Ping fus childhood tales of chinas cultural revolution. Ping fu, founder of geomagic, a 3d digitalreality solution company, reveals the inspiring story of her life. On december 31, 2012, fu published a memoir, bend, not break. So, bend, not break is either a perfect example of why i dont, or its simply a terrible book. It is a story of personal resilience and of business success by someone who is almost an accidental entrepreneur. To start all over, without family or friends, as a maid, waitress, and student. Chinese cast doubt over executives rags to riches tale. Bend, not break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from the dogmatic anticapitalism of maos china to the highstakes world of technology startups in the us. Its like im living the book title, says ping fu, author of the new memoir bend, not break. A life in two worlds, a powerful, deeply personal memoir that chronicles her life in china as a victim of maos. Ping fu knows what its like to be a child soldier, a factory worker, and a political prisoner. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets.
Bend, not break depicts a journey from imprisonment to freedom, and from the dogmatic anticapitalism of maos china to the highstakes, takenoprisoners world of technology startups in. There the bookloving pearl in the hand as she was known to her family was forced to eat dirt and worse by. A life in two worlds kindle edition by fu, ping, fox, meimei. Fu ping has responded by claiming to be a victim of a smear campaign of ulterior motives. Bend not break author ping fu knows what it is like to be a pioneering software programmer, an entrepreneur, a ceo, and a true american success story. Fu, today a successful american entrepreneur whose company is to be acquired by 3d systems, this month discussed her book.
Discover hundreds of talks from the worlds creative community at. Browns first pick is tech entrepreneur ping fus memoir, bend, not break. Linda yueh finds the book a vivid narration of fus life experiences. The book, along with her media interviews, has been found to contain many exaggerations, distortions, and fabrications. Bend, not break by fu, ping penguin random house south. Bend, not break, by ping fu exclusive excerpt boing boing. Bend, not break is an astounding success story, with a generous sprinkling of ancient asian and contemporary teachingslife lessons available to any reader willing to learn from them. Ping fu harkens back to that time in her new book bend, not break. Bend not break is a story of personal resilience and of business success by someone who is almost an accidental entrepreneur. Bend not break season 1500 episode 1532 26m 46s ping fu knows what its like to be a child soldier, a factory worker, and a political prisoner. Ping fu was the founder of geomagic, a 3d digital reality solution company, and is now chief strategy officer of 3d systems. From here, she transports us back and forth between two worlds. Coauthored with meimei fox, the book told the stories of her life, from her early childhood in china to her experiences as an entrepreneur, including founding and leading geomagic. Do not read this book if you reject kindness, humility, and ingenuity.
As a lawabiding us citizen and a conscientious reader just like other chinese americans on amazon, i have the obligation to inform the general public of the falsehood in ping fus memoir bend, not break as well as her interviews with different media. We are proud to announce that our ceo and cofounder, ping fu, is releasing her book today. Born on the eve of chinas cultural revolution, ping fu was separated from her family at the age of eight. Born in maoist china, ping fled a life of poverty to eventually cofound geomagic, a revolutionary 3d software company. Ping fu defends bend, not break memoir against online. The book bend, not break lies from the first sentence, and the lie continues in the following chapters throughout the book. Until age 8, ping and her intellectual, doting parents lived comfortably in shanghai.
She then founded geomagic, a company that has literally reshaped the world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing nasa spaceships. Dg talks to ping fu about his book, bend not break. Bend, not break centers around eight of ping fus life lessons, from her childhood in maos china, to finding her way as a poor american immigrant, to becoming a. A heartbreaking history living through maos cultural revolution, her family is forcibly split up, and an 8 year old ping is raising and protecting her 4 year old sister. One major piece of evidence that she was dishonest in telling her cultural revolution tales is another book ping fu wrote in chinese and published in 1996 by a publishing house in. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the teenagers in maos red guard.
It is a tribute to one womans courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading bend, not break. The truthfulness of ping fus memoir has been called into question. That existence was blown apart by the cultural revolution, during which her family was regarded as an enemy. She apparently overcame great odds as a young girl in china, was then quietly expelled from china, and eventually succeeded in america as the head of geomagic, a software company that works to create 3d products. Ping fu also knows what its like to be a pioneering software programmer, an innovator, a ceo, and inc. In bend, not break, fu ping mentioned study sessions as frequent daily activities during the cultural revolution years. Bend, not break author ping fu responds to backlash. The title of the memoir comes from a saying of the authors father about bamboo and its ability to move with the harsh wind instead of snapping under its pressure.
Meimei fox in her autobiography, ping fu tells her story as she lived itfrom child soldier and political prisoner to a ceo and inc. Bend not break by ping fu with meimei fox penguin group 276 pages. Ping fu is the founder of 3d software pioneer geomagic and a true believer in the transformative power of 3d technology. Fu ping, cofounder of software company geomagic, recently had a roller coaster ride through media attention after the release of her new book bend not break. Bend, not break depicts a journey from imprisonment to freedom, and from the dogmatic anticapitalism of maos china to the highstakes, takenoprisoners world of technology startups in the united states. Ceo and cofounder of geomagic, ping fu, is releasing her bend not break penguin. A life in two worlds, you know the pages will deliver a happy ending. The book tells stories from fus life, starting with her childhood in china at the dawn of the cultural revolution, and continuing through her role as cofounder and ceo of geomagic, a 3d graphics software development company in the united states. A life in two worlds is a 2012 memoir by ping fu, with coauthor meimei fox.
We should feel it all the time, but occasionally we have trouble accessing itwhich is when you need to pick up bend, not break by ping fu. It is a tribute to one womans courage in the face of cruelty and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience. Buy this book in this outstanding testament to the resilience of the human. It is a tribute to one womans courage in the face of cruelty and. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Our time was occupied by study sessions, in which we did nothing but recite slogans from maos little red book, and struggle sessions, in which we denounced ourselves and ate bitter meals. In early 20, fu ping published her autobiography bend, not break, coauthored with meimei fox. If you take a good look at the cover of the recent memoir bend, not break.
Bend not break a new book by geomagic ceo, ping fu. This is the promotional trailer for my latest book, bend, not break, written with ping fu, founder and ceo of geomagic. Ping fus ragstoriches memoir bend not break says she was torn away from her parents at eight, brutally abused and sent to work in a factory. Is ping fus book bend, not break a load of nonsense. Even though ping was asked to leave china, she had to wait for an official passport to be issued. Ping fu begins her story as she is exiled from china and en route to america. Bend, not break by ping fu penguin books australia. So wrote sally rosenthal, the television producer, in her early appraisal of bend, not break by ping fu, a memoir of 50. Bend, not break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from maos china to technology startups. Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking. It is just interesting for us to wonder what kind of editing errors can result in stories that never exited, or how bad a memory ping fu has to have to write a bio contradicting to her schoolmates memories and chinese.