Doubts raised over 'flight from China'

Businesswoman’s account of surviving the Cultural Revolution comes under scrutiny after fraudbusters decide much does not ring true

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Improbable events in Ping Fu’s autobiography have prompted some critics to wonder how much of it is factual. Photo: Anna Webber

Published: 12:00am, 6 Feb 2013Updated: 5:47am, 6 Feb 2013

The story of American hi-tech entrepreneur Ping Fu is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide - then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.

"It sounds too unbelievable for fiction, but this is the true story of a life in two worlds," enthuses the website for Fu's autobiography, Bend Not Break. In one interview to promote the book, the entrepreneur boasted that Michelle Obama had invited her back to the White House for a nightcap after the 2010 State of the Union address.

But after Chinese media, including a blogger for the South China Morning Post website, flagged a series of inconsistencies and improbabilities in interviews she has given, Fu has been forced to defend her book from accusations that some of it is not true.

Fu, the president, chief executive and co-founder of the 3D software company Geomagic, has said she is "shocked, heartbroken and deeply saddened" by what she considers a smear campaign that "reveals the dark side of human cruelty" and "makes me relive the emotional abuse of my childhood".

Many of the questions centre on the 54-year-old's horrifying account of being wrenched from her parents when the Cultural Revolution started in 1966, and sent to a re-education camp where she was gang-raped at the age of 10.

An estimated 36 million people were persecuted during the turmoil and numerous families torn apart. But sceptics, including Fang Zhouzi, an influential blogger who scrutinises Chinese academia, say much of Fu's story does not ring true.

Doubts raised over 'flight from China'

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Businesswoman’s account of surviving the Cultural Revolution comes under scrutiny after fraudbusters decide much does not ring true

Businesswoman’s account of surviving the Cultural Revolution comes under scrutiny after fraudbusters decide much does not ring true