[1][2] Liu's approach to architecture was to create a modern design with a distinctive Chinese aesthetic.
[5] Liu was in a Paris-based art club in college called Phoebus Society, with fellow artists; Lin Wenzheng (1903–1930), Wang Daizhi and Wu Dayo (1903–1988).
[8] He was then invited to contribute to China's pavilion section of the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in 1925.
[9][4] His design for the entrance, which included a dragon and a phoenix, won awards from the French government.
[5] After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and rise of communism, in 1947, Liu and his family fled from China to United States.