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stand down on April 30th. Now it is time for HARDtalk. My guest today | :00:11. | :00:15. | |
is fast becoming one of America's most celebrated female | :00:16. | :00:22. | |
entrepreneurs. It is not just because the company she founded is | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
revolutionising many factoring in the digital age, but also because | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
her own life story represents a triumph over long odds. Ping Fu was | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
just eight years old when her life was turned upside-down by a | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
chairman now's Cultural Revolution. She was thrown out of China. Now | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
she is an adviser to President Obama on innovation. What lessons | :00:47. | :00:57. | |
:00:57. | :01:21. | ||
lie behind this extraordinary Ping Fu, welcome to HARDtalk. You | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
grew up in China. Your life was turned upside-down by the Cultural | :01:26. | :01:33. | |
Revolution. I wonder if the sort of disruption experienced prepared you | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
to thrive in a business sector, the tech industry, which is constantly | :01:38. | :01:46. | |
disrupted. The roles are constantly changing. When I grow up, with the | :01:46. | :01:52. | |
life Jenia had, I had a lot of practice in self-loathing. I had | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
the ability to change. -- Self learning. I was resilient in | :01:58. | :02:05. | |
difficult times. Those were the skills I needed. I suppose it gives | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
you an awful lot of perspective when you have had such a difficult | :02:09. | :02:18. | |
upbringing. My life had been turned upside down, from a loving family | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
:02:28. | :02:31. | ||
with a nice big house in Shanghai, to a ghetto in managing -- Nanjing. | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
I lost both sets of my parents. I became a surrogate mother to my | :02:36. | :02:44. | |
middle sister. We're talking about the early 1960s. You were grabbed | :02:44. | :02:53. | |
by Red Guards working for the Cultural Revolution. Because your | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
family was regarded as intellectual they were relatively privileged. | :02:59. | :03:09. | |
You had to be taken away and re- educated, reprogrammed. They said | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
we did not need formal education. We needed to be educated by workers, | :03:15. | :03:23. | |
farmers and soldiers. We had to work in factories, farm rice and | :03:23. | :03:31. | |
learn how to march in the military. You have described how in the early | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
days there was a lot of hate in you as much in the souls of the UN | :03:36. | :03:44. | |
guards looking after you. You were forced to eat animal dung. You were | :03:44. | :03:54. | |
:03:54. | :03:57. | ||
brought close to death. We were fed better meals and raped by a dozen | :03:57. | :04:05. | |
teenage boys. I was left on a soccer field to die. It was very | :04:05. | :04:13. | |
hard. It was a long time ago. Does the power of the memories you have | :04:13. | :04:22. | |
still live with you? It does from time to time. I learned for a long | :04:22. | :04:32. | |
time to put it away. I wrote a book that just came out. I learnt how to | :04:32. | :04:42. | |
:04:42. | :04:42. | ||
heal those wounds. Your birth parents were not the parents to | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
raise two. You had two sets of parents. Is there any way in which | :04:48. | :04:54. | |
either were able to reach you at this terrible time when you and | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
your sister were living the most dreadful and hard life? Not during | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
the ten years of the Cultural Revolution. My birth mother came | :05:03. | :05:09. | |
back when I was 13. She was put away when I was eight. All of the | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
other parents were sent to remote areas of China. What was it that | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
you found within yourself that allowed you, enabled you, to cope | :05:20. | :05:30. | |
:05:30. | :05:32. | ||
with what she went through? mother anticipated the trouble | :05:32. | :05:42. | |
coming to my life. They taught me. Before I was told -- taken away | :05:42. | :05:50. | |
from the family, they told me to be bamboo, in the prevailing wind and | :05:50. | :05:58. | |
never breaking. It is a mental space in my mind. It is interesting | :05:58. | :06:07. | |
that idea of bending and never breaking? The two ever come close | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
to breaking? Several times. My journal was burned when I was 12 | :06:12. | :06:18. | |
years old. I thought about dying. I wanted to jump into a fire. You had | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
written your innermost thoughts and kept a sense of yourself? I did not | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
have anyone to talk to. I could not talk to my parents. I kept a | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
journal on the back of the Communist propaganda for years. It | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
was the only place I could express my innermost thoughts and emotions. | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
It amazes me that you were so resilient. You're so resilient that | :06:48. | :06:55. | |
when the Cultural Revolution came to an end you were able to resume | :06:55. | :07:01. | |
studies. You make contact with your family and you ended up going to | :07:01. | :07:07. | |
university. That is right. It was not the end of your problems, was | :07:07. | :07:17. | |
:07:17. | :07:17. | ||
at? Right before I graduated from college I was doing research. I | :07:17. | :07:24. | |
thought Alice picking a humanitarian topic. I heard that | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
the one-child policy in China caused farmers to kill baby girls | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
because they wanted boys. I did not realise how widespread the killing | :07:34. | :07:44. | |
:07:44. | :07:45. | ||
was. When I went to do the research I saw babies being tossed into | :07:45. | :07:52. | |
rivers with their umbilical cords still fresh. I was a mother since | :07:52. | :07:59. | |
there was eight. Because he raised to assist the? It strikes me in a | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
way, knowing what happened to you, I am beginning to feel that there | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
was something about you that refuses to bow down to authority. | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
You refuse to accept the received wisdom. Otherwise you would not | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
have embarked on this challenging university dissertation about the | :08:20. | :08:27. | |
terrible impact of the one-child policy. That is quite insightful. | :08:27. | :08:34. | |
Looking back, I realised that even though I was brainwashed that I was | :08:34. | :08:41. | |
nobody, I never really believed it. I always wanted to be somebody. It | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
was not specific. I never knew how to stop it. I kept travelling and | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
wanting to be somebody. You talk about brainwashing. What do you | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
really mean by that? It is a phrase that is used often, but how were | :08:57. | :09:04. | |
you brainwashed? We did not study anything in a normal academic field. | :09:04. | :09:13. | |
We always studied Communist propaganda for the Red Book. I was | :09:13. | :09:23. | |
:09:23. | :09:24. | ||
told that I was nobody. I was told that my parents were criminals. | :09:24. | :09:33. | |
You're in a black file, Would you? I wonder if you, having been | :09:33. | :09:43. | |
dismissed by the system, Would you angry with the party? -- were you | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
angry. Had he decided that communism was damaging to the | :09:47. | :09:56. | |
Country? I believed some of the concept of what they taught me. | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
Helping others and being good. At the same time, I did not believe | :10:01. | :10:11. | |
:10:11. | :10:13. | ||
much of what they said. They said to grow Communist wheat rather than | :10:13. | :10:21. | |
capitalist rise. In the end, he was forced out of the country. Some | :10:21. | :10:29. | |
people may wonder how you had the great fortune to leave China and | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
make your way to the US. So many other people who were put on | :10:34. | :10:42. | |
blacklists ended up in the most hard and difficult lives or | :10:42. | :10:52. | |
imprisoned. How come you were allowed out? I did not speak any | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
English, I had no idea what American life was like. At the time | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
I was running from trouble. I thought anything was better than | :11:01. | :11:08. | |
death or being exile. I did not have a future in China. The future | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
was unknown to me when I came to the letter states. Back then, I did | :11:13. | :11:23. | |
not know it would be a good future. I was told to leave. You had no | :11:23. | :11:28. | |
family in the US, and you had no family there. There you were, on a | :11:29. | :11:37. | |
plane from Shanghai to California. It must have been daunting. It was | :11:37. | :11:45. | |
very scary. No family, no friends, I did not speak the language, I did | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
not know what life was ahead of me. At that time, the unknown was | :11:50. | :11:59. | |
better then trouble. When I pity you as a young woman in New Mexico, | :11:59. | :12:06. | |
with no language, money or contacts, then I think about how quickly you | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
got on. Within a few years you were a specialist within computing and | :12:12. | :12:19. | |
software. What was it within you that allowed you to get on so | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
quickly? One part of it is that America is a wonderful place for | :12:24. | :12:34. | |
immigrants. Many people helped me when I first landed in the US. The | :12:34. | :12:41. | |
other part is that I've always learn how to do things by myself. | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
When I grow up there were no teachers or parents around. I | :12:45. | :12:54. | |
learnt to cook quickly. I learned how to work in the factory. I had | :12:54. | :13:00. | |
an ability to learn. I never thought I could not do anything. | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
Life would throw many things at me. Coming to the United States was not | :13:06. | :13:15. | |
as hard as the life I had up until I was 18. You were arriving and | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
studying science at a time when the digital era was just beginning. | :13:23. | :13:32. | |
:13:33. | :13:34. | ||
Computing was taking off. What drew you to that? I wanted to study | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
comparative literature. I could not do it because it did not have | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
English skills. I asked what I could study because it did not have | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
a science background. Somebody told me to look a computer science. I | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
asked where was. They told me it was a man-made language that is | :13:52. | :13:58. | |
used to make things. I thought to myself, I'm good with language and | :13:58. | :14:05. | |
know how to make things. The interesting thing is, even this | :14:05. | :14:11. | |
experience taught me that behind every closed door there is an open | :14:11. | :14:21. | |
:14:21. | :14:22. | ||
space. Every time life slams the door at me, I end up picking up a | :14:22. | :14:32. | |
:14:32. | :14:38. | ||
By the mid-to-late Nineties, you had alighted on an area of software | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
development and computer technology which frankly over the last ten | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
years has become the absolute cutting edge of where many people | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
think the next phase of the digital revolution is going. Perhaps we | :14:50. | :14:57. | |
should in simple terms explain to people that your interest in 3D | :14:57. | :15:04. | |
printing, in a sense shaping Things by computer and then turning those | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
shapes into actual products in a new way, it's potentially | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
revolutionary, isn't it? That's the next big thing. It's as big as | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
steam engine, Henry Ford, assembly- line or the internet. That's a big | :15:20. | :15:26. | |
claim, can you justified it for me? When I was at Super Computing | :15:26. | :15:31. | |
Centre I hired a student called Andrew, we started in San Jose, and | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
that became internet Explorer and Netscape. After that success I went | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
out to start my own company called Geomagic. That was 15 years ago. I | :15:43. | :15:48. | |
thought about combining the internet with manufacturing. In | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
order to create an internet of things. That was of course way | :15:53. | :15:59. | |
ahead of its time. I went out and I saw this machine, which is a 3D | :15:59. | :16:09. | |
Printer from 3D systems, and I was just totally amazed by this machine. | :16:09. | :16:15. | |
It can literally print a 3D product from a machine. Not just paper. | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
of this machine comes a tangible product? Yes. It prints layer by | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
layer. If you print on paper you just grinned one liar. The best way | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
we can make sense of this at least visually is to look at your shoes. | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
-- just print one layer. You have come in today to the studio with a | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
pair of shoes that were printed. That's right, this is the three | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
design -- 3D design and 3D printed shoes moulded to the shape of my | :16:47. | :16:54. | |
feet. In the future, the product design will be in the software code. | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
The fabrication can be locally next to you. The product will start with | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
the person. We have got Mass Customisation of personal factories. | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
If you think of a shoe company that wants to make its products by | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
producing millions of pairs of shoes for the mass market, they | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
can't use this technology, can they? Aren't you talking about | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
something very local and small scale. We will never be able to | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
with this be able to compete in cost with the traditional | :17:26. | :17:32. | |
production line? That's not true. The traditional shoe, the most cost | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
is not in the material and the making of the shoes, it is the | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
infantry, shooting across the seas, retail shops and shoes that nobody | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
wants. 90% of the cost is in that. Less than 10% of the cost is the | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
material in making the issue. In this case the material and the | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
making of the shoe is not more expensive because the machine is | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
making it. You can make it locally so you don't have to share across | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
the sea, which is not only cheaper but less that print. In a sense it | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
is the end of globalisation, it is the end of things being shipped to | :18:12. | :18:18. | |
the United States. -- footprint. It is bringing manufacturing back | :18:18. | :18:28. | |
:18:28. | :18:28. | ||
home? Absolutely. In 2006 When Thomas Friedman wrote a book, "The" | :18:28. | :18:37. | |
World Is Flat ", we were sharing a stage, and I said globalisation is | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
passing, it is now about localisation. We live on one earth, | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
we watched one moon, we inhale the same air. Localisation is very | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
interesting. We will get to that but I want to stick with the shoes | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
are a little bit more. The material, what are they made of? In this case | :18:58. | :19:07. | |
it is a natural fibre, linen. are linen shoes? Yes. The idea of | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
3D printing, could you make things out of metal? Yes. Obviously | :19:13. | :19:19. | |
plastic would be amenable? Yes, plastic, metal, rather, linen, | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
ceramic. There's more than 100 materials. -- Letter. Could you | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
make a mix of materials? Could you make a car, let's think ambitious, | :19:30. | :19:37. | |
via a printer? Not today, but some of the car parts can be made via a | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
printer, and even better, because you can design geometry inside of | :19:41. | :19:47. | |
the metal to make it lighter, stronger on impact, and you can use | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
material to make new material, which is there interesting. | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
what ifs that apply to this technology seemed to run in | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
different directions, one is a dangerous direction. We have | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
already seen the notion of a Wiki weapon aired on the internet, and | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
there's one particular student and some associates of his in Texas who | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
are determined to use 3D printing to make a home-made gun. All you | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
need is the software and a 3D Printer and he believes you can | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
make all the necessary components for a working weapon. It does Grail | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
raised real questions about where this idea of home made assembly and | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
production ends up, doesn't it? but I always believe in our human | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
history it always goes against evil. The gun doesn't shoot itself, it is | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
the human that takes the gun to shoot. Technology itself is not | :20:43. | :20:50. | |
evil. Right? But technology can play to our worst instincts. One of | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
the things that seems to me a danger with the spread of three the | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
printing is that it enabled piracy, copyright infringement, to become | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
even easier. -- 3D printing. Maybe but it could generate more | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
innovation. If you make one of a kind, not one in a million, why | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
would you care about piracy? care about piracy and Copyright for | :21:14. | :21:20. | |
lots of reasons. The one story that intrigued me, a German man saw a | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
picture of a Dutch policemen carrying his handcuffs. He took a | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
picture of those handcuffs, blew it up, looked at it in great detail, | :21:31. | :21:37. | |
stand it, and he was able to make a key through a 3D Printer to fit the | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
handcuffs. That's the sort of danger that you could never | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
anticipate that might come with the technology? That's true. But | :21:46. | :21:52. | |
innovation is also going to create so many more solutions that counter | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
those bad intentions. It's interesting, in human history, when | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
good against evil happens, there's always more good and evil otherwise | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
we would have been erased from Earth already. The reason we | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
evolved is that we are always able to make solution. That's a very | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
optimistic view. I want to reflect again on your background in China, | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
you've been appointed to the US National Advisory Council on | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
entrepreneurship and innovation, but there are people in the US | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
saying that they are losing their innovative edge, especially | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
compared with China. You have got a unique insight into both cultures, | :22:34. | :22:40. | |
is there some merit to that argument? The US has been a very | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
inventive society. We invented very many technologies that have been | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
adopted by other countries. Innovation is about invention made | :22:48. | :22:57. | |
real. Our US or developed Western countries have this issue of not | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
adopting our own invention. We need to look at that more. When Peter, I | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
don't know if you have met him, the sound of Payi Pelle, he said | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
innovation in America is somewhere between dire Straits and debt. You | :23:12. | :23:18. | |
don't share that view? I'm not that pessimistic. -- dead. The United | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
States is still quite an innovative country. I don't share that. | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
Especially in your field, information technology, and other | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
economists, Robert Gordon, he said the benefits of information | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
technology have largely run their course, which suggests he is not as | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
thrilled with 3D printing as you are. Let's wait for ten years and | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
see what happens. I think he would have a lot of 3D printed things at | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
his home. Do you ever go back to China and perhaps think about | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
launching your business, that's done so well in the US, enshrine as | :23:55. | :24:04. | |
well? I do have a subsidiary in China. I don't think China needs to | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
be a dumping ground. It has 1.3 billion people, 1.3 billion | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
consumers. Competition between the US and China and the rest of the | :24:14. | :24:18. |