Alysa Liu’s heritage and ancestry: Everything you need to know about her family background

American skater Alysa Liu was born in Clovis, California, to Arthur Liu. Her father is of Chinese descent and also had some political roots as part of the Chinese Student Democracy Movement, which led to his having to move to the United States, citing personal security concerns.

In the US, her father continued his education at the Hastings College of Law, University of California. As per reports, Arthur Liu is currently working as an attorney. Liu's father separated from her mother, Yan Quingxin, but the latter still has close contact with the skater and her siblings and is also their guardian despite all of them being born through surrogate mothers.

Liu was born through the IVF process with the help of an unspecified egg donor, while her four siblings, Selina, Joshua, Justin and Julia, were also born through the same process.

Liu and her father also came under a cloud over supposed spying allegations against them a couple of years back during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Notably, the major intelligence body of the US, the FBI, had to step in and caution the Liu family against this major threat, which was supposedly carried out by the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, Alysa Liu registered an impressive outing at the 2025 World Skating Championships, held recently in Boston.

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Alysa Liu shares her thoughts after historic win at the 2025 World Skating Championships

Alysa Liu during the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston (Image via: Getty Images)

Alysa Liu expressed her feelings after emerging victorious in the Women's singles event during the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. She finished with a total score of 222.97 to become the first US skater in 19 years to win the Women's singles event at the World Figure Skating Championships. Japanese skaters, Kaori Sakamoto and Mone Chiba, finished second and third with 217.98 and 215.24, respectively.

In an interview after her first-place finish, Liu said she didn't have any expectations about the results before coming into the Championships, and that she was quite content with her performance in this tournament. She said (via CNN Sports):

"Even yesterday I didn’t expect this. I didn’t have expectations coming in. I never have expectations coming into competitions anymore. It’s more so what I can put out performance-wise and I really met my expectations on that part today."

Alysa Liu's best result at the World Championships before coming into the tournament was a third-place finish that she bagged in Montpellier back in 2022.