In 1912, he moved to Shanghai and in 1916, his work debuted in New Youth, the most influential journal of the May Fourth New Culture Movement.

The same year, Liu took a teaching post at Beijing University, where he began experimenting with using colloquial expressions and folk songs in his poetry.

Under his urging, the Beijing University Monthly published folk ballads collected from all over the country, including the 20 “Boat Songs” Liu gathered from his native Jiangyin.

He taught in the field of phonology at colleges in Beijing,[1] and taught Vernacular Literature (小說; xiǎoshuō) in the Department of Humanities and National Literature (文科國文門; wénkē guówén mén) at Peking University.

[7][8] He collaborated with Li Jiarui (李家瑞) to compile Songyuan Yilai Suzi Pu (宋元以來俗字譜 "The vernacular characters used from the Song and Yuan dynasties onwards").

[13] The usage was popularised by the song Jiao Wo Ruhe Bu Xiang Ta (教我如何不想她 "Tell me how to stop thinking of her"), a "pop hit" in the 1930s in China.

[17] Invited by Chen Duxiu, Liu Bannong became an important contributor to the influential magazine New Youth (Xin Qingnian) during the May Fourth Movement, starting from 1916.

This call was an inspiration to younger photographers such as Lang Jingshan, who established a style of photography which incorporated the aesthetic of Chinese landscape painting.