Ken Liu dislikes being tagged as a Chinese-American writer and the over-interpretation that connects his writings with his cross-cultural identity, saying that he just wants to write something original that he wants to read.

Since 2002, he has published more than 100 short stories and two novels of the Dandelion Dynasty series in English. He is now working on the third installment.

Liu is famous for his translation of Chinese sci-fis, including Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem and Death's End, and Hao Jingfang's Folding Beijing. Three-Body Problem won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015 and Folding Beijing won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2016.

An immigrant who moved to the United States at the age of 11 from Lanzhou, Gansu province, Liu studied English, computer science and law at Harvard University, and his cross-cultural experiences inspired him to write fiction that seeks to transcend the boundaries of geography, culture and genre.

In 2004, US journalist and historian Iris Chang committed suicide after being harangued by pro-Japan nationalists for her book The Rape of Nanking, the first work of its kind that introduced the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) to a Western readership.