[1] Her father, Liu Yuntang, was a successful businessman[1] and also a "high official",[2] and was around fifty when Qingyun, his first child, was born.
[1] At a young age, Qingyun already demonstrated exceptional linguistic capabilities, and proved to be talented in painting and writing poetry.
[4] The couple had no biological children, although they adopted a girl named Mincai when Liu was around thirty years old.
[4] Liu was influenced by the works of Pu Songling; at least three of her plays were inspired by stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
[5] Wilt Idema and Beata Grant write in The Red Brush that Liu Qingyun was "by far the most prolific woman playwright of the nineteenth century".