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.)
Lucy created a video letter to urge Canadian officials and people around the world to speak out and ask the Chinese Communist Party to release her mother.
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.
Mrs. Yan Liu and Mr. Yong Liu in China a few years ago.
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.
Mr. Liu’s artworks
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
November 1999: Liu Arrested in Beijing Mrs. Liu Yan went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in November 1999, taking two-year-old Mingyuan with her. She was arrested and taken back to Changchun City, Jilin Province where she lived at the time.
August 2000: Liu family Detained at Beijing Appeals Office Mrs. Liu and then 2-year-old Lucy would be detained for over a week at a hotel belonging to Mrs. Liu’s workplace. Her mother and Mr. Liu were also detained for two weeks.
June2001: LucyHeld As Ransom In June 2001, police came to arrest Mrs. Liu at school. With the kind help of colleagues, however, Liu was able to escape. The police abducted Lucy Liu from daycare to use her as ransom.
September 1, 2012: Father Arrested, Sentenced to 4 Years Mr. Liu was arrested while working on a sculpture project in a border county in Yunnan. The police held him in the county police department as a suspect for distributing Falun Gong materials and talking to people about the persecution. He was later sentenced to four years in prison. The Liu’s house was subsequently ransacked and under immense threat, so Mrs. Liu had to leave home for a month to avoid arrest. Upon hearing her son was imprisoned, Lucy’s paternal grandmother passed away shortly due to the stress and depression. Police also trespassed and ransacked the house of Lucy’s maternal grandmother.
January 2015: Mother Arrested, Sentenced to 3 Years When Mr. Liu was still imprisoned, Lucy’s mom was also detained by the police just after New Year’s Day in 2015. She was sentenced to three years in prison for telling others about the persecution of Falun Gong.
September 2021: Kidnapped by Police Kunming police arrested and detained Mrs. Yan Liu in Kunming Detention Center, capital city of Yunnan province.
News & Actions
Lucy Liu created a website and a petition for her mother here.
Mayor John Taylor of the Town of Newmarket wrote that he read the article about Mrs. Liu’s detention in the Globe and Mail one morning two days before. He stated his support for Lucy.
Councilor Paul Sharman of Burlington City wrote to Lucy that he knew about the persecution of Falun Gong and he was deeply saddened for her, her family and all Falun Gong practitioners.
Mayor Sandy Brown of the Town of Orangeville wrote to Lucy that he was sorry to know her family was hurt, “In Canada, we believe in religious freedom. I certainly support your efforts to release your family.”
“I used to have a family full of love and art, but now we are separated by jailing sentences because the Chinese regime consistently persecutes people who hold true to their beliefs. Now I’m here in Canada away from home, I’m telling my story to the world to call on the release of my mother Liu Yan. If you like to help, please see website: rescueyanliu.ca”
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
