I first met David Liu in the mid 1960s, at an RAS lecture in the old British Council rooms on Pedder Street. He was a northern Chinese and I remember being struck by his distinguished appearance. From then on I joined his cosmopolitan walking group every Sunday when we took to the hills from November to May. 'It's the best walking group in Hong Kong!' David occasionally proclaimed.
He was born on 'Everybody's Birthday,' the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, in Che Moon in the district of Chi Foo (now Yen Tai), the district where Confucius was born. David went to Melbourne at the age of 18 and a year later returned to China where he served in the China Maritime Customs. His last posting was to Hainan Island, the most southerly part of China, from where he moved to Hong Kong when the People's Republic government came to power. He eventually joined the American Consulate in Hong Kong.
David was a Council member of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch from 1975 to 1989. He wrote articles which were published in our Journal including one about Peking opera which he himself enjoyed performing. He went to some lengths to explain Chinese customs to the European members of his walking group as well as explaining names of trees and plants of which he knew the Latin names although he had never studied the language formally. Whenever I hear the term 'Lifelong learning' I invariably think of David. At an advanced age he would telephone me asking questions about the English language and so on. Such questions continued until he became hard of hearing. He also kept a daily record of the weather purely for general interest. This was kept up for over 20 years.
In some ways David was an Anglophile and yet he was fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage. One RAS council member described him as 'quite the gentleman and very cultured.' He was also neat and meticulous. He enjoyed a simple life and, in many ways, set an example for us all. When I last saw him some time ago he exclaimed to me, 'I think I can live to be 100!' Well, he didn't make it. But, like everything that David set his mind to, he had a good try! He had turned 97 when he passed across.
Dr. Dan Waters, Past President, Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch