Liu organized a 1917 YMCA meeting on campus with Lee and Tsai giving speeches, making it “one of the most interesting YMCA meetings of the year,” according to a local newspaper (GH 11/27/1917). Although Liu transferred to the University of Chicago the next year, he impressed Grinnell faculty with public speaking. When in November 1918 Zhang Boling and three other Chinese educators visited Grinnell a second time, they heard Professor Ryan, instructor of Public Speaking, praise Liu’s superb oratorical skills (Chen and Gao 18).  

Liu earned a bachelor’s in education and a Ph.D. in Political Economics from the University of Chicago in 1920 and 1923 respectively. Interestingly, in 1918-1919 he went to France as a YMCA secretary to serve Chinese laborers stationed outside Paris following their work in World War I, as had Ming Wei Wen, another Grinnell alumnus.  

After his 1924 return to China, Liu taught at institutions of higher education in Beijing. In 1926 he became editor-in-chief for the English edition of Dongfang Shibao 東方時報. From 1928-1943 he held a variety of official positions in provincial and national governments, most notably in charge of compiling Jiangxi Almanac 江西年鑑 during his tenure as Director of the Office of Statistics of the Jiangxi provincial government. In 1953 he served as Head Librarian at the newly founded Southwest Music College, following the Chinese Communist government’s restructuring of higher education. Liu passed away in China in 1961.