Embry-Riddle honors program hosts entrepreneur
Jacob Stump
Issue date: 11/21/06 Section: Campus News
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2005 Entrepreneur of the Year Ping Fu attracted around 200 people into the IC auditorium Monday night for the second presentation in the Honors Program Distinguished Speaker lecture series. Compared to last month's presentation by Fred Haise, Ping Fu told an equally awe-inspiring story of her life and the bittersweet path to her current success.
Ping Fu grew up, coincidentally, on the campus of an Aeronautical University in China. Unfortunately, when she was supposed to start the first grade of her education, China was swept into the Cultural Revolution, and therefore she did not receive a formal education. She was instead educated with "street smarts," as she called it. She and her sister would learn things like "Which goes faster down a hill, a bike with one person or a bike with two people?" And from these experiences she built her knowledge.
Eventually, near the end of the Cultural Revolution, she was allowed to take an exam for entrance into school. Upon passing the test, instead of studying "rocket science" like she wanted to, she was forced to study journalism. She took to this to heart, and tried her hardest to learn. As a major project, she decided to go out into rural China and investigate reports of farmers killing their newborn daughters so that they may hold out hope for a son. China's strict population control measures had long been assumed to create this effect, but actual numbers had never been accumulated before. Fu's report found that the killings were far more numerous than people had originally imagined.
Her report gained not only the attention ofthe Chinese government, but the U.S. government as well. The United States quickly imposed sanctions on China for human rights violations, and many other countries followed suit. The government, who originally had praised Fu's report, then decided to charge her with treason. She was thrown in jail, tortured, and told that she was going to be executed. However, as her execution drew nearer, the Cultural Revolution drew to a close, and she was silently released from prison and exiled to America.
Ping Fu grew up, coincidentally, on the campus of an Aeronautical University in China. Unfortunately, when she was supposed to start the first grade of her education, China was swept into the Cultural Revolution, and therefore she did not receive a formal education. She was instead educated with "street smarts," as she called it. She and her sister would learn things like "Which goes faster down a hill, a bike with one person or a bike with two people?" And from these experiences she built her knowledge.
Eventually, near the end of the Cultural Revolution, she was allowed to take an exam for entrance into school. Upon passing the test, instead of studying "rocket science" like she wanted to, she was forced to study journalism. She took to this to heart, and tried her hardest to learn. As a major project, she decided to go out into rural China and investigate reports of farmers killing their newborn daughters so that they may hold out hope for a son. China's strict population control measures had long been assumed to create this effect, but actual numbers had never been accumulated before. Fu's report found that the killings were far more numerous than people had originally imagined.
Her report gained not only the attention ofthe Chinese government, but the U.S. government as well. The United States quickly imposed sanctions on China for human rights violations, and many other countries followed suit. The government, who originally had praised Fu's report, then decided to charge her with treason. She was thrown in jail, tortured, and told that she was going to be executed. However, as her execution drew nearer, the Cultural Revolution drew to a close, and she was silently released from prison and exiled to America.
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