All About Simu Liu’s Parents, Zhenning and Zheng Liu

Simu Liu’s parents, Zhenning and Zheng Liu, came to appreciate his passion for acting.

Born in Harbin, China, to father Zhenning and mother Zheng, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings the star spent the first four years of his life with his paternal grandparents in his hometown, while his parents graduated in Canada.

As Simu grew up, he struggled with his parents over their high expectations of him. After he finished college and got a job as an accountant, he got fired. After that, Simu took up acting, which caused friction with Zhenning and Zheng, but things got easier over the years.

“I try to keep them close and make sure they get enough of a taste of what I’m doing so it’s not so foreign to them,” the Marvel actor told PEOPLE in 2022.

He added: “As I got older, I found empathy for what they were going through at the time. We’ve come so far. When we’re young, we think of our parents as monolithic, all-powerful beings that don’t change.”

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“It’s such an amazing thing to watch our parents change and grow and mature in their own way,” Yappy concluded the star.

Here’s everything you need to know about Sim Liu’s parents, Zhenning and Zheng Liu.

They met at university

Sim Liu at the “Barbie” European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 12, 2023 in London, England.

Neil Mockford/FilmMagic

Zhenning and Zheng were born in China in the late 50s and early 60s and were “teenagers at a time when the Cultural Revolution was in full swing,” Sim told NPR. Here now.

The government closed many universities at the time, so high school students would instead go “to the fields to basically learn the value of hard work,” Simu explained.

After Chairman Mao Zedong died in 1976 and his successor reopened schools, Chinese citizens had a new opportunity for higher education. Zhenning and Zheng were admitted to the same university, where they eventually met.

“The national acceptance rate was in the single digits,” Simu said. “And those were the odds that my parents were able to overcome just to be able to get that education.”

Simu moved to Canada when he was 4 years old to be with his parents

Sim Liu as a child.

Sim Liu X

Until the age of 4, Simu was raised by his father’s parents in Harbin, China. “I felt completely safe with my grandparents. It’s home for me,” Simu told PEOPLE.

During that time, Zhenning and Zheng were in graduate school in Canada, and after they became engineers, he joined them, but there was an adjustment period.

Although his parents were excited to be reunited with their son, “it was clear to me very early on [they] could not provide such an environment.”

He added: “It was a shock.”

Sim had a “difficult conversation” with his mom and dad when he was fired

After graduating from the Canadian business school of Ivey Western University in 2011, Simu started working as an accountant for Deloitte.

“My parents said, ‘Great, my job is done, all the money and time we spent on this kid is finally paying off,'” Sim recalled. Late show with Stephen Colbertadding that his parents were “ecstatic.”

Unfortunately, Simu was fired from the consulting firm shortly after he was hired. Instead of immediately telling Zhenning and Zheng that he was out of work, the aspiring actor took to Craigslist to “find [his] back to the movie set” and “caught a bug”.

Simu continued, “I definitely took enough time to say, ‘Okay, I think now I want to try something that I actually like to do.’ ”

After receiving a national must-see commercial, he had to have a “difficult conversation” with his parents. “And no, it didn’t go well,” he added.

Sim wrote a “sincere” letter to Zheng that began a new chapter for all of them

Simu Liu’s mother Zheng poses in front of his memoir ‘We Were Dreamers’.

Sim Liu X

After landing his first lead role as Jung on CBC Kim’s convenience In 2016, his relationship with Zhenning and Zheng began to improve.

“We didn’t fight, but at the same time we didn’t collectively choose to re-immerse ourselves in our trauma and how we were all individually affected by it,” he told PEOPLE.

When Zheng turned 60, he wrote his feelings to Sim in a “sincere” letter and gave it to her on her birthday.

“It was eight pages and I remember being so nervous when I gave it to her,” he said. “I said, ‘I want you to know it’s coming from a place of love.’ ”

Zheng was moved to tears by Simu’s letter and invited him to discuss their relationship. “It was the first time we really talked about these issues. We both acknowledged that we are flawed human beings trying to do our best,” he said.

They appeared in a commercial with Simu

Although Zhenning and Zheng are usually out of the spotlight with their son, they made a cameo appearance in a Google commercial starring Simu in January 2022. In the ad spot focusing on the Google Pixel 6, the actor speaks Mandarin to highlight the phone’s Live Translate feature.

“I was able to include my parents in the ad to highlight the Live Translate feature, which allows you to translate between over 46 different languages,” a Pixel ambassador told Google Canada. “I think it’s a great tool for immigrant families to communicate with people.”

In addition to highlighting the phone, the ad mocked his parents’ expectations of him.

“Instead of getting a job at Google like my parents wanted, I’m in a Google ad for the Pixel 6. So that has to count for something, right?” he says in the clip.

The camera pans to his parents standing on the set, shaking their heads. She continues pointing the phone at Simu before his mother reappears, telling him to “sit up straight” in Mandarin.

Sim bought them a Tesla

As a “small token of gratitude” for his parents, Simu bought them a Tesla 2022. In an Instagram post that has since been deleted, the actor shared a sweet message dedicated to them.

“I bought Mum and Dad a brand new Tessie!! My parents surprise me every day with their capacity for growth and empathy,” he wrote.

Simu added: “This is just a small token of gratitude. Your boy may be 33 years old and a Marvel superhero, but he needs his mom to set him straight every now and then. Thanks mom. I know what I have to do.”

Zhenning enjoys photography

Dad Simu Liu Zhenning Liu takes photos,.

Sim Liu X

Zhenning took up photography as a hobby later in life after buying Sim a camera.

“I bought my dad a mirrorless camera a few years ago and it’s just…shit—,” the Marvel star wrote X (formerly Twitter) 2022, accompanied by several pictures.

“This is from our trip to San Diego in December,” he continued. “Greetings to all retired Asian fathers working on their hobbies!”

A few months later, Simu shared another series pictures on X shot by his father along with behind the scenes footage of Zhenning taking photos.

“My dad’s new photography obsession is shooting hummingbirds in his backyard and honestly at this point NatGeo just needs to hire him,” he joked.

They had an incident while guarding Sim’s house

Sim Liu attends the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Simu enlisted his parents to watch over his house when he was gone, but things quickly went awry after they accidentally drank some of his hallucinogenic drugs.

Despite leaving money for dinner, his parents – whom he described as “frugal” and had never used food delivery apps before – had difficulty finding something to eat.

“My mom starts foraging around the house for food,” he says Barbie the actor explained during an appearance in October 2023 Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

She found her way to the wardrobe and inside “found what she believed to be gummy bears and a trail mix with dried mushrooms”, assuming they were snacks.

Zheng presented the treats to Zhenning, and they began to “shoot them like cones”, but became even hungrier after eating them and heading to the store.

“They get into my car, they crash it right away. They ram it in my driveway into bushes and stuff,” he recalled. “They’re so high at this point. They’re freaking out, they don’t know what else to do.”

The neighbor managed to help them drive the car home, but Simu decided that his parents would no longer be looking after his house.

“So I came home many days later and the car was destroyed, my bushes were destroyed, and my medicine was gone,” he said. “I looked at my parents and I said, ‘Okay, first of all, I will never leave you unattended in my house.’ ”

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Source: HIS Education