JingShu Xu

1927 - 2020

JingShu (Sophia) Xu
September 6, 1927 - December 26, 2020
Livingston, New Jersey - JingShu (Sophia) Xu passed away on December 26, 2020 at the home of her son, Johnson, in Livingston, New Jersey. Born September 6, 1927 in Shanghai, she was the oldest daughter and one of eight children of the closely knit family of Hsu Sung-Yu and Hsu Sze-Hao, an art collector and prominent attorney who represented such multinational companies as Chase National Bank and Jardine, Matheson & Co. Her childhood coincided with the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, and in 1942 she fled with her family to the interior of China, living in Xian, and later Chengdu, during the wartime years. There, she attended Ginling Women's College (whose students had been displaced from Nanjing by the Second Sino-Japanese War) before leaving to continue her training as an artist. She painted until the very last years of her life, creating vivid, impressionistic watercolors of prawns and other subjects that were treasured by her friends and family.
In 1948, she married Liu Gongcheng, a member of the celebrated Liu family that controlled major industrial companies throughout China. They moved to Beijing where they raised four sons, Johnson (Zuoxin) Liu, Michael (Zuoyi) Liu, David (Zuowei) Liu, and Steven (Zuoheng) Liu.
She cherished things of beauty and was devoted to her family. In honor of her family, she donated a collection of priceless porcelain and bronze objects, originally acquired by her father, to the Shanghai Art Museum (now called the China Art Museum). She moved to the United States in the later years of her life, to be closer to three of her sons, including her youngest, Steven, with whom she lived for several years in Raleigh, NC until he passed away in 2011.
She is survived by her beloved sons Johnson and his wife Barbara (Mingxin Bai) of Livingston, NJ; Michael and his wife Margaret (Jun Ma) of Beijing, China; and David and his wife Changzhu Yu of Great Neck, NY; and by her cherished granddaughters Monica Liu (David Greenbaum), Ying Liu (Leon Chen) and Yi Liu (Wen Xu), and her great-granddaughters Stella and Olivia. She is also survived by two sisters, Lilian Ching-Huan Lee and Julia Ching-Fun Low, and a brother, King-Ming Hsu; and she was predeceased by her mother and father; her husband; her son Steven; and four siblings, James King-Mien Hsu, Richard King-Wei Hsu, Patsy King-Hwa Chang, and Jensen King-Shen Hsu.
A private service for immediate family was held on December 31st in Livingston, NJ and a gathering to celebrate her life will be held at a later date.