It was Liu's directorial debut and stars Du Huanan and Wang Lingbo as the titular Chen Mo and Meiting.

[1] Chen Mo and Meiting tells the story of a flower vendor and a massage parlor girl, the children of persecuted intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, as they enter into a shy and tentative romance.

After writing the screenplay for Chen Mo and Meiting, Liu set out to find the money to finance his project.

Post-production was funded primarily from Liu and his producers selling calendars on the street, eventually paying off debts over the course of two years.

[5] As an independent and foreign-financed film, however, Chen Mo and Meiting was not given official approval and as a result was not released in China.