
　　此前她在接受美国媒体采访时不是一直在说她的论文一度引起了轰动，《文汇报》《人民日报》都不点名地报道了其研究结果了吗？甚至连邓小平都对她的论文感兴趣吗？（听她亲口在NPR说：http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_988_Ping_Fu.mp3 18:00）既然她的论文从未发表过，报纸怎么知道她的研究成果？就算报纸有秘密通道知道其研究，所谓的报道居然就是一篇呼吁男女平等的社论？当时中国报纸呼吁男女平等那是一点都不奇怪的，她有什么理由相信那和她的论文有关？在其声明中她甚至不敢明确地说《人民日报》的社论与她的论文有关。
　　傅苹声称，所谓联合国因为其论文而制裁中国的说法是她在等护照时听人说的。
　　原来这么重大而离奇的事件，最多只是她的道听途说，然后就在美国媒体上到处宣讲？
　　傅苹提到美国斯坦福大学学生Steven W. Mosher在1981年发表中国溺婴的研究，在1984年出版了有关著作，并称那一年她正在等护照。她并提到《洛杉矶时报》曾报道说Mosher成功游说小布什政府不向联合国提供用于中国的资金。她认为这与她在国内的经历一致。
　　1984年1月傅苹已经到美国了，为了跟Mosher扯上关系，怎么又改口说成那一年她还在等护照？小布什政府因为反对中国的人口政策而不向联合国人口基金会提供资金，那是小布什政府制裁联合国，和联合国制裁中国有什么关系？而且小布什是2001年上台的，那时候傅苹已在美国生活17年了，和她所谓被迫离开中国，又怎么能扯上关系？
　　Mosher在1980年左右曾在中国做人口学研究，他关于中国强迫人工流产的文章1981年在台湾发表后，惹怒了中国政府，斯坦福大学于1983年以其违背研究伦理、从事非法活动为由将他开除。他起诉斯坦福大学。这个案件在1984年——也就是傅苹到美国那一年——非常有名，但现在已很少有人知道了。傅苹突然提起她刚到美国时很著名而现在已鲜为人知的这个案子，让我不得不怀疑她当年正是根据Mosher的案子来捏造她的论文故事，以此申请政治避难的。
　　傅苹声称，因为其论文政府要求她离开中国，但政府没有给特定期限。她通过在新墨西哥大学的一个家庭朋友获得了学生签证。
　　在此前她接受采访时，全都说是她被中国政府要求在两周内离开中国。直到前天她还在对福布斯记者这么说。最离谱的是她10天前接受谷歌的采访，这是她亲口说的：她的论文引起了国际轰动，联合国对中国进行制裁，她被投入监狱关了三天，因为邓小平问写论文的那个人现在怎么样了，她才被放出来，两周后警方交给她护照要她离开中国。（http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vRtvswO8s 从10：30开始）她的案子连邓小平都被惊动了，她两周就得到护照了——没错，这是她十天前对着镜头亲口说的。仅仅过了十天，她就改口说因为办护照极其困难，她被释放后等了一年多才拿到护照。这不是撒谎、骗人，是什么？
　　傅苹声称，在她上大学时英语是选修课，不是必修课，她从未学过英语，她的英语水平是零，在抵达美国时只记得几个英语单词。
　　不再说只懂三个英语单词了？但是这仍是谎言。第一、从恢复高考开始，英语就是大学的必修课，她不可能没上过英语课。第二、她的大学同班同学滋兰斋主人（傅苹承认是她的大学同班同学）在批评傅苹的文章中说：“当年我们中文系1978级两个班，这个人的英语水平算是高的，在快班。”第三、傅苹承认自己考上了南京大学比较文学硕士专业的研究生，只是因故没有去上。研究生入学考试必考英语。
　　顺便说一下，傅苹声称其大学同班同学滋兰斋主人的文章是对我的回应，和她的说法一致，这也是谎言，是欺骗不懂中文的美国读者。事实上，滋兰斋主人的文章是在揭露她的谎言的：http://zilanzai.i.sohu.com/blog/view/253678027.htm
    傅苹声称，在那张红卫兵合影照片中，如果放大的画可以看出她没有戴红卫兵袖章，那是他们在她读书的学校的红卫兵旗帜前照的。
    实际上，在那张照片中，每个人的左手臂都戴着红卫兵袖章，包括傅苹。那张照片并非是在学校照的，而是在南京灵谷寺照的，是他们打着“红卫兵团”旗帜去那里游玩时的合影。
　　傅苹声称，她没有申请政治避难。
　　但是《星岛日报》去年2月份关于她参加美国国土安全部移民局举办的首届移民企业家峰会，并获得美国移民局授予“杰出归化美国人”称号的报道明确说她是通过政治避难获得绿卡的：“坐在主讲台上的四位移民企业家都有各自的故事，杰魔公司华裔董事长傅苹出生在中国大陆，成长于文革时期，1983年来美国后申请了难民庇护得到身分，之后创立了自己的公司。”（http://oversea.stnn.cc/NY/201202/t20120224_1707578.html ）如果傅苹不是通过政治避难获得美国绿卡，她又是通过什么途径在1987年之前获得绿卡的？其他途径都更不适合她。
　　傅苹声称批评不是诽谤，而是讲述或寻找真相的方式，她欢迎建设性的批评。
　　她一直在说假话，讲了很多年，现在发现谎言圆不了了，就用新的谎言掩盖，这如何建设得起来？揭露一个说谎的人说谎，揭露一个骗人的人骗人，那不叫诽谤，那只是指出事实真相。

Fang Zhouzi: Fu Ping's "Legendary Life", Again

On February 1, 2013, Fang Zhouzi published a followup to his initial blog on Fu Ping's "legendary life". This post addresses a few issues on Jenna Goudreu's followup report on Forbes, in which she raised some of the questions to Fu Ping.

Fang Zhouzi also uncovered a report from a Chinese newspaper that Fu Ping had attended graduate school in China before leaving for USA. In those years as well as now, English is one of the tests students must pass to gain admission to graduate school. It's hard to imagine how Fu Ping passed that test when only knowing three English words.

　　由于福布斯的报道《从劳改犯到高科技企业家：傅苹的人生路》引起我对美国杰魔公司创始人、“奥巴马团队的人”傅苹在中国经历的注意，我根据她几年来接受美国媒体的采访以及其新书《弯而不折》（Bend, Not Break）中的说法，写了一篇质疑文章。很多中国读者纷纷在福布斯网站留言和在亚马逊写书评，指责傅苹是个骗子。傅苹新书在亚马逊的评分一夜之间从5分降到1.5分，有趣的是华人都给它打最低分1分，美国人都给它打最高分5分，并怀疑打低分的华人是被中国政府组织起来的五毛。 

　　福布斯中文网站一度把《从劳改犯到高科技企业家：傅苹的人生路》删除，后来把标题改成《从文化大革命到高科技企业家：傅苹的人生路》重新登出。但写该报道的记者Jenna Goudreau从众多质疑中挑了三个问题给傅苹，傅苹做了回答，完全是狡辩。我们先看第一个问题，傅苹文革期间，在她8～18岁时，是否在劳改队里呆了十年？傅苹将这归为翻译的问题： 

　　【傅苹告诉我，它直译成中文（即“劳改队”）就成了强制劳动的监狱场所之意，因此有失精准。但她也表示，从8岁开始，她确实曾在政府管理的一所撤空的大学校园内一个单间宿舍中，与妹妹相依为命。她证实，9岁时，她没有去上学，而是被分配到工厂干活。其自传的新闻稿称其曾为“儿童兵”（child soldier）以及“工厂工人”。而中国批评者质疑她是如何小小年纪就得以成为工厂工人的，在那时候，当工人是一种荣誉。对此，傅苹回应称，她当时并非中国传统意义上所指的“工人”，因为她并没有获得报酬，而是作为正规学校教育的一种替代。】 

　　傅苹的父母是南京航空学院的教师。所谓大学校园撤空，指的是文革期间大学教师下放到五七干校劳动，这是1968年10月开始的，1971年“九·一三事件”后，1972年春起教师们返校，各个高校恢复办学招收工农兵大学生，所以大学校园撤空的时间只有三年，而不是傅苹说的十年。何况据2005年她接受《公司》（Inc.）采访时的说法，1968年她母亲已被允许回校了（http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/ping-fu_pagen_6.html ），所以她和她妹妹相依为命的日子，最多也就几个月。据傅苹的发小Diana Luo的说法，在南航教师下放五七干校期间，教师子女被集中起来管理。这被傅苹说成了她及其妹妹作为黑帮子弟受红卫兵监禁。其实傅苹本人就是红卫兵，有她戴着红卫兵袖章，和其他红卫兵打着“红卫兵团”旗帜在南京灵谷寺游玩的合影为证（http://www.fastcompany.com/3004166/bend-not-break-leadership-lessons-resilience-amid-struggle ）。 

　　傅苹说她在文革整整十年都没有上学，而是从9岁起就分配到工厂工作。文革初期中、小学瘫痪，但1967年11月起开始“复课闹革命”，傅苹作为大学教师子女，一直不回校上学，不可思议。贫困家庭子女可能会退学去当童工贴补家用，但是傅苹又说她在工厂的工作没有报酬，这就莫名其妙了，她整个文革期间不上学在工厂里干了十年的义务劳动？ 

　　其实对文革有一点了解的人都知道，她所谓的在工厂不拿报酬工作，以及当“儿童兵”，就是当时的中小学生都经历过的短时间的学工、学军，那是当时正规学校教育的一部分，并不是惩罚，红卫兵、红小兵也都要学工、学军。她自己接受美国之音中文部采访时也说了“大多就是下乡、学农、学工那样的经历”。 

　　Goudreau说：
　　【另一个争议焦点是，她表示自己是被从中国放逐或驱逐出境的，但实际却不存在相应的官方记录。当我要求其对此给予回应时，她表示，“放逐”一词不对——虽然这是在发往媒体机构的宣传其新书的新闻稿中所使用的措辞。该新闻稿先是写到了“傅苹被驱逐出境（deported）”，随后又重复了一遍称，“傅苹遭到放逐（exiled）”。 

　　“在书的开头，我写了中国政府暗中驱逐了我。”她说。实际上就是该书开篇第一句话。“可以说这是一种文字上的演绎。我被要求离开。我的父亲帮我弄到了去美国的签证。我被告知不要谈论此事或者申请政治避难。我对此的理解是，我并非出于自愿而离开了中国……如果有人想说这不算驱逐出境，可以。但这就是我的解读。”那么要求她离开的是谁呢？“警方。”她说。】 

　　原来她所谓被中国政府驱逐出境和被放逐，只是她自己的“理解”。但是她此前在接受各种采访和书中，反反复复地说的是中国政府把她驱逐或放逐，其中一个版本甚至说她被硬塞进飞机送到新墨西哥大学（she was bundled on a plane and sent to the University of New Mexico, http://www.uiaa.org/illinois/news/illinoisalumni/0707_b.html）。 

　　好吧，我们姑且相信在她写了导致“联合国制裁中国”的论文之后，中国政府不是把她劳教、判刑，而是宽宏大量地要求她去在当时被中国人视为天堂的美国，但是Goudreau发现了在时间上有问题： 

　　【在第一次采访中，傅苹谈到她在大学毕业前夕被警方逮捕，没能毕业，并被要求离开中国。她说，“我被要求离开，而我只有两周时间。”我回溯了她所提供的时间线并发现，在她参加苏州大学入学考试（1977年）并抵达美国（1984年1月）之间存在六至七年的时间。当我要求就这一事实进行确认时，她表示，她到1978年秋才入学，她说这样一来毕业就是1982年，而她与警方发生纠缠是在1983年。我问：这其中不是有一年的时间间隔吗？“的确。问得好。”傅说，“让我回去确认一下。”】 

　　对这个人生重大转折点，傅苹居然一时想不起来是怎么回事了，需要想一想怎么回答。那她是怎么回答的呢？这回是由她的公关人员出面了： 

　　【昨晚，傅苹的公关人员发来电子邮件称，他们“确认傅苹于1978年入学，1982年秋在被政府扣押之后离校。她于1984年1月14日抵达美国。”也就是说，在警方要求她离开中国之前，她在国内待了一年多的时间？“在获释数周之后，政府要求她离开，”该公关人员在邮件中写道。“但在当时，要弄到护照，即便说不是不可能，但也是很难的。就算傅苹被要求离开中国，她也不得不等待护照发放下来。”】 

　　这就怪了，护照是在公安局办的，既然公安局命令她2周内离开中国，怎么又在办护照时刁难了她一年呢？这只能说明她其实是按正常程序申请的护照，而在上个世纪80年代，要申请因私护照是极为困难的，通常是要有海外关系。按Diana Luo的说法，傅苹的叔叔（或伯伯）在美国，她是通过其叔叔的资助到美国留学的。傅苹到美国一年以后，傅苹的妹妹也到了美国，难道也是被驱逐的？ 

　　从1982年大学本科毕业到1984年年初去美国留学这一年多时间内，傅苹也没有闲着。据《中国新闻》报去年的报道：“傅苹在恢复高考后进入苏州大学中文系，后到南京大学念比较文学硕士。”（http://epaper.chinanews.com/html/2012-03/14/content_3303.htm ）也就是说去美国之前她在南京大学读研究生。如果她惹上了政治麻烦，坐过牢，在当时的政治条件下，她怎么可能被录取上研究生？Goudreau怎么不去问问，那篇给她带来麻烦的关于其论文的《人民日报》报道，究竟登在哪一天的《人民日报》上？而且，从1978年中国恢复研究生招生开始，上研究生都要有入学考试的，初试科目都包括英语。如果傅苹只懂三个英语单词，她是怎么通过研究生入学考试的？ 

　　傅苹在1992年加入美国国籍。 

（http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=651214f929685310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=34165c2af1f9e010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD ）加入美国国籍需要至少有5年的永久居民身份，也就是说她最迟在1987年拿到美国绿卡。当时她是个还没有毕业的计算机系本科生，不可能办技术移民。当时她也还未结婚（1991年结婚），也不可能通过和美国公民结婚办绿卡。她能获得绿卡的唯一途径是申请政治避难。她在中国的恐怖经历应该就是当年为申请政治避难编造出来的。后来发现美国人很轻信，能博得同情心，有助于推销自己，就反复地讲。的确，她去年接受采访时，就说她的故事有助于在做生意时别人了解她（http://www.nctechnology.org/news/files/techpose/pingfu_techspose.pdf ）。当然还能树立起励志的高大形象，获得更多的社会尊重和荣誉。 

　　傅苹在去年被美国移民局授予“杰出归化美国人”（Outstanding American by Choice），这是极高的荣誉，一年只有5个人得。移民局介绍她在中国受的苦难与她接受采访时相同，甚至也说她是被中国驱逐出来的（不过换了另一个词，expel），不知是根据她归化时提交的材料，还是根据美国媒体的报道？授予她这个荣誉的原因很显然是她在中国经受的苦难与她在美国的成功形成了鲜明对比，是实现美国梦的典型。可惜这是一个虚假的梦。美国人也喜欢虚假的梦。所以即使没有一个中国人相信她的苦难故事，即使海外华人对她的质疑一浪高过一浪，也不会影响她在美国人心中的形象，不影响她这几天为了推销新书不停地接受美国各大媒体的采访，一遍又一遍地讲述她在中国的悲惨经历，不影响她的书成为美国畅销的励志书，感动无数的美国人，因为美国人、美国媒体愿意相信，即使那是个彻头彻尾的谎言。

Fang Zhouzi: Fu Ping's "Legendary Life"

On January 28, just a few days after the initial Forbes profile on Fu Ping was published and then subsequently made available in its Chinese site, Fang Zhouzi wrote the following blog to question Fu Ping's story. This would turn out to be the first in a series of such blogs.

In this blog, Fang Zhouzi focused on a few stories Fu Ping told the public media in several of her interviews, including:

1. Fu Ping and her younger sister were too young to be sent to a labor farm as reported by Forbes. Forbes later corrected this error from its title and story.
2. How could Fu Ping get into college in 1977 with her "black" family background and no formal education?
3. Fu Ping's story of being forced to witness a teacher being killed by four horses.
4. Fang Zhouzi searched the archives of People's Daily around the time of Fu Ping's alleged arrest and found no article about the subject of infanticide.
5. He also pointed out that it's impossible for UN to sanction China, a member with veto power.
6. It's ridiculous for the Chinese government to resort to a mafia-style operation to arrest Fu Ping in 1981.
7. It's also ridiculous that someone got in political trouble with the government at that time could be deported.
8. The many different versions of "three English words" clearly indicated that Fu Ping knew more than three words when she landed in the United States.

For those who can read Chinese, below is the original text of this blog:

傅苹的“人生传奇” 

　　近日国内门户网站和微博公知都在传福布斯中文网的一篇报道《从劳改犯到高科技企业家：傅苹的人生路》，傅苹被称为“3D打印机的创始人”——其实她和她的前夫创建的杰魔公司（Geomagic）是做3D数据采集、分析和建模的，并非做3D打印机；又被称为“奥巴马团队的人”——其实她只是美国商业部组织的创新和创业国家咨询委员会（National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship）的二十多个委员之一。福布斯的这篇报道，是为傅苹新书《弯而不折》（Bend, Not Break）造势的众多报道之一，关于她在中国的经历，离奇得让人难以置信。 

　　该报道称，傅苹在文革期间，“离开父母身边后，傅苹需要照顾自己和年幼的妹妹，在南京劳改队里度过了十年。她在那里接受思想改造，忍饥挨饿，饱受折磨，惨遭轮奸，被迫在工厂里当了一名童工，没有接受良好的教育。” 

　　傅苹出生于1958年，文革期间她还未成年，未成年人和年幼妹妹被送进劳改队的，闻所未闻，不见于其他人回忆文革的任何资料，算是傅苹一个人的独特的残酷经历吧。问题是，1977年文革结束恢复高考，傅苹就考上了苏州大学（苏州大学是1982年才办的，也许她上的是其前身江苏师范学院）。1977年的高考是要政审的，傅苹既然一直在劳改队，怎么通过的政审？1977年的高考竞争极为激烈，录取率不到5%，傅苹既然是在劳改队长大的，没有接受良好的教育，她是怎么考上苏州大学的？天才吗？ 

　　福布斯的报道称，傅苹回忆：“我们被告知自己身份低下——我们的父母犯下了反对人民的罪行，我们待在这里替他们赎罪。他们给我们吃泥土和树皮。我们还被拉到现场，亲眼看到我们的老师被杀害。” 

　　在2010年傅苹接受美国国家公共电台（NPR）的采访时，说红卫兵为了吓唬他们这些黑帮小孩，在他们面前处决了两名教师，其中一名教师是用四马分尸的方式处死的：身体被绑在四匹马上，马朝四个方向跑，身体被撕裂了。 

　　关于文革虐杀的情形，有很多回忆，有活活打死的，有活埋的，但四马分尸的酷刑，也是闻所未闻，只见于傅苹的口中。问题是，按她的说法，这并非像她被轮奸那样死无对证，劳改队的其他小孩也都被集中起来目睹了，为什么这些小孩没有一个人后来出来说他们见过如此奇特的惨无人道的一幕，难道这些小孩都死绝了？ 

　　要把一个大活人用四马分尸，说起来容易，做起来难，光是要找到四匹训练有素的马就不容易，红卫兵如此大费周章处死一个人，就为了吓唬小孩？中国传统有五马分尸的说法，那是对车裂的通俗说法，车裂时犯人是被绑在马车上的，而不是直接绑在马上，用马车显然更容易操作。而且车裂是酷刑之最，在中国历史上就没有搞过几次，每次都有记载，五代之后就绝迹了。四马分尸是古代西方的酷刑，竟在20世纪60年代的中国南京被红卫兵复活了，这中国历史上的首个活人被四马分尸，傅苹是唯一的公开的亲历者，不值得酷刑研究者找她好好探讨吗？把受害者和其他目睹者查个清楚吗？ 

　　福布斯报道说，“在（苏州大学）毕业前几个月，傅苹发表了一篇毕业论文，讨论中国农村溺杀女婴的现象，引起了全国新闻界的关注。但她也因此入狱，被判劳教。” 

　　2005年傅苹接受《公司》（Inc.）采访时，对这段经历说得更详细：1980年她向教授递交了关于中国农村溺杀女婴的现象的论文。几个月后，1981年1月，上海最大的报纸（在电台采访中，她说是《文汇报》）报道了她的研究结果。随后《人民日报》也报道了。然后引起了国际舆论谴责，联合国对中国实施制裁。于是在1981年2月，她被关进监狱。 

　　我检索了1981年1～2月的《人民日报》，并没有关于傅苹或有关中国农村溺杀女婴的报道。实际上有点中国政治常识的人都知道，那个时期《人民日报》关于国内的新闻都是歌功颂德的，怎么可能有这种影响中国形象的报道呢？说联合国制裁中国，也是没有常识的说法，联合国怎么可能去制裁安理会常任理事国？她不知道中国作为安理会常任理事国对联合国的制裁决议有否决权吗？为什么没有其他中国人知道联合国曾经在1981年制裁中国？傅苹是怎么知道的？ 

　　在接受美国电台采访时，傅苹对自己被捕的经历描述非常有戏剧性：她在校园里走，突然被人用黑布套住头，塞进车里带走……这完全就是黑帮电影里的镜头嘛。在1981年，中国公安要在中国大学校园带走一个学生，竟不敢光明正大地来？ 

　　据《公司》的报道，傅苹只是被关了三天就放出来了，并没有被判“劳教”，而是判决把她驱逐出境，驱逐去美国留学。两周后她被送往去美国的飞机，到新墨西哥大学学英语，她说她不知道为什么要被送去那所大学。 

　　因为写了一篇负面报道的论文，就被驱逐去美国留学，天底下居然有这样的好事？中国判决驱逐出境只限于对外国人，到90年代才有把异议人士赶到美国的做法，那也只限于非常著名的异议人士。傅苹当时是一个默默无闻的大学生，就享受了驱逐到美国留学的待遇，那真是个奇迹。在80年代初要自费去美国留学，是多么困难的一件事，没有特殊的海外关系，根本不可能实现。 

　　她说她不知道为什么会被送去新墨西哥大学，但是在其新书《弯而不折》中，她却说她到达美国后，试图和一个姓盛的先生联系，此人是她父亲的学生（她父亲是南航的教师），她去新墨西哥大学是盛先生联系的。 

　　福布斯的报道说：“傅苹在美国开始了她的新生活，当时她独自一人，身无分文，只会说3个英文单词。” 

　　傅苹在接受采访时，多次说她刚到美国时只会说3个英文单词。但是对哪3个英文单词，她每次的说法却不一样。《公司》说这三个单词是please, thank you, help。其新书的介绍说这三个单词是thank you, hello, help.（http://www.bendnotbreak.com/about.php）她接受NPR采访时，说这三个单词是thank you, help, excuse me。把这三种说法综合起来，都有五个单词了。 

　　据《公司》报道，傅苹去苏州大学时，是想学工程或商业，但是党分配她去学英语，怎么可能只会三个英语单词呢？即使她不是英语专业的，上大学期间总要上英语公共课的，即使没学好，又怎么可能只记得最简单的三个英语单词呢？ 

　　所有这些说法，都只能骗骗对中国情况不了解的老外。傅苹也知道这一点，所以当她面对中国人时，就老实多了。比如她在接受美国之音中文部的采访时，对她在文革期间的经历是这么说的： 

　　“在中国的时候，我成长的时候是文化大革命，没有读过什么书，大多就是下乡、学农、学工那样的经历。”http://www.voachinese.com/content/article/460383.html 

　　下乡、学农、学工，不就是当时所有中国学生的普通经历吗？有什么稀奇的？怎么一面向美国英文媒体，就换了另外一幅嘴脸？福布斯的报道原本是英文的，她大概也没有想到会被翻译成中文并广为传播吧？ 

　　真实的情况可能是这样的：相比于当时的其他中国学生，傅苹在文革期间受到了比较好的教育——毕竟她有一个在大学当教师的父亲，所以高考一恢复她就能考上大学。大学毕业后，又通过她父亲的关系，到美国语言学校读书，后来去读计算机科学的学位。她说她留学期间是通过当清洁工、在餐馆打工来谋生的，这属于非法打工，且不去管她。当时的中国留学生，为了能在美国留下来，会想尽各种办法。其中一种做法是编造自己在中国受迫害的离奇经历申请政治避难。反正再离奇的经历，美国人也会信以为真的。有的人编着编着，连自己也当真了。

Fu Ping's Interview with NC Bookwatch

On February 17, 2013, UNCTV released Fu Ping's interview with its program NC Bookwatch, hosted by D. G. Martin. It's not clear when the program was actually taped, but the release date was after the controversy surrounding her story had already become known in the media for a few weeks. In the interview, Fu Ping did not address the controversy but repeated her usual tales. In this version,

1. Red Guards picked her up at Nanjing train station in a jeep, instead of a car or motorcycle
2. The famous three English words are "hello", "thank you", and "sorry"
3. The national paper which she said published her research becomes "Xinhua Newspaper" instead of People's Daily. It's not clear whether she meant Xinhua Daily or the Xinhua News Agency.

The interview is available here. Below is a partial transcript:

DG: One of North Carolina's most successful and most admired business leaders grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution -- unbelievably repressive system. She was starved, beaten, denied the basic education but somehow she survived and, after she was driven out of the country, came to the United States with three English words and on that pathway found education and business success that should inspire anyone who hears the story. We will hear that story when we talk about her new book Bend, Not Break, with the author Ping Fu, on North Carolina Bookwatch next. 

DG: Welcome to North Carolina Bookwatch, I am D. G. Martin. My guest is Ping Fu. She is the author of Bend, Not Break, a Life in Two Worlds. Welcome Ping Fu. 

Fu: Thank you. Happy to be here. 

DG: We are all exited to have you. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, you grew up in China and then left China under the pressure from the government, made your way in the United States and had incredible success. That's the story of your book. 

Fu: Yes. 

DG: Maybe we could start by talking where did the title "Bend, Not Break" come from? 

Fu: It came from a symbolism called "Three Friends of Winter." My uncle who was the father to me, who was always the father figure to me, told me about bamboos. He said bamboo bending from the prevailing wind but never breaking, as if he knew challenges are waiting for me.  

DG: He knew there would be challenges. There are two other trees of the winter, what are they? 

Fu: Yeah, the three friends of winters are bamboo, pine trees, and plum blossom. Each one is different. Pine trees -- we have a lot here in North Carolina -- are evergreens and are very straight. Bamboo bend not not breaking. Plum blossom is the first flower bloom in the winter, usually in February. Specially, it will blossom in snow. That signifies the dignity. 

DG: This learning lessons you are getting when you were growing up in China when time was tough, can you talk to us about your growing up in China? 

Fu: When I was little I grew up in this loving family. We had a big house. All I knew was my parents were very loving. My Mom cooks delicious food. She always says cooking needs five senses: color, smell... but she adds the fifth element: love. My father always came home. He loves scholar's garden. I have five older brothers. So it was really a comfort life in the first 8 years of my life. 

DG: This was still Communist China but before the... 

Fu: This was still Communist China but before the Cultural Revolution started. Then, in 1966, Cultural Revolution started. This was the home I ever knew. One day I heard breaking sound. Red Guard coming to our house. Of course before that I already knew something was wrong because around the neighborhood there was always things being broken or someone got arrested. But I was too young to really know what's going on. When they came I thought they were coming for my parents or older siblings but did not know they were coming for me. In China, when Cultural Revolution started, everyone has a registration of where you live. They control everyone. So your registration place should be at your birthplace. I was born in Nanjing and came to Shanghai to live with my aunt and uncle when I was 11 days old. So that was the only home I knew. I didn't even know they were not my birth parents. So the Red Guard came to take me away from them and told me that they were not my parents, it was a real shock to me. I was 8. I was crying. I was begging my Mom to tell me that is not true. But I wasn't even allowed to have a hug from her. I was ripped away from a loving home, thrown on a train with full of people  The train was so crowded I couldn't find a place to put my feet. I remember sitting on somebody's shoulder for a while before I slid down in this crowded train. Then, arriving Nanjing just a few minutes too late. My biological parents were put on a truck to be taken away. I remember the chaos. I literally can smell the chaos because there was blood everywhere. I was little. I crawled under... 

DG: You were by yourself? 

Fu: I was by myself. The Red Guard took me from the train station in a Jeep and drove in Nanjing. I remember an empty street compared to the very crowded Shanghai. I remember seeing blood. When I arrived at the Nanjing Aeronautic and Aerospace University which is where my biologic Dad taught, it was chaos. Everything was chaotic. A lot of people on the street. Trucks were going by with people on the truck with big sign with big crosses on them. I was little. I remember crawling literally under other people's feet to try to get to the front of the crowd to see if I can see anything. That's when my Mom spotted me on a truck. The only thing I heard her say was "Ping Ping, take care of your sister." 

DG: So you were then assigned to a dormitory room or some kind of room in the university to live by yourself? 

Fu: I was putting in a line, marching down across the street to the place students used to stay. The school is closed. All the students went either home or somewhere else. So I was assigned a room in the dormitory  They must have pre-assignment already because my little sister, 4 years old, was already in that room. 

DG: So you and your sister by yourselves were expected to make a life for yourself? 

Fu: Yeah. There was more than me and my sister. There were hundreds of "black kids" like we are. We have been told to be called "black element," not even people.  

DG: Why? What about your family that made you have to carry this burden? 

Fu: Traditionally China respect education and my family was educated. Both of my parents were educated. My grandparents were entrepreneurs in the 30s of Shanghai. In China, there was actually very few national entrepreneurs. When Mao started the Cultural Revolution, anyone who come from money or education were condemned. He says that the farmers, soldiers, and workers are now the masters of the country and of course they are the majority. He closes schools. Anyone from that kind of background are called "black." 

DG: Well, this is really a poignant point of your story. But you were able to work your way through and begin to get an education at the college level in China after the Cultural Revolution started. But that wasn't the end of your problems of the Chinese authorities. 

Fu: Right. I did study very hard when China reopens 10 years later. I actually wanted to study being an astronaut but I didn't have a choice as I was assigned to study Chinese literature which is a major nobody wants to take. It was kind of blessing too. I really enjoyed it. So when I studied Chinese literature I was thinking about going to graduate school. If you do go to graduate school you need to write a thesis. I decided to choose killing baby girls as a subject. I thought that was a humanitarian subject to write my thesis on. 

DG: What do you mean killing baby girls? 

Fu: In 1978, China started to impose the one-child policy. Every couple could have only one child. At that time, China was still, by large, an agriculture society and people all wanted boys. I heard in the countryside, people were killing baby girls because they can only have one child. 

DG: So when the baby comes and it's a girl, the couple for various reasons kills the baby? 

Fu: Well, there are a lot of forced abortion if that's not the first baby, even at 8 or 9 month pregnant  There are people try to hide if they already had a child and try to get a son. One woman I interviewed literally lived with pig for the entire pregnancy, eating pig food. Pig food had a lot of alcohol in there. So when she give birth, it was a boy but it's a stillchild. The child died in her stomach. I interviewed other women say that, if they give birth and it's a girl, the men will take the girl and throw it into the river. I have seen that. I have seen baby girls being thrown into the river when their embryo cords were still fresh.  

DG: What was your problem about your research and writing about this topic? 

Fu: I was writing this for calling to a stop of killing baby girls for my thesis. One of my professor who took this material and gave it to a newspaper reporter because she is already aware this is happening. The reporter did an editorial comment. At that time, China didn't even have authorship. So she, out of compassion, wrote an editorial to call stopping killing. That piece got picked up by Xinhua Newspaper, which was an official government newspaper. That editor also wrote a syndicated editorial comment at his own, calling for a stop of killing baby girls. Unbeknownst to China, this was the first time Chinese official newspaper admitted this was happening. I actually didn't know how wide-spread it was. I think a lot. But now we know, during 78 to 82, in 4 years, 30 million girls were missing. It was... 

DG: So the authority was picking up your research and endorsing it. Why did this create trouble for you? 

Fu: What happen was the international media picked it up and had an outcry of human rights violation and UN was threatening to sanction China on economics. This was Deng Xiaoping's China. The new government just come to power. It's an embarrassment to the current government. So, now nobody wants to say they created trouble so it goes down to where this data come from. It traces down to my research. 

DG: You become a non-welcome person in your own country. 

Fu: I become the scapegoat. I become the person who embarrassed the country. 

DG: As you explained in your book, this leads to your coming to the United States, really as an exile. Talk about your entry to the United States, what's your preparation and your ability to pay for what you needed? 

Fu: I didn't have money and I didn't speak English.  

DG: You have 3 words in English, didn't you? 

Fu: I tried to remember more than 3, but by the time I get here I only remembered 3. That was help, thank you, and sorry. Very useful words. My mother took her life's savings and bought me the ticket to come to the United States. I had some savings and I bought a traveler's check to go from San Francisco to New Mexico because that's where I got to study English as a Second Language. I got admitted to University of New Mexico. So I left Shanghai to come to United States. When I landed in San Francisco, The ticket agent wouldn't give me the ticket and I don't know what's happening. I didn't know the ticket price changed from $80 to $85.  

DG: So you had 80 dollars only? 

Fu: I only had $80 in traveler's check. In China it's a Communist system. The price never change. I have no idea that in 12 hours the price changed from $80 to $85. So, blessing San Francisco there are Chinese-speaking people. They explained to me what was happening and then the American man standing behind me took out $5 and gave it to the counter and said here it is. I was so touched by a stranger who doesn't know me would give me $5 so I could go to New Mexico.  

DG: One of the best parts of your book is how you worked your way as a waitress, as a housekeeper, babysitter to get through college. Then into graduate school, and then as an employee. But I want to skip that and get to the point that you are a worker in the high tech field and very happily engaged. How did you change from an employee to an entrepreneur? 

Fu: That's a good question. I was at NCSA, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. I hired this student whose name is Marc Andreessen. He started to write this code called NCSA Mosaic that became Netscape and Internet Explorer.  

DG: He became famous. And he was your graduate student? 

Fu: He was an undergraduate student. He came as a sophomore and then graduated. He was with me for 3 years. Marc complained that he made $6.75 an hour. I was paying him that. He left to start Netscape with Jim Clark. The rest become history. So the university kind of pushed me to start a business. 

DG: Most people close to the high tech world know Marc Andreessen, one of the sort of .com millionaries. He decided to be a millionaire rather than a $6.75 student assistant for you. 

Fu: Mark is a great programmer. He always wanted to make money. I remember the prompt on his computer was a dollar sign.  

[More conversation on the start of Geomagic.]

Fu Ping's Reuter Interview with Sir Harold Evans

On January 15, 2013, Fu Ping had an interview with Reuters Editor-at-Large Sir Harold Evans, titled as "Ping Fu's Dramatic Journey from Capativity to Computer Entrepreneur". In this interview, Fu Ping stated,

1. She was working in factories as a child, building radios and speedometers.
2. She saw baby girls being killed "with my bare eyes". In the video, there is a priceless shot of Evans' shocked and disbelieving face.
3. She did not even know her thesis was picked up and put in the newspaper
4. [She] looked to different countries for a place to study
5. The famous three English words are "hello", "thank you", and "help"

The interview, which appears to have been edited, can be viewed here. Below is a partial transcript:

Evans: Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a little girl in a beautiful house with a cortyard and a garden where she chased dragonflies around. It's a lovely family and she was very, very happy. On her eighth birthday, a beautiful birthday cake was given with a picture of a garden on it. She blew up the candles and made a wish. The wish was she could fly like the dragonflies in the garden. But she didn't blow up all the candles. Great darkness descended on the land. Cruel people took her away and kept her in captivity  Then, she escaped. This is the story of Ping Fu, who is now here with us in the Reuters studio in New York. Congratulations on this book. The title is Bend, not Break, a Life in Two Worlds. Two worlds are of course China and the United States. Take us back to the beginning of the fairy story and bring us into the real life. It was 1966 and you are... 

Fu: I was in Shanghai at the dawn of the Cultural Revolution. 

Evans: What's the first thing you know about this cataclysmic change which is coming to China? 

Fu: First I noticed things going strange because there are a lot of liters in our land and my German neighbor disappeared  One day, I heard this loud sound with boots marching into my house and I thought somebody is going to come into my house to make trouble. I knew there was chaos around the neighborhood. Little did I know that they were coming for me. 

Evans: They were looking for you? But you were only 8 years of age? 

Fu: I was only 8 years. I was in my grandfather, father's library. Then I heard my Shanghai Mom said, "She is so little." I stick my head out. I heard they are coming as Red Guards. They are teenagers, with Mao's green uniform with a little red star on their hat. They say, "She is there." I ran back to the library but it only took seconds for them to come up to the library. 

Title Display: Ping Fu's parents had sent her to live with relatives in Shanghai. During the cultural Revolution, moving around the country became illegal. Ping was taken away.

Fu: They took me away from the only home I knew. In a single day I lost both set of parents and I became a surrogate mother to my sister. 

Evans: How old was your sister, you say? She was 4 and you were 8? 

Fu: Yes. 

Evans: What were you doing everyday?  

Fu: First I went to the factory to peel off plastic parts -- I don't know what they are. Then I got older, I built radios, speedometers. 

Evans: You built radios in a factory? 

Title Display: Ping Fu and her sister spent the next decade in a re-education camp. They were starved and regularly beaten. 

Evans: Fast forward as you were. Deng Xiaoping comes in, the Cultural Revolution is finished. What happens then, in terms of getting on with life? You are now 18, I think, when the Cultural Revolution ends. What happened? 

Fu: I studied for a whole year. I heard the rumors of universities are gong to open again. I was known as the girl whose lights never turned off. I passed the national exam and I got in. 

Evans: So now you are studying Chinese literature and you enjoyed it. And that takes you to the countryside for some reason. You are writing a thesis. What happened? What did you see in the countryside? 

Fu: It was at the peak of China's one-child policy. Every couple can only have one child. At that time, China was still 90% agriculture. The farmers want sons. So I heard there was wide-spread killing of baby girls.  

Evans: You saw babies are being killed? 

Fu: I saw it with my bare eyes. I saw babies are being tossed into river with their embryonic cords still fresh. I saw babies being put in the plastic bags and tossed into garbage. 

Evans: By the parents? 

Fu: By the parents or by the neighborhood leaders. 

Evans: That is an unspeakable cruelty. 

Fu: Unimaginable. 

Title Display: Ping Fu wrote her thesis about the atrocities, attracting global media attention. 

Evans: So the international media were told about the fact that babies are being killed. What was that you are first aware of the fact that you, about 20 or 21 years old, had created an international firestorm? 

Fu: I did not know that, 'cause we didn't have access to international newspaper. I did not even know my thesis was picked up and put in newspaper. I don't read newspaper every day. I was just walking in the college to go to a class and somebody come behind my back and put a sack over me and said, "Don't scream", and took me away from the campus. 

Evans: Where were you taken to? 

Fu: I was taken to this Jeep or car. I think it's a Jeep because I can feel the wind. We drove hours. I was taken to this prison outside of Nanjing and put into this windowless room. No lights, no window, no bed and smells like ammonia. 

Title Display: After three days in captivity, Ping Fu was released but told she must leave China and never return. 

Fu: And so we looked to different countries for a place I can study and US just happened to be the first one giving me a visa. 

Evans: Did you need a visa to get into US? 

Fu: I need a visa. Back then in 84 it was very easy. We applied in 83, it was very easy. 

Evans: So how could you afford to come to the United States? 

Fu: My mother used up all her savings to buy me a ticket. 

Title Display: Ping Fu arrived in teh U.S. with just $80 to her name. 

Evans: How much English did you speak? 

Fu: I spoke only three words. I tried to learn more but by the time I arrived I only remember three words. 

Evans: What was ... 

Fu: Hello, thank you, and help.

[More conversations on Geomagic...]