Mother of Lucy Liu
When she was just four years old, Lucy was abducted from her daycare and held as ransom by Chinese police. They wanted to find her mother, Mrs. Yan Liu, and persecute her until Liu renounces her faith in Falun Gong. Lucy's mother previously protested the arbitrary detention of the practitioners by holding a hunger strike in prison. Guards proceeded to force-feed Mrs. Liu, an excruciatingly painful process that often causes internal bleeding and mangles the throat.
Now Lucy is 24 years old, and an award-winning animation student at Sheridan College in Ontario. Her mother is still in China, and is currently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison after a taxi driver reported to police that she is a Falun Gong practitioner. (Last updated on January 27, 2023.)
Case Summary
Yan Liu / 刘艳 – Female, born on November 10, 1974
Current Status: Sentenced.
Reason for Detention: Liu was abducted by local police on September 30, 2021 without any prior warning or arrest warrant. She was officially arrested on November 4, 2021 and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in April 2022.
Past Detentions: Detained in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2015.
Current Location: Yunnan Province No.2 Women’s Prison (云南省第二女子监狱)
Family Residence: Toronto, Canada
Personal Background
Lucy’s mother Yan Liu is an accomplished English professional with over 20 years of teaching experience at post-secondary institutions. Ms. Liu was an English teacher for the Chinese Air Force, but was later forced to demobilize because she refused to renounce her faith. From 1999-2001, she was a lecturer at the Jilin University-Lambton College and the chief director of the Foreign Education Exchange Office. The school was run jointly by the Canada Memorial University of Newfoundland and Mrs. Liu played a key role in building the Canada-China partnership in Education.
After relocating to Yunnan in 2001, Mrs. Liu served as the dean of the foreign language school at the Yunnan Normal University. During her employment there, Mrs. Liu reformed the foreign language teaching rate at the school by fourfold, resulting in the Yunnan Normal University being in the Top 3 independent schools in Yunnan province in 2011. She also published a textbook called “Fluent Spoken English,” which has been republished three times by renowned Fudan University publishing in China and has been recognized various times for her teaching abilities.
Lucy’s father, Mr. Yong Liu, is an accomplished artist and art teacher. He was named one of the top 100 Chinese painters in 2003, and he was recognized as a painter whose artwork had the greatest potential value by the Chinese Collection magazine in 2007. Many of his artworks have been published in prominent Chinese journals.
Their daughter Lucy Liu (24) currently resides in Ontario. She is a second-year student at Sheridan’s post-graduate Animation certificate program, and a scholarship recipient of the Tibor Madjar award for best animation.
Timeline
Take Action
1. Sign Lucy’s Petition
Visit Lucy’s website here. Save her mother here.
2. Share This Page on Social Media
3. Send an encouraging letter directly to Mrs. Yan Liu
People who have survived Chinese prisons and escaped to the U.S. attest to the enormous difference it can make to hear from the outside world directly. It lifts the spirits of those wrongfully detained, and shocks local officials, making them wary of participating further in persecution.
You can send cards directly to Mrs. Yan Liu to this address:
云南省第二女子监狱 (Yunnan Province No.2 Women’s Prison)
云南省昆明市西郊林家院166号信箱附2号
邮编：650102 中国
No.2 of Postbox No.166
Linjiayuan, western suburb of Kunming,
Yunnan, China. 650102
———
tel: 0871-65126165/ fax: 0871-65126134
