Sonya’s Pick
January 2015
Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds
Ping Fu, December 2012
Narrates the Life of Ping Fu starting with childhood in China at the Dawn of the Cultural Revolution and continues through her role as co founder and CEO of Geomagic, a 3D graphic software development company in the US.
I love reading about history as told through the eyes of a person or their family. This is such a story. Ping was torn away from her merchant class parents who were “re-educated” and forced to raise her 4 year old sister alone in what appeared to be a dormitory commune. Knowing that she will survive helps you through the brutality of her upbringing. She not only managed to attend a Chinese University, but also to eventually make it to the US where she studied computer science and among other accomplishments helped invent the first Web browser.
The title of the book comes from a saying of the author’s father about bamboo and its ability to move with the harsh wind instead of snapping under pressure. That helped Ping survive.
After reading the book, I came upon some reviews with large discrepancies, some citing her being a liar especially about her time in China. She denies those claims. Still, it is a gripping and transformative story of survival in a time I knew nothing about.