Broken Fact: Fu Ping's Red Guard Photo

The Original Story:
In Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping provided a photo of her in a group under a big Red Guard flag.

The photo was not mentioned directly in the book itself, but it has the following caption:

When I lived in the dormitories, I spent much of my time with students my age. During our mandatory study sessions, we recited slogans from Mao's Little Red Book. I am second from the right in the bottom row.

The Later Clarification:
After being widely questioned whether the picture shows that Fu Ping was a Red Guard herself, she clarified:

In the Fast Company story image, you and other kids are wearing Red Guard armbands under the Red Guard flag, yet you claim you were not a Red Guard.  

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. 

The Debunking:
There are several issues, some of which are blatant lies, in her clarification.

First of all, she now admits that she was attending school in the "late 70s". Yet her original caption was insisting that she was in "study sessions," not school. She was spending time with "students my age", implying that she was not a student herself.

She states that the picture was taken at the school, as if the flag was just a coincidental background. That is not true. The background of this picture is not any school, but a famous park in Nanjing. It is obvious that the picture was a record of an organized field trip in which they had brought out the flags and arm bands of the Red Guard to display their revolutionary spirits.

It is not as clear whether Fu Ping was wearing an arm band herself in the picture. She insists that she was not. But some people have taken up her challenge of zooming into that picture. The result may be convincing to some but skeptical to others. It is a case that you have to know what to look for to see it:

What is clear, however, is that most, if not all, other kids in the picture are wearing the Red Guard arm bands. It would be quite odd if Fu Ping was the only one without it and yet was allowed to join the group in their field trip.

In late 1970s, Red Guards was no longer their initial incarnation in 1966 but more or less an honor organization parallel to the Communist Youth League, which later absorbed and disbanded Red Guards altogether. Although no longer radical or violent, Red Guard nonetheless maintained a political standard that excluded "bad elements." Given that Fu Ping was possibly a member of the Red Guard herself, or at least very close to them, her entire story of being prosecuted during the Cultural Revolution has to be in serious doubt.

Update (6/20/2013): Suzhou University disclosed that their records show that Fu Ping had become a member of the Chinese Communist Youth League in 1973, before or when she started high school. The Youth League is the precursor organization for Chinese Communist Party and only very selective few could gain acceptance, unlike the Red Guards which had a much wider membership. It's extremely unlikely Fu Ping could gain acceptance of the Youth League without being a Red Guard earlier in those years.

Questionable Fact: Red Guards as Administrators

The Original Story:
On Page 28 of Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping describes how she got her room assignment in the "ghetto":

Several Red Guards sat at a table calling out names and assigning room numbers. I waited until they called "Fu Ping," and I approached the table. 

I was handed papers that I couldn't read -- the characters were too sophisticated for me. A big, official red stamp decorated the top of each page.

The Debunking:
This scene sounds very familiar. I think I saw it in the Schindler's List.

While the Nazis were a well-oiled operational machine who took upon all kinds of governing and administrating tasks in their mission, the Red Guards in 1966 were far from that. At that time, they were too busy destroying things or making pilgrim trips to Beijing to be bothered in the role of housemasters.

Broken Fact: Fu Ping's Shanghai Brothers being Sent Away in 1966

The Original Story:
In Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping described how her elder brothers of her Shanghai family were sent away by the Red Guards. The year is 1966. Since it happened after train fares were eliminated for Red Guards, it must be some times in or after August. On Page 16, she wrote:

Red Guards appeared at the doorway to our home the next day, commanding my brothers to go with them. They were being "sent up the mountains or down to the countryside," a Communist Chinese expression that soon became synonymous with forced labor and a hefty dose of physical and psychological abuse.

Later on Pages 52-53, she received a letter from her Shanghai Mama in February, 1967, which included this passage:

Your brothers are all settled down in the countryside, each in a different place. The youngest is all the way in the north, in a place that borders Russia. I am so worried about him, as I am worried about you. How can a thirteen-year-old boy survive harsh conditions by himself? Your big sister is at home. She works for a factory nearby.

The Debunking:
First, a brief history of the Cultural Revolution. The original Red Guards first appeared at the end of May, 1966, in Beijing and quickly spread all over the nation. Their status peaked in August that year when Mao Zedong received them in mass assemblies at Tiananmen Square. However, they started to fall out of favor by 1968 because of the extreme violence and chaos they were causing. On December 22, Mao Zedong instructed that all "intellectual youth" (知识青年) should go to the countryside to receive reeducation from the peasants, which started the "up to the mountains, down to the countryside" (上山下乡) movement as a way of evicting the trouble-making Red Guards from cities.

Before 1968, there were a very few city youth who were going to countryside already. But they did it by their own choices (which may be heavily influenced by their circumstances in cities).

Fu Ping's story above does not hold up in several ways:

1. In 1966, there was no such movement yet. Her brothers would not be "sent down" at that time.
2. The "up to the mountains, down to the countryside" movement was presented as a most glorious endeavor to entice the Red Guard members to join. It was never intended to be a punishment for children of the "bad elements." 
3. Red Guards is not a police force. They act like hooligans in breaking into homes to destroy things and beat up people. But they are not charged to round up people and send them away. (More on this later with Fu Ping's own ordeal.)
4. It's pretty much unheard of that a 13-year-old boy would be allowed to join this movement, unless he did it on his own by faking his age.

Also, at that time, a factory job was considered the most privileged position for young people. As a child from a "bad element" family, it is rather curious how her big sister got a job at "a factory nearby," which would be a dream come true for any kids with "red blood" at the time.

Ping Fu on APM's Marketplace

On January 4, 2013, Fu Ping had a brief live interview on American Public Media's Marketplace program, hosted by Sarah Gardner. In this short conversation, she reaffirmed that she had no formal schooling for 10 years during Cultural Revolution and repeated the myth of three English words.

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

Gardner: This is the Marketplace from APM. I am Sarah Gardner. If you ever doubt the resilience of the human spirit, check out the new book by a woman named Ping Fu. She is the founder and CEO of a 3D software company called Geomagic. She has been honored by the White House. She has been the Entrepreneur of the Year. And the American government has named her the Outstanding American. All this, after surviving a hellish childhood in China during the Cultural Revolution after her parents have been sent away to a reeducation camp. Her new memoir is called Bend, Not Break -- A Life in Two Worlds. Ping Fu, welcome to the Marketplace.
Fu: Thank you for having me.
Gardner: You said the Red Guard used to force you to recite the words "I am a bug. My life is worthless." Did you believe it at the time?
Fu: After I repeated it many times that I was a nobody, I started to believe it.
Gardner: You essentially had no formal education from the time when you were 8 years old until about the time you were 18. Were you learning anything during that time?
Fu: I did learn a lot of things when I was working at factories. So, I think myself as a maker because I learned how to build radios, TV sets, speedometers for cars.
Gardner: You faced a lot of adversity during that time. I mean, you were gang-raped when you were 10 by some teenager boys and Red Guards. Your sister almost drowned  You saved her. How did you survive all that?
Fu: I think it was my sister, you know, I felt responsibility to take care of her. Without her I don't know what I would do. I probably would be killed or be much careless about protecting my own life. With the little girl next to me, I have to survive.
Gardner: Now, eventually after the Cultural Revolution, universities are opened up again. You said you had a ferocious apatite for learning. What did you do?
Fu: I was like a sponge. I wanted to be an astronaut but I was assigned to study Chinese literature. That turned out to be such a blessing. I couldn't believe that reading literature, watching movies, talking about play... you call that study. I want to learn anything and everything that is in front of me.
Gardner: Then you came to this country and you knew three words. What were they?
Fu: help, thank you, hello.
Gardner: Help, thank you, and hello. Amazing. You did get your degree in computer science in this country. You became a leader at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. You are now the CEO of a 3D computer software company whose clients included NASA. Now, that's like the amazing immigrant story.
Fu: I live such an amazing life in two drastically different worlds. I never imagined I would arrive at where I am. Being a little girl wanting to be an astronaut, I couldn't even study that field, and to end up to provide technology that helps secure the safety return of astronauts  I feel like life came to the full circle. I am living in the American dream.
Gardner: When you look back to the hardships of your childhood, how do you think they allowed you to get to where you are today?
Fu: When I grow up, I learned a lot about self-learning, and I learned a lot about adopting to changes, and I have to have a lot of resilience  All those things, self-learning, adopting to changes, and the enduring power of resilience, are the qualities of successful entrepreneurs.
Gardner: What is your best advice for young people in this country who want to become entrepreneurs?
Fu: First of all you have to understand who you are, authentically, and then understand why you want to do what you do. Some people think they want to start a company because they didn't like the work they do, that's the wrong reason. Or if you just want to make money, that's not the reason either.
Gardner: So, making money isn't a good reason to become an entrepreneur?
Fu: I don't think so. I don't think you make money just because you want to make money. You make money because you create value.

Fu Ping on NPR in 2006

Hot off her extensive profile from Inc. magazine, Fu Ping next was interviewed by NPR's All Things Considered program on March 18, 2006. In this program, she provided a shorter but similar version of her story. Most of her story was actually told by the reporter Kathleen Schalch as a narrative but with Fu Ping's presence and concurrence.

The interview is available as an audio program as well as a full transcript. Among the highlights are:

Fu Ping's Contribution to Mosaic:

SCHALCH: This may sound far-fetched, but Fu is serious. And she's come up with some pretty good ideas in the past. She once led a research team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. One of the graduate students she hired was Mark Andreesen. 

Ms. FU: And he didn't like mathematics. So he asked me what project could he work on. I said how about a browser? He said, what browser? I said, well, a browser is a graphic use interface from which people can access text, images, songs, videos, whatever, and then he said, cool. 

SCHALCH: That's how Netscape was born.

It was also mentioned that she and her husband created the algorithm for the robot melting scene in the movie Terminator 2.

Fu Ping's Schooling or the Lack Thereof:

SCHALCH: That did the trick. Fu's overcome other challenges. She grew up in China, and between the ages of eight and 18, she never set foot in a classroom. It was the time of the cultural revolution. Educated people like Fu's parents were condemned, exiled, and many were killed. Children like Fu and her sister were left behind and forced to atone for their parents' sins. They were starved. 

Ms. FU: They would make food like mud mixed with the tree barks and grass. They mixed together and cooked them and then make us eat them.

The food she was describing was likely the "remember-the-bitterness meal" (忆苦饭), a popular educational tool served to the entire population. It was not intended as a punishment for children with "bad backgrounds."

Fu Ping's Rape and Political Trouble:

SCHALCH: Red Guard soldiers threw Fu's little sister into a pond to drown. Fu jumped in and pulled her out, so the soldiers punished her by beating and raping her. She was 10. Schools reopened when Ping Fu was 18. She studied journalism and spent two years investigating rumors that China's one-child policy was prompting couples to kill their baby girls. 

Fu's student project got picked up by the People's Daily. It quickly became a story outside of China, too, drawing condemnation from human rights advocates. The story Party officials had once praised was now an embarrassment. Fu was thrown in prison. 

Ms. FU: I was preparing to die, and then I was given a chance to live. 

SCHALCH: But she was ordered to leave China and never return. In a way, Fu thinks these hardships have helped her in her new life as a high-tech entrepreneur.

Fu Ping as Inc. Entrepreneur of the Year

In 2005, Inc. selected Fu Ping as its Entrepreneur of the Year and published a comprehensive report on her work and life. This lengthy profile, written by John Brant, was perhaps the very first time Fu Ping told the current version of her story and served a nice prelude to her book Bend, Not Break.

The highlights in this Inc. story:

1. Fu Ping "attended no school at all between the ages of 7 and 18." "she was educated through torture, exile, and imprisonment..." 
2. "In February 1981, without a trial or even a formal charge, the Chinese government locked 23-year-old Ping Fu in solitary confinement, in a wing of Nanjing prison reserved for political criminals..."
3. "When Ping was 7 years old and her sister, Hong, 3, the two little girls were taken from their home in Shanghai and delivered to a dormitory for the children of so-called "capitalist-road" parents in Nanjing. It was 1965, the dawn of the Cultural Revolution."
4. "Ping was forced to watch the Red Guards tie a kindergarten teacher to four horses. The Guard members -- just teenagers themselves -- then startled the horses."
5. "Ping was forced to watch another teacher be dropped head-first down a dry well."
6. "She watched the Red Guard scald her little sister with boiling water because one day Hong made too much noise as she played."
7. "Another day, the Red Guard threw Hong into a river for the fun of watching her drown. Ping jumped into the river and dragged her out. The enraged Guard members then beat the girls, and raped Ping."
8. "Ping entered the university in Suzhou. She hoped to study business or engineering, following in the footsteps of her engineer father and accountant mother, but the Party directed her to study English as a second language."
9. "For two years she traveled through rural China, visiting hundreds of towns and villages, interviewing hospital staffers, barefoot doctors, and citizens..." to investigate the rumored epidemic of infanticide.
10. "In 1980, she delivered her findings to her professor. A few months later, in January 1981, Shanghai's largest newspaper published a report based on Ping's research. The report was widely praised, although credit, of course, accrued to senior government officials. The story was subsequently published nationwide in People's Daily, then picked up by the international media... The global community was outraged. The United Nations imposed sanctions on China."
11. "'You must never say a word about your involvement in this project,' the official told her. 'You are forbidden to engage in any political activity. You will never return to China, but your family remains here. If in any way you disobey these instructions, your family will suffer the consequences. Have I made myself clear, Comrade?... she was being deported to the United States."
12. "Two weeks later, Ping boarded a United Airlines flight from Shanghai to San Francisco."
13. "She was being sent to the University of New Mexico -- she didn't know why New Mexico."
14. "Ping knew three shreds of English: please, thank you, and help."
15. "Officials had issued her the ticket to San Francisco, and $80 in traveler's checks to get her to Albuquerque."
16. "She spent the 12-hour flight alternatively staring out the window and pouring out her thoughts by scribbling notes on paper napkins. She didn't have writing paper and did not know how to ask for any. When the flight attendant offered her food or drink, Ping shook her head no, and pointed to the stack of cocktail napkins."
17. A lengthy description of the bizarre Vietnamese-American kidnapping tale 
18. A lengthy description of how Fu Ping met Lan Sharman who offered her a part-time job with a six-figure annual income. Sharman even offered her a 5% stake in his company to keep her from leaving, which she declined.
19. "She was Andreessen's boss as he developed the Mosaic Internet Browser that blossomed into Netscape -- she says she suggested that he work on a browser."
20. [Before she met and eventually married Herbert Edelsbrunner] "She had made many friends in America, but no intimate ones, and had allowed no man to get close to her. Outwardly warm and exuberant, Ping felt frozen inside."
21. "In 1968, when Ping was 10, her mother was permitted to return to Nanjing. (Her father was retained in the camp.) The homecoming, however, was far from the tender reunion that Ping had fantasized. Rather than comfort her daughter, the woman, half-crazed by her own exile and suffering, persecuted her."