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He also teaches history of Western music at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
"Teaching at the university not only gives me a regular lifestyle but also enables me to observe the music industry from the outside.
"My parents are both teachers, and that's why I feel connected to the job. Personally, I like Western music, and I taught myself Western music history during my university years," he says.
He's a star in his students' eyes. But Liu says: "Once you sit in my class, you will have a different view. I am a teacher in the classroom, not a star. I am a very talkative person in class but onstage, I prefer to sing rather than talk."
Liu says his role as a teacher also broadens his musical perspective. "It's not conflicting to be a teacher and a singer-songwriter at the same time because I love music and both jobs lead me to it," he says.
Ever since Liu majored in French at the University of International Relations, he liked listening to music broadcast on the campus. He used to like writing songs in his dormitory after classes, accompanied by a few bottles of beer.
He participated in a French songwriting competition in 1985 and won the first prize, which included an all-expense paid trip to Paris.
A year later, Liu was sent to the Ningxia Hui autonomous region to be a teacher, where he absorbed local folk music.
Although Liu has been exposed to both Western and folk music, he had never undergone any formal music training. He says he sings from his heart.
Liu's achievements include writing the English lyrics for Asking Myself a Thousand Times, which was the theme song for popular drama A Beijing Native in New York in 1993.
In 1996, he cooperated with symphony orchestras instead of using conventional band accompaniments in the soundtracks for the TV series Sunrise in the East, Rain in the West.
He also added Peking Opera singing to the song he wrote for TV series Hu Xueyan in 2005.
For the theme song for the TV series Legend of Zhen Huan, Liu wrote poetic lyrics that rhyme.
"One of the best things about fame is that I can express myself at will," he says.
"I am happy that I still have the passion for music after all these years. If one day I don't feel happy doing music anymore, it will be the end of the world for me."
