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.

Questionable Fact: Fu Ping's Childhood in Shanghai

The Original Story

According to Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping was taken by her Shanghai Mama, the sister of her biological mother (Nanjing Mama) when she was 11 days old. She grew up in Shanghai with her adopting family until shortly after her 8th birthday in 1966, when a group of Red Guards took her from the loving family and sent her back to Nanjing. She did not realize that her Shanghai parents were not her real parents until that day.

The Earlier Story

In Drifting Bottle, Fu Ping wrote (Page 15): 

It was different at home. One day, I suddenly announced to my Dad and Mom: my career plan is to be a driver of the small motor-tricycles. This shocked them. Chinese parents always wish their children grew up to do big things and have significant achievements. This is called "wish kids to become dragons." The motor-tricycles were used by small business people in transportation. It was very noisy and emitted black smoke in the rear. We called them "farting bugs."

I grew up on a university campus, right outside of the campus is the famous Yudaojie of Nanjing. In ancient time it was a road dedicated to the emperors, thus called Yudaojie (Emperor Road Street). Nowadays there are huge traffic on this ancient street, anyone could wander on this wide emperor road. In my childhood memory, the most proud people are those who drive the "farting bugs." 

在家里就不一样了。有一天，我忽然对爸爸妈妈宣称，我的理想是做一个开三轮车的司机。这可把他们吓了一跳。中国的父母都希望自己的子女长大干大事业，有出息，所谓望子成龙嘛。这种小三轮车是很多个体户跑单帮用的。行动起来不但蹦蹦蹦地吵声不断，屁股后面还冒黑烟，我们叫它“放屁虫”。 

我是在大学校园长大的，校外那条有名的南京御道街是古代皇帝经过的道路，所以才叫御道街。现在这古老的御道街可是车水马龙，谁都可以在宽阔的御道上徜徉。在我童年的印象中，最神气的莫过于那些开“放屁虫”的司机。

And also on Page 88:

This is Wuchaomen, very close to my home. I played here often when I was little.
这是午朝门，离我家很近，我小时候常在这儿玩呢。

The Debunking

The differences between the two autobiographies is striking. Besides the direct contradictory above, the Shanghai parents, who were heartily described in Bend, Not Break as much more of parents than her biological Nanjing counterparts, were not even mentioned at all in Drifting Bottle. Instead, we read that she not only grew up in Nanjing but she also did so with her biological parents on her side.

Drifting Bottle was written when Fu Ping was not yet famous. Her Nanjing mother had helped her copying and proof-reading the manuscript. Therefore that version met her mother's approval.

Fu Ping could claim that she neglected the Shanghai story and her true affection to her Shanghai parents in Drifting Bottle to avoid hurting the feelings of her biological mother. But would that be necessary not to mention the parents who had allegedly raised her and influenced her a great deal?

Someone claimed to be Fu Ping's childhood friend has emerged to testify that Fu Ping had indeed grown up in Nanjing instead of Shanghai. But since the individual chose to remain anonymous, the testimony, however credible it appears, could not be taken as a solid proof.

But there are other holes in Fu Ping's new version of her story, which we will continue to debunk in more specifics.

Fang Zhouzi: Fu Ping's Two Memoirs in Two Worlds

The following post was published by Fang Zhouzi in his blog on February 27, 2013. It compares Bend, Not Break with an earlier autobiography, Drifting Bottle, Fu Ping published in China in 1996.

　　傅苹在去年年底出的英文回忆录《弯而不折》其实是她的第二本书。在1996年她已出过一本中文回忆录，不过是在国内出的（湖北少年儿童出版社出版），书名叫《漂流瓶——旅美散记》。这两本回忆录描述的傅苹生活截然不同。在把它们进行比较之前，我们先要说明《漂流瓶》的体裁不是虚构的小说，而是回忆散文：书的副标题叫“旅美散记”，书前的内容提要称“这部散文真实、生动地记叙了一位中国留学生的旅美经历”，书中附有很多张傅苹及其家人、朋友的照片以证明其所写都是真人真事，后记还交代了文中提到的真人真事的现状，傅苹在今年1月接受美国电台采访时说她在中国出的这本书是介绍她在美国的生活（http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2013/jan/14/bend-not-break-china-america/ ）。 

　　虽然这本回忆散文主要内容是关于傅苹的美国生活的，但是也时不时地会提及其在中国的生活。从这些回忆中，我们看到了一个与其英文回忆录完全不同的傅苹： 

　　一、傅苹从小在南京长大 

　　傅苹在其英文回忆录中声称自己从小就寄养在上海姨妈家里，把姨父、姨妈当爸爸、妈妈，直到8岁时文革爆发被红卫兵赶回南京，才知道南京有其亲身父母，而且与亲身父母的关系一直不好，内心还是把姨父、姨妈当成“上海爸爸”、“上海妈妈”。 

　　但是在中文回忆录中，傅苹没有一个字提到上海姨妈、姨父，也没有一个字提到自己小时候在上海生活。相反地，她说：“我是在大学校园长大的，校外那条有名的南京御道街是古代皇帝经过的道路，所以才叫御道街。”（p.15）“这是午朝门，离我家很近，我小时候常在这儿玩呢。”（p.88） 

　　近日傅苹接受《博讯》采访时声称：“自己的亲爷爷在傅苹出生前到了台湾，傅光培是她曾祖父傅慈祥的长子，因此傅光培是她的‘户口’意义上的祖父。”并附了一张她几岁时傅光培抱着她在宿舍楼照相的照片。如果傅苹是被上海姨妈、姨父收养的，由于姨妈、姨父都与傅光培无血缘关系，在当时在任何意义上傅光培都不是其祖父。 

　　二、傅苹从小在父母身边生活，并和其他小孩一起受教育 

　　傅苹在其英文回忆录中声称，她在1966年被赶回南京后，她的父母都被送去改造，她和妹妹单独生活了5年，到1971年时她母亲才回家，而她父亲则等到1976年四人帮倒台后才回家，在文革期间她父亲一直在东北伐木。在十年间傅苹没有在学校受教育，而是在工厂制作收音机和计速仪，一周工作6天，一天工作6小时，每天学习2小时毛主席语录。 

　　但是在中文回忆录中，傅苹一直就在父母身边长大。请看她回忆的一段小时候趣事：“记得小时候，老师最喜欢给我们出的作文题就是《我的理想》。当然啦，做作文的时候必须正儿八经地咬文嚼字，写得文采飞扬。所以，文章中的理想总是写得很崇高的。在家里就不一样了，有一天，我忽然对爸爸妈妈宣称，我的理想是做一个开三轮车的司机。这可把他们吓了一跳。中国的父母都希望自己的子女长大干大事业，有出息，所谓望子成龙嘛。这种小三轮车是很多个体户跑单帮用的，行动起来不但蹦蹦蹦地吵声不断，屁股后面还冒着黑烟，我们叫它‘放屁虫’。”（p.15）接下来她提到这种三轮车是开在南京御道街上的。 

　　《我的理想》这种作文通常是小学生写的，长大想当三轮车司机这种不懂事的理想也是幼儿园或小学生才会有的。所以这里说的“小时候”应指的是上小学的时候，也就是说，傅苹受过和同时代人一样的小学教育，写过相似的作文，而且当时爸爸妈妈都在身边听她讲述理想。 

　　三、傅苹从小没有吃过苦 

　　傅苹在英文回忆录中把自己的童年描写得悲惨无比，受到红卫兵的虐待，10岁时遭到十几个红卫兵的轮奸、毒打，在工厂当童工。 

　　但是在中文回忆录中，傅苹写自己为赚钱去给一个美国家庭打扫卫生，擦地板很辛苦，受了雇主的气，按理说这和她上述的悲惨童年比根本不算什么，但是她却说：“我在我的国家也是教授的女儿，被父母宠爱，何曾吃过这般苦，可是苦又算得了什么，气才真正受不了呢。”（p.11）这说明傅苹从小就是娇生惯养的教授女儿，何曾吃过什么苦？ 

　　四、傅苹没有被越南华人绑架 

　　傅苹在英文回忆录中，声称自己刚到美国，抵达目的地新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基市时，在机场被一个越南华人绑架去给他的子女当“妈妈”，被关了三个晚上，第四天才被警察救出。 

　　但是在中文回忆录中，傅苹在美国遭到的最大苦头就是打工，最大的奇遇就是谈三角恋爱和在高速公路开车爆胎，遇见的最悲惨的事是同屋的中国留学生摔断了腿却住不起医院，但对这段被绑架历险记只字不提，相反地，还说她到阿尔伯克基市第三天，就去和一个在南京时的邻居凯利约会去了，并抱怨说：“我来了三天，他才迟迟地与我联系，似乎有点过于冷淡。”(p.38)即使她记错了时间，把第四天记成了第三天，那么她那三天里处于与世隔绝的状态，凯利想要联系她也联系不上，她怎么会去怪他过于冷淡呢？可见她到阿尔伯克基市就一直处于别人能联系上她的正常状态，所谓被绑架，是胡编的。 

　　五、傅苹刚到美国时英语口语相当不错 

　　傅苹在英文回忆录中，声称她刚到美国时只懂三个英语单词，因为语言不通没法做任何交流，连飞机上的饭都不敢向美国空姐要。 

　　但是在中文回忆录中，傅苹两次提到她在国内时背过英语九百句，而且背熟了，一到美国就全派上了用场（p.2, p.7）。她去语言学校报到时，能用英语介绍自己“你好，我的名字叫傅苹”，能对叫简爱的老师说比较复杂的英语：“简爱，这名字真好，我很喜欢那本文学名著。”能用国内学的英语应付分班考试：“在国内学的一点点英文似乎可以应付一大半的考试题，我暗自得意起来。”（p.2）根据考试的结果，她被分到了中级班。(p.4) 

　　那么对这两个截然不同的版本，我们应该相信哪一个呢？在中文回忆录的前言中，傅苹说她父母亲帮助校对誊抄，即该书关于其国内的生活部分的真实性是经过她父母认可的。其对她小时候生活的回忆，对她在美国学习、打工的介绍，与其他人的经历相似，没有离奇之处（关于她在美国的经历可能有夸张的地方，但也不算太离谱）。所以很显然，她的中文回忆录要比英文回忆录可信得多。 

　　那么会不会是因为要在中国出版，所以不敢直写悲惨故事呢？她在英文回忆录里的那些离奇故事，父母文革期间受迫害，自己和妹妹相依为命，到美国时只会三个英语单词，在美国遭到绑架等，都不是什么敏感、犯忌的内容，没有必要回避。如果真的发生过，并写下来的话，不影响其出版，只会增加该书的可读性。 

　　所以傅苹自己也很清楚，她胡编自己在中国的生活，很难骗过中国人，用中文写作时，就要老实得多。她当时在学校工作，没有经商、没有名气，也就还没有编造自己的人生传奇的动机。但是等到她创建了公司，有了名气，面对美国人时，就可以迎合美国人对中国的想像信口开河编造自己的励志故事了，在这种时候美国人、美国媒体很容易骗。她没有料到的是她在英文世界的这些信口开河会引起中国人的注意，她17年前在中文世界出的回忆录还会被挖出来，两个世界的回忆录放在了一起，明明白白地揭示了一个骗子的真面目。

Fu Ping's Interview with WNYC's Leonard Lopate

On January, 14, 2013, Fu Ping was the guest on WNYC's Leopard Lopate show in which they discussed extensively her life and book. Among the highlights:

1. Fu Ping stated that "I went to research that and I saw hundreds of baby girls being killed right in front of my eyes. I saw girls being tossed into the river when their embryonic cord still fresh." [She had since claimed that she misstated.]
2. Fu Ping claimed that she became a factory worker starting from age 8, which provided her "root" in manufacturing.
3. In this version, the original idea of developing the Mosaic browser came from Marc Andreessen instead of Fu Ping herself.
4. They discussed the earlier, Chinese version her her autobiography. The host expressed surprise that she was able to publish it in China.
5. In this version, the three English words Fu Ping knew when she arrived in America was "hello", "thank you", and "help". 

The half-hour interview can be heard in its entirety here. Below is a transcript:

Lopate: Ping Fu has not only helped develop the web browser Mosaic, advised President Obama's administration on entrepreneurship  she is also the founder and CEO of the Geomagic, a leading 3D digital reality solution company. But before all of this, from the ages of 8 to 18, she endured the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a political prisoner, factory worker, and sexual abuse victim. Ms. Fu talks about her journey from the troubles of her youth in China to the frontier technology in America in her memoir Bend, Not Break. It's published by Penguin Portfolio. I am very pleased to welcome her to our show today. Hello.
Fu: Hello.
Lopate: What part of China were you born in?
Fu: I was born in Nanjing, a city south of Shanghai.
Lopate: Famous in most people's mind because of the terrible things happened there during the World War II.
Fu: That's right.
Lopate: Is that where you spent the childhood yours?
Fu: No. I was sent to Shanghai on 11th day after I was born in Nanjing to be raised by my aunt and uncle.
Lopate: Was there a reason for that? Did you know at the time why they take you from your parents and sent to your aunt and uncle?
Fu: My Mom is a working woman and she didn't want children. So my aunt picked me up and raised me.
Lopate: And Shanghai was still considered the Paris of the East in 1966?
Fu: Yes, I think it has always been considered as the Paris of the East.
Lopate: Well, Shanghai is an odd city. It almost felt for a while it's out of the loop. How fast did Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution reforms reach Shanghai?
Fu: Shanghai was the target because the Gang of Four, who was responsible for a lot of the propaganda and atrocities of China, was in Shanghai.
Lopate: And Shanghai was seen as the most westernized city, probably the one that needed to be cleansed the most?
Fu: That's correct.
Lopate: Let's look at your title for a moment. It refers to part of the three friends of the winter. The book is called Bend, Not Break, based on the quality of the bamboo. Why did you pick the bamboo instead of the other friends of winter, the plum blossom and the pine tree.
Fu: My Shanghai Papa said that I need to be bamboo, as if he knew that atrocity was waiting for me.
Lopate: So you had to learn to bend without breaking.
Fu: Yes.
Lopate: Is that something that stayed in your mind throughout your childhood?
Fu: It was. I thought my Shanghai Papa was very wise to pick the bamboo because he knew that I would be killed if I stand too straight.
Lopate: Well, then the Red Guards took you from that Shanghai home and put you alone on a train back to Nanjing. You were just 9 years old.
Fu: I was 8 and I arrived in Nanjing just a little bit too late, when my biological parents were sent to exile.
Lopate: Why were they sent to exile? Were you one of the people who had to deal with the fact that your parents and their families had been merchants or had some wealth before the revolution?
Fu: Yeah, my Mom come from an entrepreneur family and my Dad is educated. He was a professor. So both of them were targets.
Lopate: I would assume that would also apply to your Shanghai family?
Fu: Yes. Shanghai Papa was from a banking company. Shanghai Mama would stay home. So she did not get to send exile.
Lopate: So here you are at Nanjing. Your parents are sent into exile. Who did you live with?
Fu: I was live by myself and was my little sister. She was 4 years old.
Lopate: You just lived in a school dormitory?
Fu: Yeah, they put us into the emptied university dormitory which is kind of a ghetto for all the "black elements" kid.
Lopate: Sometimes you found a little surprises at your door. What were they?
Fu: We didn't have any food. Sometimes I find food left out of the door for us.
Lopate: Did you ever find out who gave that extra food?
Fu: One of the person who were giving us food was our neighbor's son. I only found out after Cultural Revolution was over (Lopate: when he could admit it.) Yeah, they had to risk their lives to do that.
Lopate: So, could you describe your daily routine when you were living in this student dormitory?
Fu: In the beginning it was a lot of chaos. We were put into "bitter meal" sessions or denunciation sessions that go on stage and condemn ourselves and our families.
Lopate: But you were 8 or 9 years old. How much could you even know about your family?
Fu: I didn't. I just mimic what other people do and try to not get in trouble. Otherwise, they hit me.
Lopate: And then at 10 you were sent to work in a factory?
Fu: I started factory pretty early, I think even at 8. Soon after. A few months after.
Lopate: Were you getting any schooling at this time?
Fu: Not official, not the academic study. I did learn a lot by doing things.
Lopate: Well, what kind of factories were you working in?
Fu: When I was 8, I was there peeling plastic covers to separate them and then I started to build radios around 10.
Lopate: So, do you think that experience is as awful as it was working in a factory at 10? Is it the source of your interest in technology?
Fu: I think that certainly was the unconsciousness behind my mind to start Geomagic in the manufacturing sector and combine technology with manufacturing as well to do with that experience.
Lopate: You were 10 years old working in a factory. Were you alone or were there other kids who were in the same situation?
Fu: There were hundreds of "black kids" being in our sector...
Lopate: "Black kids" because your names were blackened?
Fu: No, we were told our blood was blackened. We had a black lineage. So we were born with black blood.
Lopate: Even though, when you cut yourself, it turned out to be red.
Fu: Right. But...
Lopate: Which is the color of the Communist Party. I doubt they can explain that.
Lopate: There was a man named Wang. He was really important to your life at that time.
Fu: Yes, he was my supervisor at the factories. He gave me a lot of encouragement and taught me that I can do things that I thought I couldn't do.
Lopate: So, despite the harshness of your life there were strangers who express kindness to you.
Fu: Yes, often I've seen kindness in people, even in my tormentors.
Lopate: You said you had black blood. Were there punishments people with black blood automatically received?
Fu: Yes. Because we were stripped with all rights, we had no rights and were nobody. We have no rights to go to school and no rights to take a decent job. We can't even fall in love with people who has red blood.
Lopate: You were publicly humiliated, weren't you?
Fu: I was told to scream out of my lung that I was nobody. I was gang-raped at age of 10 and then being publicly humiliated as a "broken shoe". So, at 10, I was a ruined woman.
Lopate: So, the Red Guards raped you?
Fu: Yes. There were about 10 or 12 Red Guards. They threw my sister into the water canal. I jumped in to save her. She was saved but I was not spared.
Lopate: Now, the Red Guards were supposed to be the moral conscience of China at the time. How could they reconcile with what they did?
Fu: At that time, the Red Guards did a lot of things. Raping, killing, taking things from people. And it was encouraged. They were told that they were masters of the country. They were told that the bourgeoisie class had deprived them for better lives so they were allowed to do anything. It's kind of like the Nazies.
Lopate: And you were keeping a journal at the time. That didn't help when they found the journals?
Fu: Yeah, my journal was the only friends I had. I didn't have anybody to talk to so I wrote a journal on the backside of the Communist propaganda and hoping that it wouldn't be discovered. But it was discovered when I was 13. It was burned right in front of me.
Lopate: So, you developed a sense of shame about your family's wealthy background. How long did that last?
Fu: I think that last almost entire life. I am getting better now. Sometimes it will still catch up with me.
Lopate: You are an entrepreneur. Your family have been entrepreneur  So you must see at some level that there is almost a generic reason for you being the way you are.
Fu: I do believe I was born with good genes, good temperaments. But I do, with that kind of experience I do have doubts in my head. I had to consciously working on it.
Lopate: You can never really recover from the trauma of that kind of situation in which you received sexual abuse. But how long before you were able at least to try to pick up the pieces and try to move on with your life?
Fu: When I was 13 or 14, one of my uncle, Uncle W who I wrote in the book, brought me some western literature. I read them at night. I wasn't caught by reading those literature  That opened a different world for me. Then when I got older, I started to question the authority's message. I started to develop my own independent thinking.
Lopate: You were admitted to Suzhou University, even though you barely received a formal education. How did you get into the university if you had black blood?
Fu: After the Cultural Revolution was over in 1976, China was going to reopen universities in 1977. Many of us studied to pass the national exam to get into universities and I did pass the national exam.
Lopate: What did you study at the university?
Fu: I want to be an astronaut but I was assigned to study Chinese literature. So that's what I studied.
Lopate: Then you were deported? What have you done?
Fu: Yeah, I was doing my graduation thesis research and I heard that there were baby girls being killed in the countryside due to one-child policy. I went to research that and I saw hundreds of baby girls being killed right in front of my eyes. I saw girls being tossed into the river when their embryonic cord still fresh. So I wrote a report and that got picked up by Chinese newspaper, then got picked up by international newspaper. That caused a outcry for human rights violation in China and I got in trouble.
Lopate: So, were you thinking of yourself as an activist journalist at the time?
Fu: No, I was just trying to graduate. But I did care about that issue. What I saw broke my heart. So I raised the issue to the national consciousness.
Lopate: It's still a problem for people in China who want to write about things you observed. You can't call yourself a journalist but you can blog about what you observe and perhpas getting in trouble.
Fu: That is still true. The freedom of expression is still not quite allowed in China.
Lopate: So you left China. How old were you?
Fu: I was 25 when I left.
Lopate: Have you ever returned?
Fu: I did return in 1993 after I became a US citizen.
Lopate: You came here knowing how many words of English?
Fu: I tried. I only remember three when I landed here, which is "hello", "thank you", "help".
Lopate: Then you ended up going to the University of New Mexico.
Fu: They were the one who issued me a visa for English as a Second Language. That's my first landing point.
Lopate: You had to support yourself.
Fu: I worked. I cleaned house and I worked as a waitress and tried to get through school.
Lopate: Have you brought any money with you?
Fu: No, I was penniless. I only had 80 dollars as traveler's check to buy a transfer ticket from San Francisco to New Mexico and I told that story in my book. When I got to San Francisco I was 5 dollars short for the ticket. In China, price never change and in United States price do change. In this case it went up. I couldn't buy my ticket. There was an American man standing behind me who gave $5 to the counter. That's my first impression of America. People are generous and warm.
Lopate: Although you had experienced some generosity in China as well.
Fu: That's true.
Lopate: So, you have studied literature. Now in New Mexico. Did you continue to study literature or did you move to computer programming?
Fu: I couldn't study literature because my English was too poor. I didn't have formal K-12 educations so I didn't know what to study. Somebody told me to check out computer science which was a new field in the early 80s. I asked, what's that? The person said, it's man-made language that makes stuff. I thought, great! I am good at language and I know how to make stuff. That's what I am gonna study. So I ended up studying computer science which is a great field.
Lopate: How did you get involved with the Mosaic browser?
Fu: I was at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. I hired this student whose name is Marc Andreessen. We were doing supercomputing applications at the time. Marc and some other younger programmers came to me with this idea of writing a browser. I supported them to do that.
Lopate: How did the browser work?
Fu: At that time, we actually tried to write a browser that helps us to manage the public domain software so we don't have to type in the network address all the time. That was also hard-coded. Then we found gopher and WWW from Switzerland so we decided to make it more smart. Marc came up with this idea of what is called inline imaging which can be configured to take you somewhere. That is what made the browser much more popular.
Lopate: That led to some degree the Internet boom, didn't it? It made it easier for a lot of people like me to be able to use the Internet.
Fu: Right. We worked on a lot of Internet technology like telnet, imaging software, and collaboration software. Browser is what made it really popular. In fact, the browser brought down the entire university network one day because a lot of people were trying to access our site and at that time the Internet couldn't handle that kind of volume. That's when we knew that something really, truly remarkable is in hour hand.
Lopate: It's always a problem of doing something like this and making money from it. You were probably tempted to make it a lot more expensive than it turned out to be.
Fu: We gave Mosaic out for free because we were a federal center. Everything that we developed was put into the public domain. Marc left the university after graduation to start the Netscape with Jim Clark who was a big sponsor for our center. I stayed behind, went to Hong Kong to help them build a mini-supercomputer center.
Lopate: Were there other research teams at the time developing browsers?
Fu: There wasn't any other team developing graphic-based browser. We did have licensee. So like Microsoft licensed Mosaic into the Internet Explorer.
Lopate: So you say you went back to China?
Fu: I went to Hong Kong.
Lopate: At that time still under the control of Britain or had it already been given back to China?
Fu: That was right before Hong Kong went back to China so they are still not being controlled by the export policy. They can still do supercomputing center in Hong Kong.
Lopate: Did it feel odd that you are kind of in both worlds?
Fu: Yeah, going back to Hong Kong is kind of my way of half way of getting back to my roots. I still wasn't comfortable to go back to China. Hong Kong is a neighbor to China so it's trying to go back to my lineage.
Lopate: At this point you were working with groups but what led you to be come an entrepreneur?
Fu: I call myself a reluctant entrepreneur. When I came back from Hong Kong, Netscape went public. University went crazy. They wanted to find the next killer app so we had a lot of people talking about starting a company but nobody started one. My boss Joe Harding said, "I am so sick of all the talk, no actions." I raised my hand and said I will start one.
Lopate: That's what led to Geomagic?
Fu: That's what led to Geomagic. When I first went out to start a business I did not know what I should do. There was an Internet high. I was wanting to do something that has value. I think it's kind of natural for me to try to combine the Internet technology which I was writing sick of it with manufacturing which was how I grew up. I just combined the two and started Geomagic.
Lopate: But I would think you would face challenges other people may not face. First of all, that field was much feeling like a boys club. On top of all you are also an immigrant. So, did that make it harder? Or, in some ways did it make somewhat easier?
Fu: It was hard in the beginning and I made a fatal mistake because of that. I went to an investment conference, walked in with all these men with black suits. I felt very out of the place. So my decision was to hire a CEO to help me run the company rather than me running it. That was more of a woman not having the confidence at the beginning  And being an immigrant and don't have the experience. I should have just run it myself but I didn't know it at the time.
Lopate: Well, your co-founder of Geomagic was your husband Herbert.
Fu: Yes. He decided to stay in the university as a professor right after we started the business.
Lopate: So, he could have joined you in the business but he didn't?
Fu: He didn't want to. He is a really a mathematician.
Lopate: At the time when you started Geomagic, your daughter Xixi was only 3. So, on top of everything you were starting this company and being the mother of a very young child.
Fu: Yeah, at the beginning I thought I didn't want to start this business because I thought my daughter was too young. Now looking back I think I am blessed because I have a daughter. She was the only one that could take me away from work. So I didn't eat a lot of French fries and working into the middle of the night because I had to go home.
Lopate: So, doing this have led you into a lot of other things, consulting with the President for example. When did you decide that you want to write a memoir?
Fu: I thought about writing it in 2006. Then I stopped because I thought my daughter was too young to deal with that. I decided to write it when she turned 18, which is earlier this year.
Lopate: So you had more time on your hand. She went to school, I assume. You wrote with Meimei Fox. Did you talk in Mandarin or in English when you were working on the book?
Fu:  We talk in English. Meimei can speak Mandarin also. She was born in Hong Kong although she is American.
Lopate: Was it painful to recall some of the traumatic experiences in your early life when you were writing?
Fu: It was painful sometimes. Sometimes I just want to forget it. It certainly brings back all the memories I had already put away.
Lopate: Maybe some people who had been victims of sexual abuse don't talk about it. They just pass over that part of their lives because in many cultures they wind up becoming the blamed rather than the abusers, like what is being played out in India for example. Did anybody ever give you a hard time about it?
Fu: In China certainly that's considered to be shameful and considered something you will not want to talk about it. In America I think it's still a little taboo to talk about it. But I decided to tell my story.
Lopate: You described reading the journals of your grandfather after you took a trip to China in the 90s. Who gave them to you?
Fu: My Shanghai Papa gave it to me before he passed away. He wanted me to see my blood was red after all.
Lopate: Your Shanghai Papa is not your real father. He is the uncle who you lived with for a while?
Fu: He is the uncle who raised me from 11 days to 8 years old before I was taken away.
Lopate: How did reading the journals make you feel about your socalled family history which gave you black blood?
Fu: The journal was very interesting. In the journal there was a newspaper article about my grandfather from the father and mother side married their first children to raise money for their local school during the second world war. It's also a journey of their entrepreneurship in China in the 30s. But I didn't know any of those and they run such a parallel track of my current life it's very enlightening to read them.
[...]
Lopate: You wrote another book, didn't you, that was published in China in 1996 before this one? What was that one about?
Fu: When I was at Hong Kong I wrote a book about my first 10 years in United States and my experience as an immigrant and student.
Lopate: Is it only published in Hong Kong?
Fu: That was published in mainland China.
Lopate: Didn't you have a tense relationship with the government authorities at that time?
Fu: I did. But that book was strictly an immigrant and student experience story. There was nothing political so it was allowed to be published. Also I think in the early 90s China just started economic development, a lot of people want to read that material.
Lopate: Although were you honest when you wrote in that book "I will never be an entrepreneur because business people hate their jobs and love money. I love my job and hate money"? Did you really think like that?
Fu: At that time I did. That was two years before I started my business. That's amazing.
[...]

Fu Ping's Original Story

Long before Fu Ping published Bend, Not Break, before she told Inc. the current version of her life story in 2005, she published a much simpler version in a book named Drifting Bottle (漂流瓶) in Chinese.

The book, published in China by the Hubei Youth Press (湖北少年儿童出版社) in 1996. In the "Author's Foreword" section, Fu Ping stated that she spent two years, finishing in October, 1994, at Hong Kong, writing it. Her parents had helped her in proof-reading and copying.

According to Fang Zhouzi, who has obtained a copy of this book, the book is not a fictional novel but a true memoir. It includes many pictures of the author and her family members as well as friends. Fu Ping herself has also stated that she wrote this book to tell Chinese readers her life in America.

But the book also contains many glimpses of her earlier life in China, which differs from that in Bend, not Break very significantly. In this book,

1. Fu Ping spent her entire childhood in Nanjing, not Shanghai. Her aunt and uncle were not mentioned at all. On Page 15 (below), she wrote, "I grew up on a university campus, right outside is a famous street of Nanjing..." And on Page 88: "This is WuChao Gate (午朝门). It's very close to my home. I played here a lot when I was little."
2. Fu Ping spent her childhood with her (biological) parents and attended school normally. On Page 15 (below), she wrote, "I remember when I was little, our teacher likes to make us write essays on "My Dream". Of course, writing an essay must be real serious and with great style. So, the dreams in these essays are always very noble. But it's different at home. One day, I suddenly announced to my parents that my dream is to become a truck driver. This shocked them..."
3. Fu Ping did not suffer hardship during her childhood. In this book, when describing that she had to work as a maid in an American family and was treated unfairly by her employer, she wrote on Page 11, "In my own country I was a professor's daughter and spoiled by my parents. I had never had to do such work."
4. There was no mention of being kidnapped by a Vietnamese-American upon arrival of US. In fact, she described that, on the third day of arriving at Albuquerque, she already met an acquaintance from her Nanjing neighborhood. She would still be locked up by her kidnapper at that time in Bend, not Break.
5. In this book, Fu Ping mentioned that she memorized English 900, a popular language book in China at the time. She was able to immediately strike nice conversations with teachers she met at University of New Mexico and was able to be placed into a mid-level language class. It's a far-cry from knowing only three English words.

Here are a few samples of her book: