Liu was born in Changchun, Jilin, in 1955 to an intellectual family. In 1977, Liu was admitted to the Department of Chinese Literature at Jilin University, where he created a poetry group known as "The Babies' Hearts" (Chi Zi Xin) with six schoolmates. He graduated with a B.A. in 1982, went on to study for an M.A. and a PhD degree from Beijing Normal University.
He became a teacher, literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms which led to his imprisonment in the people's republic of China. In 2010 he received Nobel Peace Prize.
(Note: It is correct to give his name as "Liu Xiaobo", as this is the proper Chinese name sequence. However, Liu is the family name and Xiaobo the given name. As Goodreads always assumes the family name to be the one after the last space character, the sequence should be turned to "Xiaobo Liu" to make sure the name is parsed and sorted correctly by Goodreads.)