Background
He was born in Kwangtung, China in 1889.
He was born in Kwangtung, China in 1889.
Mr. Liu received his preliminary education in his native district after which he went to Japan in 1909 and studied at Chih Cheng Institute and later at the College of Law and Political Economy until 1914.
On returning to China, Chi-wen Liu became a follower of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and worked for the revolutionary cause for some ten years. During this time he was successively director of the Bureau of the Treasury of the Kwangtung Military Government ,chief of the Audit Bureau of Canton City, chief of the Board of Military Supplies in the Ministry of War, director of the Audit Department of the Generalissimo's Headquarters.
Then he went to England in 1923 and studied at London University and Cambridge University. While abroad he was appointed special investigator of the municipal administrations of Europe and America and made investigation in the larger cities. After that he returned to China in 1926 and was appointed a member of the Kwangtung Provincial Government and concurrently chief of the Board of Agriculture and Labor.
During the Northern Expedition in 1926 Mr. Liu was chief of the Bureau of Military Supplies at the front as well as Chairman of the superintendent committee and chief of the Audit Bureau of the Provisional Headquarters of the Generalissimo. When the National Government was established at Nanking in 1926, he was appointed the first Mayor of the Nanking Special Municipality and was shortly afterward elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Kuomintang of the Nanking Special Municipality. He was also a member of the National Reconstruction Commission of the National Government, director of the Road Construction Bureau of Nanking and chairman of the Military Surgeon Supervisory Committee of the Central Military Council.
Chi-wen Liu was reappointed Mayor of Nanking in July, 1927 and elected a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang in 1929. He was also a member and general secretary of the City Planning and Construction Committee of Nanking and a member of the Mausoleum Administration Committee of Nanking. Then Mr. Liu was appointed Superintendent of Customs at Shanghai in 1930, member of the Southwest Political Council, member and general secretary of Southwest Executive Committee of Central Kuomintang, and member of the Commission of Kwangtung River Conservancy in 1932. In the same year he was appointed Mayor of Canton Municipality.