The new Head of the Department of Media and Communication of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Professor LIU Yu-li, arrived in Hong Kong last August—just in time for one of the most turbulent periods in the city’s history. Undaunted, she is more than ready for the challenge.

Liu is a veteran of the media industry, with a long and accomplished career as both a practitioner and an academic. She started as a radio announcer and later became an English-language radio reporter for the Overseas Department of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) from 1983 to 1985, and was executive producer, editor and reporter for the Chinese Television System (CTS) in Taiwan from 1985 to 1989.

“I think my personality is suited for a career in media and communications,” explains Liu, who initially studied English literature at university. “I love to communicate with people, and I also work very hard.” The major reasons for her success are hard work and perseverance.

She completed her PhD in Telecommunications at Indiana University in the US in 1992, and then taught at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan for 27 years. A Fulbright scholar, she has worked as Visiting Professor in prestigious universities around the world including CityU, Oxford, George Washington, Fudan, Renmin, Keio, Waseda, Boston and Nanyang Technological University.

During this time, Liu developed a career in government and certain academic associations—all while maintaining her standing in academia. She served as the first-term Commissioner of Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (equivalent to the Federal Communications Commission of the US) for two years, President of the Chinese Communication Association (an international academic organisation) for two years, and President of the Taiwan Communication Society (a Taiwanese non-profit organisation) for four years.

She is a board member of the International Telecommunication Society and also serves as a member of the editorial board at four Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals: Telecommunications Policy, Asian Journal of Communication, Chinese Journal of Communications, and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

She says she was only able to receive all these opportunities through sheer hard work and determination. “When I first started working in the media [in Taiwan], there were very few job opportunities back then; it’s not like today where you have so many media outlets,” Liu says. “So when I got my first job in radio, I would stay extra hours at the station without being asked. Soon, word started spreading about my work attitude and I received more opportunities.”

You would not know it meeting her now but Liu used to be quite a shy person. “Working in radio as an announcer was already a big deal for me, but my boss at the time felt I had the potential to work as a reporter. Then, I found out my first interview was going to be with two US congressmen, so you can imagine how nervous I was.”

Liu says she overcame her shyness and various other career obstacles with a “just do it” attitude, which accompanied her notable work ethic.

“Throughout my career I’ve worked pretty much every day of the week,” she says. “When I worked in radio and television, I would use my day off to teach at some universities as a Part-time Lecturer.”

“So many people fail to meet their own expectations,” she explains. “For me, I have always made it a point to do more than what I expect of myself, and as a result, I exceed other people’s expectations as well. When I was a student, I would always do more than what my teachers expected. Once I became a professor, I’ve tried to do more than what my students and administrators expect of me. I’ve always encouraged myself and my students to think this way.”

Liu says she wants to find time to write a self-help book based on the theme “never give up”. Research indicates that perseverance is one of the most important personality traits that leads to career success, personal fulfillment and the ability to maintain happiness and focus during times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 outbreak.

“My aim isn’t to encourage people to be stupid and try to do things that are impossible, but as long as something is possible, and you want it, you should never give up,” she says.

Liu tells the story of how she got her PhD to exemplify this belief. When she arrived in the US for an interview at Indiana University, her connecting flight from Chicago was cancelled due to snow storms, leaving her stranded. “The graduate program director was flying to a conference the following day, so I had to be there on time. But nobody [at the department] expected me to make it.”

Eventually, Liu started approaching strangers at the airport to find out who else was going to Bloomington, where the university is located. She managed to carpool with four other people, driving through the night, arriving just in time for the interview. “They were so amazed that I made it that they decided to give me a full scholarship in order to persuade me to accept their offer, because I had two other offers at the same time,” she says. “This is an example of how if you don’t give up, you can turn a bad situation into a good one.”

Liu also faced severe adversity during her journey to CityU. Right before her interview in June of last year, she developed an unknown and intense pain in her left foot. “I had just attended a conference in Washington DC and had a layover in San Francisco. The pain was so unbearable that the flight attendants had to give me medicine and told me I should go to the hospital. So I had to make a decision— delay the interview or risk something happening during the flight.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was risky. I had no idea if my condition would get worse and I had to endure a lot of pain during that flight. But in the end sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, and sacrifices, if you want to progress in your career.”

Once again, Liu’s determination paid off, as she ended up getting the job and moved to Hong Kong in August 2019. She had been reading about Hong Kong’s increasing political turmoil and disruption at the city’s airport and understood the possible safety hazards of her new position. But these are the kinds of risks and new challenges that she is ready to face head-on.

Now, she is determined to take the University’s already top-tier Department of Media and Communication to new heights.

Established in 2008, COM is the youngest media department in Hong Kong. It has quickly risen to prominence thanks in large part to its computational and interdisciplinary approaches, which are supported by the Web Mining Lab and Centre for Communication Research, respectively. As of 2020, it ranks 38th among communication and media studies department worldwide, according to QS World University Rankings by Subject.

Liu’s vision as the new COM Head is to propel the Department to the top in the Asia-Pacific region, and to make it one of the leading departments in the world during her tenure. She also hopes to instill a message of positivity and hard work into Hong Kong’s future media workers, which in turn, should help make the city a more harmonious one.

“If you work in the news media, you have a certain social responsibility. People nowadays are smart, and they are skeptical of traditional media outlets and their bosses. Therefore, I believe everything that you report should be accurate and fair. As long as you report the truth, whether you work in traditional or new media outlets, people will start to trust the media again.”

It will certainly be a long and difficult path to re-establish a trusting relationship between the media, government and citizens in Hong Kong. But knowing Liu, she would not be giving up anytime soon.