A Twentieth-Century Chinese Profile: English and Chinese Version

By Tien Oung Liu

A posthumous family memoir by QinXiao-meng. She wrote this book in 1998, from her acute memories
of her brother-in-law Liu Tien Oung. As a highly-educated woman, Ms. Qin was able to participate in the
intellectual circle which her brother-in-law also belonged, therefore, her insight of his life and character goes
beyond the family, providing a worldly view of a man who was a aspiring student, an enthusiastic intellectual,
a successful businessman, and a generous philanthropist.
Ms. Qin graduated from the former University of Shanghai, and then started a four-decade-long teaching
career. Among her many accomplishments, she was Professor and Vice Chairwoman of the English Department
(1964-1983) of Shanghai International Studies University, and a Visiting Professor/Researcher at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1986-1989). Before she died in 2006, she lived in San Jose, California.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781467026550

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© 2012 by Tien Oung Liu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/19/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2441-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2440-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-2655-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011916077

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Foreword

The Liu Family In Nan Tao, Shanghai

Alas A Samaritan Died So Young

A Ten-Year-Old’s Oath

Adolescent Years

On Tsinghua Campus

Tien Oung And Lucy

Homecoming

From A Civil Servant To An Enterpreneur

The Liu Siblings Reunited

Recapturing The Past

Tien Oung Versus Cancer

Life In Pictures

Appendix Collected Works

Dedication

Dedicated with love to the memory of my parents, Mr. Tien Oung Liu and Mrs. Shin-Yin Tung Liu.

To all Tsinghua alumni, students and faculty.

To my husband Edward B. Collins.

To my brother Robert Liu, his wife Shirley, and their children Peter and Jonathan.

To my cousin Liu Mengxiong, her husband Tian Song, and their son David

To my daughter Magdalene Chan, together with her husband Andrew Chan.

To my son Samuel Liu, who received his MBA from Tsinghua in 2011, Tsinghua’s Centennial Year.

To my stepdaughter Blair Maus, her husband Todd, and their children Chauncey and Peter.

To my stepdaughter Lisa Meaney, her husband David, and their children Case, Calum and Reev.

To my niece Karen Zhao, her husband Zhu Ji, and their daughter

Alyssa.

To my mother’s brothers H.Y. Tung and H.D. Tung and their families.

And finally, to all those with an unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit, a deep sense of gratitude for the gift of this life, and the powerful desire to give back to the community.

Margaret Liu

February, 2012

San Francisco, CA

Acknowledgments

My first and deepest thanks must go to my late aunt Qin Xiao-meng, for writing this profound and epic story of my father’s life in her last years. Without her hard work and devotion, this book would not have been possible.

I am deeply grateful to my husband Ted, and to my stepdaughter, Blair Maus. Without their support and encouragement, I would never have embarked on this project—editing, translating, proofreading, sorting through of all my parents’ photographs, recalling events from so long ago.

Heartfelt thanks must go to Liu Meng-xiong, my cousin and the author’s daughter, for finding the renowned Chinese writer, Deng Hijewel, to translate the book, and for finding a wonderful publisher, Author House. Relatedly, my special thanks go to Deng Hijewel for her beautiful Chinese translation, and for her guidance throughout the publication process.

My profound thanks go to my son Samuel Liu, who coordinated efforts to translate the Foreword and Appendix with his friends Philip Wang, David Harris and Thomas Shou. I also wish to acknowledge Maisie Fong who provided the initial design of the book cover, and Deng Hijewel for the cover’s final design.

I am also very grateful to Dr. David Pan and Dr. Jun Li for their guidance, particularly their suggestions to translate the original English manuscript into Chinese, and to include both English and Chinese versions in one volume.

In closing, I wish to thank the faculty and staff of Tsinghua University, under the direction of Dr. David Pan, for their generous help and cooperation, especially for their assistance in locating the following:

1.   Photographs.

2.   A copy of my father’s Tsinghua senior thesis.

3.   A copy of the minutes of the board meetings, recorded by my father in his handwriting, whereby the Japanese, having surrendered, ceded control of a steel company back to the Chinese government.

Many thanks again for all the inspiration and assistance you have provided during the past year. God bless you all.

Margaret Liu

February, 2012

San Francisco

Preface

This book is about my father, Tien Oung Liu, who died on May 15, 1995 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 81.

My aunt, Qin Xiao-meng—who married my father’s younger brother Tien Xiong Liu—wrote the original manuscript in English. A devoted English professor and talented writer, Aunt Qin started writing about her family in 1992. Her memoir Heartbeats and Heartaches was published in 1998. After she finished her own family story, I asked her to write about my father. In a few short months, she completed the story of his life in a sweet, clear and flowing prose style. She died in 2006 in San Jose, California at the age of 83.

The book begins with the life of my grandfather, Zao-qing Liu. A feeble child from birth, he married and fathered a girl and four sons. My father was his second son. In 1921, when my father was seven years old, my grandfather—still in his thirties—died of diphtheria. In spite of his early passing, or perhaps in part because of it, the family stayed close throughout the years. From his earliest days, my father was the most able and motivated child in the family, and later, the most successful.

The narrative follows my father’s life from Shanghai, his birthplace, to Beijing, Kuming, and Chongqing, then to New York, back to Shanghai, then Hong Kong and finally Canada, where he spent his last three years.

While a student at Tsinghua in Beijing from 1933-1937, my father met C.L. Kung, who became his best friend and lifelong business partner. In 1939, he met my mother, then working as a hospital pharmacist, in Kunming. I was born in Chongqing, during a Japanese air raid that nearly destroyed that city of 450,000. We celebrated the end of the Second World War in New York City, while my father pursued graduate work at New York University. Soon after V-J Day, China’s finance minister Liu Gonyun called my father back to take receivership of Shanghai Steel, a government enterprise surrendered by the Japanese Government. It was always a mystery to me why my father gave up graduate school at NYU to return to China—a mystery I didn’t solve until I embarked on this project.

The Tsinghua Research Team brought to light significant details regarding my father’s life from 1945 to 1949. The events of this time, as documented in Appendix I, were previously not known to me or to others of my generation. They provide important insights into my father’s character and accomplishments, as a young man of 31, which had not before been fully understood or appreciated.

Having been chosen to be sent by the Chinese government to go to the United States for graduate study on full scholarship, he then was summoned back to China in 1945 to take responsibility for China Steel from the Japanese. It was a most remarkable assignment for such a young man. He sacrificed the opportunity to complete his academic program and the safety and comfort of the United States to return to war ravaged and politically unstable China out of a sense of duty and love of country.

At this surprisingly young age, he was asked to join the highest-ranking government officials as they strategized the financial restructuring of Shanghai Steel. In this position, he demonstrated the insight, integrity, dignity and care for others which exemplified his life.

In 1949, after four years in China, we moved to Hong Kong, where my father started the first of many companies. He worked his way up to become an industry leader in real estate development and textile manufacturing before retiring with my mother to Canada in 1993—a move required by his need of advanced medical care for prostate cancer.

Readers of all cultures and walks of life will be inspired by my father’s unwavering love and generosity. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, when his birth family reconnected, my father helped support his brothers and sister, his cousins, his nephews, even the son of his father’s friend. His four years in Tsinghua University, to which he attributed all of his achievements and success, remained so deeply engrained in his heart that he would not leave this life without expressing his gratitude. Three days before he died, he called me to his bedside to discuss a generous gift to his alma mater. This endowment will continue to benefit Tsinghua students, academic programs and chair professors for perpetuity.

As a prominent and successful businessman whose career spanned decades of Chinese history, Tien Oung Liu is an example not only for today’s entrepreneurs in China, but for businessmen and women of all nations. This is the story of a loyal citizen and student, a devoted husband and father, a brilliant intellect, an entrepreneur with a golden heart. I am so proud of him.

Margaret Liu Wen-Tsai

March 10,2012

San Francisco, California

Introduction

Mr. Tien Oung Liu, distinguished alumnus from Tsinghua University’s Class of 1937, lived an extraordinary life of service to his country, his people, his university and his family. In this powerful biography completed sixteen years after his passing, Qin Xiao-Meng recounts the touching stories of Mr. Liu’s journey, defined by hard work, perseverance, entrepreneurship, and remarkable generosity.

Even as a child, Tien Oung was an exceptional student. His grades and test scores helped gain him admission to the prestigious Department of Economics at Tsinghua University in 1933, a school he had long aspired to attend. During his time at Tsinghua, he was privileged to study with the great economist, Professor Chen Daisun, among others. Tien Oung’s keen insights and analytical reasoning placed him among the best in the Department of Economics, and he served as president of the student council. In addition to his academic success, he was passionately interested in music and sports, playing the trumpet in the school’s marching band and excelling as a long-distance runner. After graduation, he retained a lifelong fondness for his alma mater, and lived a life embodying the university’s motto: Self-discipline and Social Commitment.

Tien Oung began his career as a bank manager in a region occupied by the Kuomintang during the Sino-Japanese War. During this time of crisis, his fierce loyalty and dedication to his country guided him to approve enormous loans for the appropriation of strategic supplies, providing critical support to the anti-Japanese war effort. After China’s victory, he accepted an assignment to manage Chinese assets returned by Japan, a position suited only to a man of his impeccable integrity.

In 1950, Tian Oung shifted his focus from politics to business, and embarked on an entrepreneurial career that would last forty years. As a former student of the Tsinghua Economics Department, Tien Oung felt he was guided throughout his career by Professor Chen Daisun’s insight that the study of economics should not be limited to academic reports and policy, but rather should take into consideration and reflect the economic situation of the entire nation, and even the world. Tien Oung succeeded brilliantly in distilling the essence of his education and translating that learning into real-world success. He quickly became an influential member of the Hong Kong business community, and served as President of the Hong Kong Tsinghua Alumni Association. His contributions served to foster solidarity among fellow alumni and nurtured general prosperity in Hong Kong.

Tien Oung often described his days at Tsinghua with great fondness, and expressed a profound gratitude to the university for his success in business. He was a generous man with a warm heart, always happy to give a hand and deeply committed to his charitable work. He believed that an excess of money was of little use—that it was far better to donate those funds to a meaningful cause: to train our youth to serve the country and improve life for the next generation. Toward the end of his life, he instructed his family to establish a large fund to provide scholarships for students in the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.

Tien Oung’s daughter, Ms. Margaret Liu, has inherited his outstanding commitment to others. She is passionately involved in charity and strongly supportive of higher education. Among other roles, she has served on the Foundation Board at the University of California at Berkeley. Margaret has also carried out her father’s wishes to actively support Tsinghua University, for which we express our deepest gratitude and appreciation.

Tien Oung loved his motherland and his alma mater. May we long remember his story and learn from his generous spirit.

He Meiying*

September 30, 2011

* Prof. He Meiying: Former Chairman of Tsinghua University Council. Currently serving as the President of Tsinghua University Education Foundation.

Foreword

The long awaited biography of Mr. Tien Oung Liu is finally here. Written in a clear, simple style, this powerfully moving and inspiring narrative follows the life of this celebrated entrepreneur and philanthropist, from his years as a student at Tsinghua University to his many business successes and contributions to society. These stories of struggle and triumph reveal his diligence and his wisdom, and reflect the best of the Tsinghua spirit. Readers will be touched by the crests and valleys of Mr. Tien Oung Liu’s life, and inspired by his unique attitudes toward wealth, happiness, and patriotism.

From the early stages of information collection to posttranslation and proofreading, his daughter, Ms. Margaret Liu Collins, devoted a great deal of time and effort to this project. The book not only commemorates her father, but also serves to pass the torch of his example to future generations.

In the chapter titled Qinghua Yuan (or Tsinghua Garden) we see that the roots of both father and daughter run deep at Tsinghua University. Mr. Tien Oung Liu graduated from Tsinghua’s Department of Economics in 1937. He was a dynamic student leader, an accomplished athlete, and an unbeatable champion of speech and debate. Following his great professional success, he devoted himself to contributing to society and to his alma mater. He donated scholarships and teaching awards, established a fund for a chair professorship, and another fund for economic research. Throughout his life, Mr. Tien Oung Liu sought to benefit others through self-cultivation and self-improvement. He repeatedly said that he was happy to share the material and spiritual wealth he had accumulated with the less fortunate.

Mencius says: Those who love others are always loved; those who respect others become respected. In this important biography, we encounter the embodiment of this principle. We meet an outstanding entrepreneur who is as generous as he is hard working, a paragon of diligence, self-reliance and social responsibility. As an exemplar in business and a