Liu Caipin

Liu Caipin worked at Purple Mountain Observatory as an astronomer in China for about 20 years. She studied astronomy at The University of Tokyo in 1955, meeting her husband Kimura Hiroshi (also an astronomer) in Japan. Later, they had two children, born in Japan. In 1971, Caipin and her husband decided to return to China and work in the observatory in Nanjing.[1] Caipin had published many articles in the field of astronomy, most of which were written in collaboration with her husband.

Her most cited article, Detection of infall motion from the circumstellar disk associated with the exciting source of HH 111, published in February 1997, has been cited 31 times.[2]

In 1981, Caipin began service as the first president of the council of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots. She served as a liaison between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in order to improve relations. During the first meeting of the All-China Federation of Taiwanese compatriots, she convinced China to gift two giant pandas to Taiwan.[3] She would later go on to serve as a member of the National People's Congress, playing a key role in the development and passing of the Civil Servant Law of the People's Republic of China.

Caipin had spent the majority of her life in Japan before returning to China in 1971. In 1990, Caipin supported a lawsuit against Japan for the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II, such as the Rape of Nanking.