Liu was born in Taipei's Wanhua District in 1951 to a once-wealthy family effectively bankrupted by the Nationalist government's abrupt enactment of currency reform after World War 2. (The reform converted Taiwan dollars to New Taiwan dollars at a rate of 40,000: 1.) The political handover of Taiwan to the Nationalists made her father's Japanese education virtually worthless overnight.
劉秀美，1951 年生於台北萬華，原本富裕的劉家，因二次大戰後國府驟然實施幣制改革（4 萬元舊台幣兌一元新台幣），讓他們形同破產；成長於日治時期的父母，所受的教育也因政權移轉一夜之間全部歸零。