© This article is an extract from Paul Hattaway's epic 656-page China’s Book of Martyrs, which profiles more than 1,000 Christian martyrs in China since AD 845, accompanied by over 500 photos. You can order this or many other China books and e-books here.
1938 - Herman Liu
1938 - Herman Liu
April 8, 1938
Shanghai
Thousands of war refugees flooding into Shanghai in 1937.
Herman Liu was one of the most notable Christian leaders in Shanghai during the 1930s. He was the first Chinese president of the Baptist University of Shanghai, and he held a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University. This link to the West made him an enemy of the Japanese, and they constantly threatened Liu and disrupted his work of helping thousands of refugees who had flooded into Shanghai from the war-torn countryside.
Seeing that Liu would not bow to their wishes, the Japanese placed him on their blacklist. Numerous attempts were made on his life. The gate leading to his home was blown up with dynamite as an apparent warning, and on another occasion a basket of poisoned fruit was sent to his home. Liu discovered the poison just in time. Concerned friends urged Liu to flee Shanghai, but he refused, declaring, “I will remain as the Lord can use me here. I will not desert.”[1]
On the morning of April 8, 1938,
“Japanese soldiers shot him to death in front of his home, where he was waiting with his young son for a bus to take him to his office. His friends tearfully held his funeral while a crowd of 5,000 waited outside the church, unable to get in. On a cross over his grave was inscribed:
HERMAN LIU, CHRISTIAN MARTYR AND PATRIOT.”[2]
1. Hefley, By Their Blood, 65.
2. Hefley, By Their Blood, 65.