Bend, Not Break: From Mao's China to the White House

Bend, Not Break chronicles Ping Fu's journey from China's work camps to top CEO. 'Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times' -Ping Fu's Shanghai papa Ping Fu is one of the few women running a tech company in the US. But her story begins long before. Born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution, she was separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the vindictive teenagers of Mao's Red Guard. At twenty-five she escaped to the United States; her only resources were $80 in traveller's checks and three phrases of English: Thank you, hello, and help. Yet Ping persevered. Within a year she had completed her English qualifications and started studying computer programming, rising to run the team behind Netscape. She then founded Geomagic, a company that has literally reshaped the world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing NASA spaceships. Bend, Not Break tells the incredible personal story of a journey from imprisonment to freedom, from Mao's China to technology start-ups. It is a tribute to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty, and a valuable lesson on the enduring power of resilience. Ping Fu is President and CEO of Geomagic, Inc. A survivor of China's Cultural Revolution, she was imprisoned for her reporting on female infanticide under China's one-child policy and deported to the USA. Fu is one of the few women CEOs in technology and was named the 2005 "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine. She is a member of President Obama's National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and an adjunct professor in computer science at Duke University.

About the Author :
Ping Fu is VP and Chief Entrepreneur Officer at 3D Systems. She co-founded Geomagic, a 3D imaging software company, which was later acquired by 3D Systems. Previously, Ping was involved in the NCSA Mosaic software that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. In 2005, she was named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' by Inc. Magazine. Ping serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Commerce and on the board of directors at the Long Now Foundation.

Review :
Her odyssey from the old world to the new - from the bleakest totalitarianism to the most ebullient flowering of imagination and enterprise - forms a story worthy of a 21st-century Homer There are few people in our world who embody optimism like Ping Fu. She shows us how the human spirit can endure amazing hardship to with find happiness, joy, and astounding success. Resilience is the most essential element of life and business today, and there is no more shining role model for resilience (and grace and humility and a whole bunch of other qualities) than Ping Fu. The story of how she fled China under precarious circumstances, made a new life in the United States, and built a vibrant company should be required reading. Ping Fu's life story is the stuff of heroic novels. Not only has she triumphed over adversity most of us can scarcely imagine, but she has managed to draw out of her experience a wealth of practical business lessons. This is an utterly unique memoir, a fascinating look at one woman's journey from a difficult childhood in Mao's China to the top of the American tech world. In this outstanding testament to the resilience of the human spirit, Ping takes readers on a journey both heartbreaking and inspiring. Ping's eloquent prose and remarkable attitude shine through in every word-and her compelling story will remind more than one reader to be thankful for what they have.