Broken Fact: Fu Ping's Actual Schooling

The Original Story:
In Bend, Not Break, as well as many interviews, Fu Ping talked about her lack of the equivalent K-12 education in China because schools were closed during the Cultural Revolution years. On Page 128, she stated:

After 1972, when I was fourteen, Mao's iron-fisted grip on China loosened; ... I still had no life outside of caring for my family and working at factories, but political pressure against black elements lessened. Reading Western novels was no longer a crime deemed worthy of severe punishment. For a short period when Deng Xiaoping was brought into power, school even resumed. I was ecstatic to be given old poems from the Tang and Song dynasties to memorize rather than Mao's Little Red Book.

And on Page 230, in 1976:

The Cultural Revolution had ended. All at once, schools everywhere reopened -- not only universities, but also elementary, middle, high, and night schools began to offer classes literally from six a.m. until midnight every day. They opened their doors to the general public, and anyone who wanted to could teach or study at will, free of charge.

The Changing Story:
In a clarification, Fu Ping explained her education experience later:

If you were deprived of an education for those 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, and less than 5 percent of applicants were accepted when universities reopened, how did you get in? Were you a prodigy?  

After 1972, school resumed (p. 128). We had few formal classes at my school at the edge of Nanjing in an industrial area. I studied nonstop (pp. 229-231) and was known by my family as "the girl who never turns off her lights." (p. 231) 

The Debunking:
Fu Ping's initial story was that schools only resumed "for a short period" in 1972 and were only finally reopened in 1976, when she would have graduated from high school already. Therefore, she was deprived any formal education for those 10 years. Her later clarification moved that milestone significantly, admitting that schools had resumed after 1972. But that account, she would at least received 4 years of formal schooling.

But that is still not true. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, all schools were closed amid the chaos. But order were generally restored by late 1968 when the early Red Guards were dispatched to countryside. Elementary, middle and high schools were all resumed at that time. Even universities had reopened, although only the "politically correct" workers, peasants, and soldiers were qualified to enroll as students (工农兵学员).

So, unless Fu Ping encountered some special circumstances in Nanjing, she should have entered school after 1968 and received 8 years of normal schooling, which is consistent with her later "middle school reunion" and "high school graduation".

Broken Fact: Fu Ping's "Study Sessions"

The Original Story:
In Bend, Not Break, Fu Ping mentioned "study sessions" as frequent daily activities during the Cultural Revolution years. On Page 45:

Our time was occupied by study sessions, in which we did nothing but recite slogans from Mao's Little Red Book, and struggle sessions, in which we denounced ourselves and ate bitter meals. Otherwise we had most of our times free.

On Pages 79-80:

I had discovered that "broken shoes" was a label customarily given to prostitutes and promiscuous women. Teasing me with it seemed to be some children's favorite form of entertainment. One of our leaders, Ms. Lu, rearranged the study sessions to move a few of the boys who'd bullied me the most to a different class. But for some reason, Zhang stayed seated at the desk next to mine, tormenting me daily.
...
After that Zhang's taunting remarks grew less frequent and less hurtful. She asked me to complete other assignments for her over the coming months.

On Page 88-92:

I had recently been assigned to a job at a nearby factory, and the next morning I rose early to walk to work. Hong went to a study session with kids her own age.
...
For the next several days, we followed the same pattern. In the morning, I would go to my factory job and Hong would go to her study session.

On Page 267, when a former classmate contacted her for a "middle school reunion":

It was Winston, a leader of my study group and the son of a high-ranking Red Army officer...He was pulling together a reunion of our study group as we were before we had all gone different ways at the end of the Cultural Revolution, and he wanted me to come to Nanjing to join in... 

"So you call that a middle school reunion?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm. 

Winston chuckled. "What else would you call it?"
...
Thirty years to the day since our study group had last sung "The East Is Red," i walked into a Nanjing restaurant for a gathering of former red leaders and black elements -- the abused and their abusers...

The Debunking:
From her own description, we can gather the following facts about these "study sessions" and "study group":

1. They are daily activities with formal schedules
2. They are organized into age-appropriate groups
3. Kids in the session have strict seat assignments
4. There are adult "leaders" who could rearrange seating and even assign kids to different "classes".
5. "Red" and "black" kids are attending the same sessions or groups together.

Indeed, "what else would you call it"? What Fu Ping was describing is typical life in regular elementary or middle schools, an experience that she insists that she never had. In those years, a major part of the curriculum in school was made up of studying Mao's quotations and other revolutionary materials, but that hardly makes schools into "study sessions," which were small-scale, informal gatherings, something resembling book clubs or bible studies.

Fu Ping would like us to believe that she was deprived a normal K-12 (or its equivalent in China at the time), but her book actually hinted an entirely different story.

Update (6/20/2013): Suzhou University disclosed that their records show that Fu Ping had graduated from Nanjing Guanghuamen High School in 1976.

Broken Fact: Fu Ping's Military Camps

The Original Story:
Fu Ping mentioned her childhood "military training" a couple of times in Bend, Not Break. On Page 81, she met her first best friend:

I met Li at my second military training camp -- grueling events all youth were forced to attend at regular intervals throughout the Cultural Revolution. We were eleven years old.

On Page 143, a couple of years later:

I went back to factory work in 1971 at age thirteen, after having spent some time completing mandatory military service.

On the book page on Amazon, the Book Description section also boldly claims that "Ping Fu knows what it's like to be a child soldier, a factory worker, and a political prisoner." The term "child soldier" also appeared in a few of her media interviews.

The Debunking:
At least when she was talking about military training camp, she said it was for "all youth" instead of the factory and countryside jobs that she claimed to be for "bad elements" only.

During Cultural Revolution, there were never any mandatory military training camps for kids 11 years old. Elementary, middle, and high schools, however, did have military training as part of their regular curriculum, in which pupils used wooden spears decorated with red tassels (红缨枪) and performed marches and drills under the guidance of soldiers and teachers. It could be physically "grueling" at times but was generally a fun activity for the kids.

What Fu Ping's story told us is that she was actually in regular school when she was 11 years old. If she was not at school as she has been claiming, there was no way for her to attend such organized activities, especially as a "black element."

For the second quote, I tend to think that she or Meimei Fox made a "typo" here and erroneously used the term "military service" instead of "military training camp." Typos, after all, are a mainstay in Fu Ping's defense of her book.

There has never been any mandatory military service for China's youth. Quite the contrary, joining the military has long been considered a privilege, especially during the Cultural Revolution years.

There was certainly no way a "black element" like Fu Ping could be serving military service, especially at 13 years old!

Broken Fact: Fu Ping's Years during Cultural Revolution

The Original Story:
Besides the various physical and mental abuses, including a grusome gang-rape, Fu Ping claimed to have suffered during the Cultural Revolution, in Bend, Not Break as well as numerous media interviews, Fu Ping maintained two main "facts" of her life in that terrible decade:

1. that she never received any formal education as in regular (the equivalent of K-12) schools
2. that she had been forced to work in factories, farms, and even be a "child soldier" in military camps

A couple of earlier media profiles of Fu Ping went so far as to claim that Fu Ping was sent to "concentration camp", "collective farm", or "labor camp", including the original title of the Forbes article that helped to start the controversy.

The Earlier Story:

There were no such claim in her earlier book Drifting Bottle. (This could be understandable since that book was published in China although it has been free and open to talk about sufferings during Cultural Revolution in China as well.) There were several casual mentions of regular education in China in that book, including this little sentence on Page 66:

I remember when I graduated from high school, all I wanted is to leave the warm cocoon of my parents. As if that as soon as I passed my 18th birthday, my wings became so strong that I had to fly. All the friends close to me were talking enthusiastically of how to fly freely. If not for an occasional hesitation at the time, I would have volunteered with a group of my classmates to go to Inner Mongolia for farming work.
记得高中毕业时，一心向往飞离父母的暖巢。仿佛一过十八岁，翅膀就硬得不飞不行了。而我身边的朋友，也都很起劲地商讨着如何去自由地飞翔。如果不是当时有一念之差，我就会跟着一群同学自愿去内蒙古垦荒了。

The Changing Story:

After her tale of forced labor being widely criticized, Fu Ping issued the following "clarification" on March 6, 2013:

Why did you say you were in a labor camp during the Cultural Revolution? 
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. 

The Debunking:

The above clarification by Fu Ping is clearly a lie as there are many instances in her book that she stated she was a factory worker. Although the phrase "labor camp" did not appear in her book or recorded interviews, one might be able to forgive Forbe's Jenna Goudreau for acquiring that mistaken impression from the tales she had been telling. We will get through that in more detail in separate posts following this one.

There are also evidences as well as hints in her book that she had actually attended regular schools in those years just as every other kid in China did, except for the first couple of years of the Cultural Revolution. The Drifting Bottle paragraph shows that she graduated from high school and had close friends and classmates, a much more reasonable tale than that she is telling today.

Fu Ping's clarification is actually a big hint in itself. It is true that Mao wanted school pupils to "learn from farmers, soldiers, and workers" (学工学农学军) during the Cultural Revolution and a large portion of the school curriculum at the time was devoted to such activities instead of classroom teaching. It is also a fact, however, that all such activities were organized by schools. For Fu Ping to have participated in these learning-through-labor experiences, she would have been in regular schools at the time.

Fu Ping's BBC HARDtalk Interview

On January 29, 2013, Fu Ping was the guest of BBC's HARDtalk, hosted by Stephen Sackur. The interview is also available on YouTube. The following is a transcript:

Sackur: My guest today is fast becoming one of America's most celebrated female entrepreneurs. It is not just because the company she founded is revolutionizing manufacturing in the digital age, but also because her own life story represents a triumph over long odds. Ping Fu was just eight years old when her life was turned upside-down by Mao's Cultural Revolution. She endured years of abuse before being thrown out of China. Three decades later, she is an adviser to President Obama on innovation. What lessons lie behind this extraordinary journey?  

Sackur: Ping Fu, welcome to HARDtalk. You grew up in Mao's China. Your life was turned upside-down by the Cultural Revolution. I wonder if the sort of disruption you experienced in your childhood in a sense prepared you to thrive in a business sector, the tech industry, which is constantly being disrupted, where the roles are constantly changing.  

Fu: When I grow up, with the life journey that I had, I had a lot of practice in self-learning
 adaptability to change, and also the endurance of resilience in difficult times. Those were the skill sets that I needed for entrepreneurship. I just happen to have a lot of practices. 

Sackur: I suppose it gives you an awful lot of perspective when you have had such a very difficult upbringing.  

Fu: That's right. My life had been turned upside down, from a loving family with a nice big house in Shanghai, to a ghetto in Nanjing and lose both sets of my parents: the parents who raise me and the parents who born me. In one day, I became a surrogate mother to my little sister. She was only 4 years old. 

Suckur: We're talking about the early 1960s. In essence  you were grabbed by Red Guards who were obviously working for Mao's party, working for the Cultural Revolution. Because your family was regarded as intellectual, they were relatively privileged. You had to be taken away and reeducated, reprogrammed.  

Fu: Mao said we don't need formal education. We needed to be educated by workers, farmers and soldiers. We had to work in factories, farm rice or learning how to march in the military during K to 12, basically. 

Suckur: You have described how in the early days there was a lot of hate in the souls of the young guards looking after you in the military-style barracks. You were forced to eat animal dung. You were brought close to death at times.  

Fu: Yeah, we were fed bitter meals and, at age of 10, I was gang-raped by a dozen of teenage boys and left on a soccer field to die. It was very hard. 

Suckur: It was a long time ago. You are in a very different place. But, does the power of the memories you have still live with you?  

Fu: It does from time to time. It will catch up with me. I learned for a long time to put it away by writing the book that just came out. I learnt how to heal those wounds.  

Suckur: Your birth parents were not the lady and gentleman who raised you. You had two sets of parents. Was there any way in which either your birth parents or those who nurtured you were able to reach you at this terrible time when you and your sister were living the most dreadful and hard life?  

Fu: Not during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution. My birth mother came back when I was 13. She was put away when I was eight. Otherwise all of the other parents were sent to remote areas of China.  

Suckur: What was it that you found within yourself that allowed you, enabled you, to cope with what you went through?  

Fu: My Shanghai papa was very wise. He anticipated the trouble coming to my life. So he taught me the "three friends of winter". Before I was taken away from the family, he told me, Ping, you need to be bamboo, bend with the prevailing wind and never breaking. That is kind of a mental symbol that stayed in my mind.  

Suckur: It is interesting that idea of bending and never breaking? Looking back on it, do you think you ever came close to actually breaking?  

Fu: Several times. When my journal was burned when I was 12 years old. I think I thought about dying. I wanted to jump into the fire.  

Suckur: That's where you had written your innermost thoughts and kept a sense of yourself?  

Fu: I did not have anyone to talk to. I didn't even know where to send letters to my parents. So I kept a journal on the backside of the Communist propaganda for years. That was the only place I could express my innermost thoughts and emotions. 

Suckur: It amazes me in a way that you were so resilient. I guess it was partly of being young as you were. You're so resilient that when the Cultural Revolution, this very hard-line phase of it, came to an end you were actually able to resume studies. You made contacts with your family and you ended up going to a university and studying journalism.  

Fu: That is right.  

Suckur: But it was not the end of your problems, was it?  

Fu: No. Right before I graduated from college I was doing my thesis research. I thought I was picking a humanitarian topic, which is infanticide. I heard that the one-child policy in China caused farmers to kill baby girls because they wanted boys. I did not realize how widespread the killing was. When I went to do the research, in my bare eyes I saw babies being tossed into river with their umbilical cords still fresh. It broke my heart. I was a mother since I was eight.  

Suckur: You mean since you raised your little sister? 

Fu: Right.  

Suckur: It strikes me in a way, looking forward and back, knowing what happened to you, that you made it to the States and made it into business, I am beginning to feel that there was something about you that refuses to bow down to authority. You refuse to accept the received wisdom. Otherwise you would not have embarked on this challenging university dissertation about the terrible impact of the one-child policy.  

Fu: That is quite insightful. I think when I was looking back, I realized that even though I was brainwashed that I was nobody, I never really believed it subconsciously. I always wanted to be somebody. It was not specific. I never knew how to stop it. I kept travelling and wanting to be somebody.  

Suckur: You talk about brainwashing. What do you really mean by that? It is a phrase that is easily used, but in what way were you actually brainwashed through your youth?  

Fu: We did not study anything in the normal academic field. We always studied Communist propaganda or Mao's Little Red Book. That's all we have. I was told that I was nobody, my parents were criminals. I was born with black blood. 

Suckur: You're in a black file, weren't you? You were a black element. I wonder that you, in turn, having been dismissed by the party, by the system, were you angry with the party? Even before you left China, had you decided that communism was deeply, deeply damaging to your Country?  

Fu: I believed some of the concept of what communists taught me, about helping others and being good. Yet at the same time, I did not believe much of what they said, like rather to grow Communist weed rather than capitalist rice. When we didn't have anything to eat, weed doesn't sound very good. 

Suckur: In the end, you were forced out of the country. Some people listening to your story might wonder how come, in a sense, you had the great fortune to be allowed to leave China and make your way to the United States when So many other people who were described as black elements, put on blacklists ended up either in the most hard and difficult provinces working in fields or worse than that, imprisoned or even killed. How come you were allowed out?  

Fu: I was kicked out. I did not speak any English, I had no idea what American life is like. At the time I was running from trouble. I thought anything is better than death or being exile to a remote area. I knew I did not have a future in China. The future was unknown to me when I came to the United States. Back then, I did not know it was going to be a good future. I was just asked to leave and never come back again. 

Suckur: You had no family in the US, and you had never been on a plane before. There you were, a girl in her mid-20s, on a plane from Shanghai to California and then onto New Mexico. It must have been phenomenally daunting.  

Fu: It was very scary. No family, no friends, I did not speak the language, I did not know what life was ahead of me. At that time, the unknown was better then trouble.  

Suckur: I supposed so. Yet when I picture you as a young woman in New Mexico, with no language, no money and no contacts, then I think about how quickly you got on. Within a few years you were becoming a specialist in computing and software. What was it within you that allowed you to get on so quickly? 

Fu: One part of it is that America is a wonderful place for immigrants. Many people helped me when I first landed in the US. The other part is that I've always learn how to do things by myself. When I grow up there were no teachers or parents around. I had to learn cooking very quickly. When I was at a factory, I learned how to put lights in the factory, how to build radios. I had this ability to learn. I never thought I could not do anything. Life just throw  at me with many things that wasn't supposed to be when I was at that age. Coming to the United States was not as hard as the life I had from 8 to 18.  

Suckur: You were arriving and studying science at a time when the digital era was just beginning. The era of computing was taking off. What drew you to that?  

Fu: First I wanted to study comparative literature. I could not do it because it did not have English skills. I asked somebody what I could study since I did not have a math, science background. Somebody told me to look a computer science. I said what is that. He told me it was a man-made language that is used to make stuff. I thought to myself, I'm good with language and know how to make stuff. So I just picked that up. The interesting thing is, even this experience teach me that behind every closed door there is an open space. Every time life slams the door at me -- in this case that I didn't have the language skills, I end up picking up a skill set that is very beneficial in my later life. 

Suckur: You say that with a degree of understatement. As it happens, by the mid-to-late Nineties, you had alighted upon an area of software development and computer technology which frankly over the last ten years has become the absolute cutting edge of where many people think the next phase of the digital revolution is going. Perhaps we should in simple terms explain to people that your interest in 3D printing, in a sense shaping things by computer and then turning those shapes into actual products in a new way, it's potentially revolutionary, isn't it?  

Fu: That's the next big thing. It's as big as steam engine, Henry Ford, assembly line, or the Internet.  

Suckur: That's a big claim, can you justified it for me?  

Fu: When I was at Supercomputing Center I hired a student whose name is Marc Andreessen. We started the Mosaic that became internet Explorer and Netscape. After that success I went out to start my own company called Geomagic. That was 15 years ago. I thought about combining the internet with manufacturing to create the internet of things. That was of course way ahead of its time. I went out and I saw this machine, which is a 3D Printer from 3D systems, and I was just totally amazed by this machine. It can literally print a 3D product from a machine. Not just paper. 

Suckur: Out of this machine comes a tangible product?  

Fu: Yes. It prints layer by layer. If you print on paper you just grinned one layer. Imagine you add a layer up... 

Suckur: The best way we can make sense of this at least visually is to look at your shoes.  You have come in today to the studio with a pair of shoes that were printed.  

Fu: That's right, this is the 3D design and 3D printed shoes that is made to mold to the shape of my feet. So I think, in the future, the product design will be in the software code. The product fabrication can be locally next to you. The product will be built start with the person. We call it mass customization of personal factories. 

Suckur: If you think of a shoe company that wants to make big profits by producing millions of pairs of shoes for the mass market, they can't use this technology, can they? Aren't you talking about something very local, very small scale and will never in terms of cost be able to compete with the traditional production line?  

Fu: It's actually not true because the traditional shoe, the most cost is not in the material and the making of the shoes. It is the inventory, shipping across the sea, retail shops and shoes that made nobody wants. 90% of the cost is in that. Less than 10% of the cost is the material in making the shoe. In this case the material and the making of the shoe is not more expensive because the machine is making it. You can make it locally so you don't have to ship across the sea, which is not only cheaper but less foot print.  

Suckur: In a sense it is the end of globalisation, the end of making something that has to  be originated in some place like China and have it shipped to the United States. It is bringing manufacturing back home? 

Fu: Absolutely. In 2006 When Thomas Friedman wrote the book, "The World Is Flat". I went on the stage and said, no the world is 3D. We were sharing a stage. I talked about globalisation is passing, it is now about localisation. We live on one earth, we watched one moon, we inhale the same air. Localisation is very interesting. 

Suckur: We will get to that but I want to stick with the shoes are a little bit more. The material, what are they made of?  

Fu: In this case it is a linen, a natural fiber.  

Suckur: Linen shoes?  

Fu: Yes.  

Suckur: The idea of 3D printing, would it be applicable to other materials? Could you make things out of metal?  

Fu: Yes.  

Suckur: Obviously plastic could be quite amenable?  

Fu: Yes, plastic, metal, rubber, linen, ceramic. There's more than 100 materials. 

Suckur: Could you make a mix of materials? Let's be ambitious, could you make a car via a printer?  

Fu: Not today, yet some of the car parts can be made via a printer, and even better, because you can design geometry inside of the metal to make it lighter, stronger on impact, and you can use material to make new material, which is very interesting.  

Suckur: The what-ifs that apply to this technology seemed to run in different directions, one is a dangerous direction. We have already seen the notion of a Wiki weapon aired on the internet, and there's one particular student and some associates of his in Texas who are determined to use 3D printing to make a home-made gun. All you need is the software and a 3D Printer and he believes you can make all the necessary components for a working weapon. It does raise real questions about where this idea of home made assembly and production ends up, doesn't it?  

Fu: Yes, but I always believe in our human history it always good against evil. The gun doesn't shoot itself, it is the human that takes the gun to shoot. Technology itself is not evil. Right?  

Suckur: But technology can play to our worst instincts. One of the things that seems to me a danger with the spread of 3D printing is that it enabled piracy, copyright infringement, to become even easier.  

Fu: Maybe. But it could generate more innovation. If you make one of a kind, not one in a million, why would you care about piracy?  

Suckur: You care about piracy and Copyright for lots of reasons. The one story that intrigued me, a German man saw a picture of a Dutch policemen carrying his handcuffs. He took a picture of those handcuffs, blew it up, looked at it in great detail, scan it, and he was able to make a key through a 3D Printer to fit the handcuffs. It sounds extraordinary but apparently is true. That's the sort of danger that you could never anticipate that might come with your technology?  

Fu: That's true. But innovation is also going to create so many more solutions that counter those bad intentions. It's interesting, in human history, when good against evil, there's always more good and evil otherwise we would have been erased from Earth already. The reason we evolve is that we are always able to make solution.  

Suckur: That's a very optimistic view. I want to reflect again on your background in China, you've been appointed to the US National Advisory Council on entrepreneurship and innovation, but there are voices in the US saying that they are losing their innovative edge, especially compared with China. You have got a unique insight into both cultures, is there some merit to that argument?  

Fu: The US has been a very inventive society. We invented many, many technologies that have been adopted by other countries. Innovation is about invention made real. Our US or developed Western countries have this issue of not adopting our own invention. We need to look at that more.  

Suckur When Peter Thiel, I don't know if you have met him, he is the founder of Paypal, he said innovation in America is somewhere between dire Straits and dead. You don't share that view?  

Fu: I'm not that pessimistic. I think the United States is still quite an innovative country. I don't share that. 

Suckur: Particularly in your field, information technology, and other economists, Robert Gordon, he said the benefits of information technology have largely run their course, which suggests he is not quite as thrilled with 3D printing as you are.  

Fu: Let's wait for ten years and see what happens. I think he would have a lot of 3D printed things at his home. 

Suckur: Do you ever go back to China and perhaps think about launching your business, that's done so well in the US, in China as well?  

Fu: I do have a subsidiary in China that sells products we made in the USA. I don't think China needs to be a dumping ground. China has 1.3 billion people, would-be consumers. I think the competition between the US and China or the rest of the world is healthy. I hope we will all get together and live as one world. 

Suckur: Ping Fu, we have to end that. But fascinating stuff. Thank you very much for being on our HARDtalk.

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.]

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's 2013 PBS Interview

On January 30, 2013, Fu Ping was the guest on PBS' Tavis Smiley show in which she told her life story. The highlights of this version include:

1. It remarkably lacks the mention of the more sensational stories such as four-horse-killing, rape, kidnapping, or Deng Xiaoping's involvement.
2. She claimed be assigned to be a regular factory worker starting at 8 "build radios and speedometers" and later become an electrician.
3. The three English words she knew while arriving at US were "Hello", "Thank you", and "Help".
4. She and her sister were living alone for 5 years. Their mother came back when she was 13.
5. She brought up the infanticide research of the American Steven Mosher to corroborate her own research and impact.

The entire interview could be viewed here. PBS also provided a full transcript:

Tavis: Starting a successful company is never easy, but it certainly must have seemed impossible to Ping Fu. As a child growing up in China under Mao, she was separated from her family and sent to a forced labor camp, where she endured unspeakable hardship.
In 1984 she made her way to the U.S. with $80 in her pocket and just three English words in her vocabulary: “Hello,” “Thank you,” and my favorite – “Help.”
Against all odds she found her way into software, indeed starting her own software company called Geomagic, a 3D technology company that she continues to lead as its CEO.
The new book about what is truly a remarkable journey is called “Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds.” Ping Fu, an honor to have you on this program.
Ping Fu: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Tavis: Thank you for your time. Let me start where this all began. When you were eight they came to get you, but tell me what life was like, what you recall of life before Mao’s Cultural Revolution and you heard that knock on the door. What was life like in the first eight years of life?
Fu: Oh, that was wonderful. I was living with my Shanghai papa and mama. They were the most loving parents I could have had, and I was the youngest one of six out of five siblings, and they played with me all the time. I was in the kitchen. My mom, like, loves to cook wonderful meals, and she always say she puts a lot of love in her food.
Tavis: So you’re eight in China. Mao’s revolution is in full swing. Your family gets that dreaded knock at the door. Take it from there.
Fu: Yeah. Things already started going bad a little bit, and my Shanghai papa was locked up. So I knew something’s happening; I was too young. But one day I heard this loud noise and the boots marching through our backyard. Then I heard my mom crying, saying, “She’s so little.”
I was in the library on the third floor, and I looked out and I saw the Red Guards marching in, and they said, “She’s there,” and I knew it was they came for me. They took me and that was the first day they told me that my Shanghai papa and mama was not my birth parents, and my Shanghai mama said, “Yes, that’s true. Don’t fight.”
I was screaming and kicking and saying, “You’re lying, you’re lying. Last week you told me I was your favorite,” and I was taken away without even being able to give her a hug.
Tavis: That sounds like a double trauma; the first trauma being that of being taken away, the second trauma being told that your Shanghai mom, Shanghai dad, were not your parents. How does an eight-year-old process all of that at the same time?
Fu: Well, it happened so quickly, and then I was put on this jam-packed train with strangers and children are crying. At that point I knew I was going to Nanjing to be with my birth parents. All I wanted is to be with somebody, because I didn't like to be alone and it was too confusing.
But when I arrived in Nanjing I just arrived a little too late when my Nanjing parents were put on a truck to be taken away also. So one day I lost the parents who raised me and parents who bore me.
Tavis: So at eight, you’re on the way to Nanjing, you think that you’re going to be with your parents. When you get there, they've been placed on another train; they’re already gone. So what happens?
Fu: There was a lot of chaos going on, and then a few hours later I was taken to this dormitory, which is the old student college dormitory, emptied out. Students all went home. Looked like a garbage can, literally. I was led to this room, and in there I found my little sister, who was only four years old.
Tavis: Let me back up for a second. I know we’re on PBS and this is a very learned audience, but not everybody understands what Mao’s Cultural Revolution was all about, what his modus operandi was, what his intent was. It occurs to me I should back up just to make sure that we’re all on the same page here for people to get a better understanding of what the Cultural Revolution was all about.
Fu: Right. So Mao sort of lost the power a few years before Cultural Revolution due to the famine that he created, and Cultural Revolution was his way to regain the power, kind of use Stalin’s method of fear, killing.
He turned the country upside-down and told us that we don’t need to go to formal education, we all need to learn from farmers and soldiers and workers, and that’s how we get re-educated. Cultural Revolution is the biggest prosecution of educated families.
Tavis: So at eight years old you end up in a dormitory and you’re looking out, basically, for your little sister at the age of eight. So take me back to that dormitory and tell me how life sort of begins anew for you in this camp, as it were.
Fu: Yeah. At the beginning it was really confusing and scary, because we didn't have food. The room has no wash basin, no kitchen facility, nothing, and we were taken to the soccer field to witness the killing of teachers, and we were brainwashed that we were nobody and we were born black, we were born with black blood. Our parents were called “black elements” and we were all bastards of black elements.
Tavis: What becomes your daily routine when you were eight years old – eight, nine, 10?
Fu: Yeah, so first few months was just chaos. We go through bitter meals, struggle sessions. We go scream that we were nobody. Then I think it’s about a year later I was assigned to work in a factory. Some of the older kids got sent to countryside, but I was too young to do that.
So I went to factory to build radios and speedometers, and then later I learned how to be an electrician, and just manual work.
Tavis: So when you’re nine or 10, to your point, you’re working in the factory, but as I read in your book, that’s a lot better for you. The experience of doing that is better for you in part, you argue in the book, because at least you’re doing something for the benefit of somebody else.
But tell me how you processed being in that factory as a nine, 10-year-old, working on radios, et cetera.
Fu: Well, being told that I was nobody and then going to a factory, the workers are grownups, so they are actually quite kind to me. Radio is such a thing that we all have at home, because the communists always broadcasting their messages.
So being able to, like, turn on the first radio that we build, and knowing that I can actually make that and that’s the one that’s being used by everybody, I feel a sense of accomplishment at that age, yeah.
Tavis: At such a young age, who was nurturing you? I’m trying to imagine eight, nine, 10, and you’re building radios and you’re taking care of your little sister, both sets of your parents are gone. An eight-year-old, nine-year-old, you’re still a baby, you’re a child, and children need to be nurtured and loved and held. Who’s doing that for you during this period?
Fu: Well, there wasn’t any. There wasn’t any nurturing. There were other people around, there’s other kids who don’t have parents, and then there will be communist families where the family come from red blood, supposedly.
I see them have parents, but only thing I have is the memory of my Shanghai papa and mama, the first eight years where I did have a very loving family. Otherwise, there was just nobody there to give you a hug or make food for you (crosstalk).
Tavis: What did you eat, how did you eat, what was your source of nutrition?”
Fu: Oh, God, we ate bad stuff. Sometimes we eat bitter meal. That’s just occasionally. Otherwise, I dig a lot of vegetable from the ground, called wild vegetable. We have so many kids, some kids are bigger than me, and then we all tell each other.
Even today I look for those wild vegetables. They’re really good, actually. Really, I raise chicken, so I have some eggs. Otherwise, there’s very little meat. I don’t remember having much meat at all.
Tavis: Yeah. How long does this experience – how long are you forced to endure this Maoist experience?
Fu: The Cultural Revolution lasted for 10 years plus two. I was alone about the first five years. Then my mom came back when I was 13. Four or five years later it did get a little better. It loosened up a little, and then in ’72, when Nixon visited China with ping-pong diplomacy and Deng Xiaoping briefly came back, it got further better. So the first few years, like four or five years, is probably the worst.
Tavis: I want to fast-forward, because you end up doing some work to expose another atrocity in the People’s Republic of China as it relates specifically to the one-child policy.
Take me from the camp where you were held during the Cultural Revolution, advance me a few years to your working on the writings about the one-child policy.
Fu: So the Cultural Revolution ended in 19 -
Tavis: ’7?
Fu: – ’76.
Tavis: Right.
Fu: Yeah. Then university starts in 1977. I went into college in ’78, when my father came back. I didn't have any choice what to study. I wanted to be astronaut, but I ended up to study Chinese literature, because that was assigned major for me.
Before graduation, I decided to do humanitarian topic for my thesis research. I heard in the countryside that girls are being killed or there’s forced abortion in very late terms due to the one-child policy.
One-child policy is every couple can only have one child. China was still 95 percent agriculture at that time. Farmers want boys. So I went to do that research, and then I turned my research to my teacher. She gave it to a friend at newspaper, where her friends is editor. So they wrote an editorial basically called stopping the gender inequality or killing. It was a good editorial coverage.
Little did I know that was the very first time Chinese newspaper admitted that was happening. That’s what got me in trouble, and I got thrown in jail for that.
Tavis: It’s bad enough that under Mao’s Cultural Revolution as a child you’re basically incarcerated, as it were, told what to do, when to come, where to go. So you’ve already dealt with this once in life.
Now the revolution’s over, you get a chance to go to college. You write about this inhumane activity, and you end up back in jail again for doing this. How did you process that?
Fu: It was really sad. I saw my life just turned around. Why now? I thought I was going to get killed, but I didn’t know what’s going to happen with my life, and I just started to love what I was doing in college.
But then my sister got older by then. I thought maybe it’s okay if I die. I don’t have responsibility anymore like when she was little. But it was very sad.
Tavis: So you get thrown in jail for writing about the inhumanity of this one-child policy and what’s happening to girls all throughout China. Ultimately at some point they tell you or you discover that you’re not going to be put to death, but you are getting kicked out of here.
Fu: Right.
Tavis: So we’re not going to kill you, but you've got to get out of China.
Fu: Right. I was asked to leave quietly.
Tavis: Right.
Fu: At the time, I didn't know. Now I knew because there was an American journalist who wrote about the same thing, and published a book in 1983 called “Broken Earth.” His book and my research at the same year was a coincidence.
But it formed a perfect storm for international outcry for human rights violations. So China’s new government was embarrassed by what’s being revealed, and accidentally they actually validated that claim.
So killing me is only going to cause more trouble, so I was asked to leave and never come back again. Do not apply for political asylum. Just go be a student and start your life somewhere else.
Tavis: That somewhere else was where?
Fu: Well, “somewhere else” luckily happened to be United States.
Tavis: Where specifically?
Fu: I got a visa from University of New Mexico, and then I flew to San Francisco with $80 travelers checks in my pocket. When I landed I was $5 short for the ticket, and this American man behind me gave $5 to the counter so I could buy my ticket. That was my first impression of American – that people are generous and helpful here to new immigrants.
Tavis: So that extra $5 got you from San Francisco to New Mexico.
Fu: Right.
Tavis: But when you get here your English isn’t so good.
Fu: No.
Tavis: Yeah.
Fu: I tried to learn more, but I couldn't remember anything. By the time I landed I only remembered three words.
Tavis: Yeah. So you sojourn to New Mexico and knowing so little English when you get to Mexico – it’s one thing you don’t have any money, but you can’t even speak the language. So when you get to New Mexico, what happens? How do you navigate your way through? How do you get around? How do you make all this work?
Fu: Right. So first I studied English as a second language, and I knew unlike immigrants who come here and have connections to the homeland, I knew I couldn't go back, so I have to stay here. I stayed with my English teacher so that I can learn more English quickly.
Then I observed that my English teacher couldn't find a job, having a Ph.D. in literature. (Laughter) I saw that (unintelligible).
Tavis: That’s not funny, but it is, yeah.
Fu: It was, yes. So I thought I was going to study comparative literature, and I didn't have enough English, either, so I thought, okay, I’m going to have to study something with a marketable skill.
Tavis: Right.
Fu: So I asked someone what can I study since I didn't do formal education, I didn't have math and science. Someone said, “Well, check out this new field called computer science,” and I said, “What’s that?” He said, “It’s manmade language, and you use it to make stuff.”
I was like, “Great. I’m good with language and I know how to make stuff.” That’s what I was going to study. So fortunately that was a great up-rising new field.
Tavis: Yeah. What do you make, looking back on it now, on how that just came to be that the burgeoning growth of computer technology just happened to coincide with your arriving here. Somebody suggested maybe you ought to try this.
I’m asking how you process that, because in a minute we’re going to go to all the great success you’ve had and why you’re now sitting on President Obama’s commission and committee. It’s quite a fascinating journey. What do you make looking back on the decision at that time when you could barely speak English, to study computer technology, computer science?
Fu: Well, what it taught me with that experience is that behind every closed door there’s new opportunity. It’s like every time life shut door, close on me, and I end up doing something else and there’s a new world opened up to me.
So in my experience I learned in my life journey many times when something that when it looks like there’s no road ahead of you, behind that mountain there’s another road. So if you try, you can always find a path.
Tavis: Just give me some key markers along the road, key decisions, key moments, that happened for you that have allowed you to get to this place of Geomagic once you left New Mexico.
Fu: Okay. Well, interesting, my key moments are all unconventional. First I met this entrepreneur in San Diego. I worked for him while I was studying computer science. Then I took a job at Bell Labs because it’s an iconic company in the United States. I took a pay cut from the startup job to the Bell Labs job in pursuit of innovation and education.
Then I got bored at Bell Labs. I took another job at university, again took a pay cut, because I saw that I was going to make the movie, “Terminator 2,” with Arnold, and so that was something I really wanted to do. It’s art and it’s science, it’s visual, and I would do that without being paid.
Now interestingly, at the startup company I did database, and at Bell Labs I did network, and at the national center, supercomputing center, I did graphics. Those three are what formed the basis for the Mosaic browser, which turned into Netscape and Internet Explorer, and Marc Andreessen was my student.
So being able to guide this group of students to create the first multimedia Internet browser comes from my trajectory of pursuing something that I’m interested, not necessarily a higher position or better pay.
Tavis: Yeah.
Fu: But it gives me that basis to do that.
Tavis: Given where you started, what do you make of being on the front side of the Internet browser, Netscape – these are terms now – Marc Andreessen is iconic, even at his young age now, in Silicon Valley. He was your student, but what do you make of how all this came to be, given where you started?
Fu: I think part of it, when I look at it, was that I was a nobody and I wanted to be somebody, and I didn't know where to start. So I went this life journey of never trying to admit, or never agree to that I was nobody or I couldn't do something.
But I also didn't have a target, so I traversed my life in this unconventional way, just pursuing whatever I had passion, whatever I feel could contribute to society or this technology is going to be tomorrow’s technology.
So I pursued that, and that’s why I say life is a mountain range. At every peak the view is different, but for you to arrive to a different peak, sometimes you have to go down before you go up.
Here, a lot of time we don’t want to take a down step. We just want to keep going up, which there is nothing wrong with that, but you’re stuck at one peak and one view.
Tavis: Yeah, it’s anti-American to step down.
Fu: That’s right.
Tavis: Yeah, that’s our problem, but you’re right, you can’t get to that next peak without -
Fu: Without going -
Tavis: – the ebb and the flow, yeah. So tell me about your work at Geomagic these days.
Fu: Well, it’s very interesting, because when I started Geomagic I wanted to combine Internet technology with manufacturing. Makes sense, because I was working Internet and I came from manufacturing.
Idea was to change the manufacturing to what I call mass customization or personalized fabrication. So you see my shoe, this is a 3D-printed shoe. There’s 3D printing as a new technology for tomorrow’s manufacturing.
Tavis: Get that shoe, Jonathan. Go ahead, keep on talking, I’m sorry.
Fu: Then it’s molded to my feet, it’s a MOMA piece, it’s exhibited at the Modern Museum of Art in New York. Lightweight, material is biodegradable.
So my passion is about how can we change the things that I design and manufacture such that we can bring jobs back to our country, and it’ll be greener technology, so there’s not a lot of shipping across the seas. It’s less carbon footprint. So I think this is the next big thing.
Tavis: Yeah. I think I get it and I think the audience gets it now, but when you decided to call this book “Bend, Not Break,” what did you have in mind?
Fu: Resilience. Yeah. I think whether or not it’s entrepreneurship, whether or not it’s a country being divided or business is going through a difficult environment, that we need to build resilience in our system or in how we live.
Tavis: Yeah. I have been to China. I've had the honor of traveling to China many, many times now, but my very first trip I was taken by a friend of mine in New York who’s probably watching tonight named An Ping, and after spending a week or two in China and having just been moved the very first time I went and learned so much, it was literally the last day of the trip I was sitting with An Ping.
We were sitting waiting on a plane to take off or something, traveling between Beijing and Shanghai, and I didn't realize that she had grown up in that Cultural Revolution during the time of Chairman Mao.
After being there for all these days and learning so much, the most moving part of the entire trip was sitting there talking to her about what it was like trying to navigate and move through that period of history that you had to endure.
I’m so glad that An Ping got through it and I’m glad that you got through it, and I’m glad that you are doing the wonderful work that you’re doing now. Tell me quickly about your work with President Obama. You’re on this entrepreneurship committee?
Fu: Yeah, I’m on the advisory board for entrepreneurship and innovation, which are two topics very dear to my heart.
Tavis: Right.
Fu: So we meet quarterly to give advice on policy, how to remove barriers so that policy is more favorable for entrepreneurship and innovation, and we believe innovation is the key for us to create jobs in this country.
Tavis: Yeah. Life is funny, isn't it? You start out being told that you are nobody, and you end up hanging out with the president of the United States a few years later.
Fu: Yeah.
Tavis: That’s funny.
Fu: So life has treated me well.
Tavis: Yeah. The book is called “Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds,” by Ping Fu, founder and CEO of Geomagic, Inc. Ping, good to have you on the program. All the best to you.
Fu: Thank you.

Fu Ping's 2010 Speech at UNC

Sometime around Janurary, 2010, Fu Ping gave a speech, "Story of an Entrepreneur", at the Kenan Institute at University of North Carolina. The speech was uploaded to YouTube on January 21, 2010, from the institute's official account.

In this speech, Fu Ping told her life story besides her entrepreneur experience. In this version,

1. She asserted that she never went to school during the 10 years of Cultural Revolution, but "I went to countryside plant rice fields. I worked in factories and I was in the military learning how to shoot." [it's curious how a "bad element" child could be allowed to join the military at that time.]
2. She stated that it was a family relative who "engineered an escape" while she was in prison for her infanticide research, no mention of Deng Xiaoping's involvement.
3. She stated that "Within two weeks out of jail I was given a passport." [She would later admit that she spent another year in China, "because it was hard to get a passport."]
4. She also provided a more detailed description on how the original idea for Mosaic browser came about.

The entire speech can be viewed on YouTube in five parts: one, two, three, four, and five. The following is a partial transcript relevant to her early life:

I was born in China in 1958. Unfortunately when I was 8 to 18, which was supposedly from elementary to high school, China started the Cultural Revolution. So I didn't have a chance to go to school. My aunt and uncle actually raised me in a very loving family. In 1966, I was taken away from them. I thought they were my parents. And sent back to Nanjing. I was in Shanghai. I was sent back to Nanjing where my biological parents were. When I was just arriving at Nanjing, it was too late. My parents were put in a truck and sent in exile. I only saw them away and the last word I remember from my mother was "Please take care of your sister." I was 8 and she was 4, with no parents around. That day was such a fateful day. I lost the mother who raised me, the mother who born me, and I became the surrogate mother to my sister. 

I was the youngest in that generation of what they called "black kids" -- black by birth as our parents are bourgeois. If you are educated or if you are entrepreneur, you are bad. Children of educated parents are called black bastard, or black elements. We were treated extremely poor and teachers were killed right in front of us kids to scare us. My sister was thrown into a river to drown. I tried to save her and I was gang-raped by the Red Guards because I jumped into the river to try to save my sister. So, the life during the Cultural Revolution was unimaginable for us kids without parents and for us being called black. I am sorry. I always get emotional when I think about that time. 

Fast forward 10 years. The Cultural Revolution ended the year I was supposed to graduate from high school. I actually never went to school during those 10 years. I went to countryside plant rice fields. I worked in factories and I was in the military learning how to shoot.  

10 years later China ended Cultural Revolution and allowed people to go back to school. I passed the national exam and went back to school. I didn't have a choice as I was assigned to study Chinese literature. I really liked school and studying Chinese literature even though it wasn't my choice. I loved it. In my graduation thesis, I chose a humanitarian topic because I realized that at the time China was enforcing the one-child policy. Baby girls are being killed in the countryside because, being still primarily an agriculture society, people want boys. Later I knew -- now I know -- during that time when I was in college, 30 millions of babies were killed. When I did my research, the subject was normally being suppressed. When my research came out, the government and some newspapers actually supported it so they reported it. That was the first time China admitted that killing was existed. So the news was immediately covered by the international press. I became the scapegoat when UN imposed sanctions to China for human rights violations  I was thrown into jail in a black room with no windows. I thought I was surely going to be killed. I didn't know why I was arrested at the time. All I wish was a quick and painless pill. I thought it was so cruel because my life was just turning around. I was able to go to a university. 

But I was kind of lucky that one of my grandfather's friends engineered an escape for me from China. I was not secretly escaped but kicked out since my report was really a humanitarian issue. He was from Taiwan and China wanted Taiwan to return to China so they agreed to kick me out of China.  

In 1982, very few Chinese were able to come to the States. It was considered lucky that I was able to leave China and come to the United States to study. But I did not plan it and I didn't speak any English. My life plan did not include leaving my family in China and come to the United States. Within two weeks out of jail I was given a passport and told to leave.  

So I came to United States. I didn't speak English and I didn't study any math or science. Or I had was Chinese literature and I couldn't live from that. I need to find a more marketable skill. That's what lead me into computer science, which leads me to Geomagic. 

In early 80s, computer science happen to be a new field. People who studied it in college don't know how to program, unlike today it's like a second skill. But at that time I felt that I was good at language and computer science is a man-made language. So I studied computer science and one thing led to another I landed a job at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. I tell you that was the best job of my life. Actually one of our employees in the audience who was my student there and followed me all the way here. That was a job that you can just dream about what science and math can do and you don't have to worry about profit and loss. We had a 40 million dollars annual budget and I was managing 10 million dollars in industrial relationship and 30 million federal government. So, we could actually do anything we wanted. I just happened to hire this student his name is Marc Andreessen. He didn't really want to work in heavy math and wanted something simpler. So I said, "how about a browser?" He said, "what browser?" So we talked about a multi-media browser. One of the reasons is our group actually worked on telnet, imaging software, Apple computer as well as server. So we had a big database and we had Internet and multi-media. It was pretty natural idea to have a graphic user interface that people can navigate something. Another reason is I was managing public domain software. Everyday I spent a lot time to tell people the Internet domain account. I just got tired of typing that. So I thought would it be nice to have a graphic user interface to tell people there is an image on it and, when they click on it, they can get there. It was a very simple idea. At that time it was hard-coded and it was not as complicated as today. But anyway, once Netscape went public, it became history.

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.
[...]