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Kaixiao Liu’s journey from failed China’s Got Talent contestant to Auckland mystery death
From a failed China’s Got Talent (中国达人秀) ) contestant to a religious leader with a dedicated following and a weatherboard family home in the Auckland seaside township of Orewa: Kaixiao Liu and his wife Lanyue Xiao have been convicted of the kidnapping and manslaughter of one of Liu’s followers – 70-year-old Shulai Wang – whose body was found bound in tape and wrapped in rubbish bags, floating in Auckland’s Gulf Harbour. Reporter Lucy Xia has delved into Liu’s musical evolution, from romantic love songs, to grandiose orchestral pieces. His music offers a glimpse into his world.
It was 2011 and Christchurch had just been rocked by earthquakes that claimed the lives of 185 people.
Half a world away, in China, a young man appeared on the popular television talent show China’s Got Talent. He had a tear-jerker story of his fiancé disappearing in the Christchurch earthquake – his crooning love song called ‘Moonlight Wedding’ was for her.
Blindfolded, he explained he could still see her in his mind’s eye.
The 23-year-old was knocked out in the first elimination round.
A decade later, in July 2021, Liu was at a chandelier-lit Auckland wedding venue overlooking the sparkling Waitematā harbour. He had hired dozens of classical musicians, some of whom were members of the Auckland Philharmonia, to play the music he had composed.
Conductor and disgraced former music teacher Peter Thomas waved his baton while Liu, beside him, was dressed in black, wearing sunglasses indoors, as he hummed into the microphone.
The video appears on a website ‘Universe Choir/ KL Music’, and the website also included photos of musicians Liu hired and brief autobiographical information about himself.
“I travel to different destinations to visit various races, to do what I can to help anyone who needs help. I have written and recorded numerous songs like these. My music has no boundaries of languages or spaces”.
Liu’s music is titled with cosmic-themes, including ‘I Miss You Across Galaxies’, ‘Dancing With Nebulas’ and ‘A Kiss in a Spaceship’.
Screenshot / KL Music/Universe Choir
Liu ‘gave away money like water’, musician says
Classical musician Edward* said he got paid about $500 per day and spent about nine months between 2020 and 2021 intermittently going to Liu’s recording sessions about twice a week, recording tracks for Liu’s albums.
“There were at least 12 songs on every album, and we thought initially that he got AI to write his stuff … even back then there was this talk that he was sending audio clips, and would send it off to a guy in LA, and he would transcribe it and send it through. A lot of the music was very hard to read at the time,” he said.
Edward said Liu wouldn’t tell the musicians his real name and went by “KL” which he said stood for “Kind Love”.
He said for most sessions, Liu booked out a large floor in an Auckland CBD building and would have the musicians all mic’ed up, and divided into separate rooms based on their instruments.
Edward said the recording equipment appeared expensive, and he estimated Liu would’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on gear and paying the musicians over months.
Meanwhile, it was clear to Edward that Liu wanted to keep his identity secret.
“He wore a [face] mask and he wore sunglasses and he wore gloves as well, he was very tidily dressed in a good suit, dress shirt and dress pants,” he said.
He said he only saw Liu take off his facemask on one occasion, and that was how he later recognised the face of the man on trial over the death of Shulai Wang.
Edward said Liu never made it clear what the music was for, and at times said strange things.
“I remember him saying at the very, very start that aliens were gonna come and pick everyone up at some stage, that was weird.”
Edward said, at the time, Covid-19 restrictions meant there was no work or performance opportunities for musicians so playing for Liu was a good gig.
“People want to be employed and to have some work, [we] overlooked a lot of some of the underlying creepiness in a way, because it was work, it was stuff that we could do,” he said.
Screenshot / KL Music/Universe Choir
Another musician, Laura*, said Liu sometimes appeared frustrated that the musicians weren’t more interested in his music.
“He [Liu] seemed very naive and sort of frustrated, like a frustrated artist who couldn’t convince the population of his vision,” she said.
Laura said she thought Liu was “out of touch with reality” and sometimes said that musicians would save the world.
She said they were asked to write endorsements for Liu’s website, despite not ever knowing what the project was for.
Laura said Liu’s music was repetitive and wasn’t any good. Some of the recordings got uploaded online.
“One YouTube video had hundreds of thousands of views (of us playing), I thought that’s impossible … I suspect there might have been some buying of followers and buying of views, very much like smoke and mirrors kind of thing,” she said.
Laura said Liu “gave away money like water”, and would sometimes get his “assistant” to distribute cash to the musicians.
“She was always referred to as his assistant, and he would treat her like an assistant … It was: ‘Michelle, can you do this, Michelle get them this’. So yeah, that was weird”
Laura only learned that Michelle was Liu’s wife, Lanyue Xiao, after seeing media coverage of the trial.
She said in July 2021, Liu booked out the Bruce Mason Centre for a recording session.
Liu had five different outfit changes and wore various pairs of sunglasses. He hummed into a mic while the orchestra played to empty seats, she recalled.
A filming crew recorded the session and Liu’s performance.
“He was moving the mic like he was Elvis Presley,” she said.
Music was also one of the few things heard in trial that offered some clues on how Liu may have come into contact with his followers.
A detective told the jury that one of the women who lived with Liu’s family at their Orewa home told police that someone died in the house after falling, she didn’t look after them well, and that it’s not her friend’s fault.
Senior Constable Nian Zhao asked the woman who these friends were.
“She said she met the people over the internet, over (a) website, kind of a music website, a song website, and she referred to the occupants of the house as friends,” he told the jury.
However it remains unclear how Shulai Wang from a village on Hainan Island connected with Liu.
During the trial, the jury heard that Wang, her youngest son, her grandson and her husband were family number 12 of at least 37 families devoted to Liu’s teachings.
* Names changed to protect identities
RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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