By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Talk about overachieving. With a 4.3 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, 17-year-old Yu-Tzu "Debbie" Liu of Hawai'i Kai ranked No. 1 in her graduating class this year at St. Andrew's Priory.

Her extraordinary talents are not limited to academic excellence, which includes 30 college credits earned at Hawai'i Pacific University.

At age 11, Liu began taking piano lessons. Four years later, she was teaching piano to 28 students, ages 3 to 14, as an independent licensed instructor.

She has built her own computer.

Debbie Liu, middle, No. 1 in her graduating class at St. Andrew's Priory this year, has made parents Wen-Long Liu, left, and Mei-Fun Liu proud by overcoming many odds. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

It's hard to believe that she was considered "worthless" by relatives in Taiwan.

In an autobiography she compiled as a junior for a national scholarship contest, Liu wrote about her mother:

"I know a woman who suffered discrimination in her own family because she gave birth to a worthless child. The family thought of her as a disgrace and would rather the child had not been born. This woman became a ghost with no voice and no importance.

"I, the only daughter of this woman, will give her the voice she deserves. Because of her, my mother, I settle for nothing but the best; I work hard day and night so that my success can prove to people in my family that women are not worthless beings."

Fifty-year-old Mei-Fun "Catherine" Liu doesn't speak English but smiles proudly, knowing her daughter's passion for learning is fueled by that mission. Debbie is strong-willed like her father, 51-year-old Wen-Long Liu, who is the sixth of eight children, his parents' first son.

Wen-Long Liu was the first among his siblings to present his parents with a grandchild. Debbie Liu's birth, however, was not greeted with joy.

"When I was born, the traditional belief was that women should sit at home and cook," Debbie said.

Fifteen adults and their children were living at one time in Wen-Long Liu's family home in Taiwan. Catherine Liu was assigned all the household chores, her daughter said. "They'd say mean things and yell at her."

In 1991, Wen-Long Liu moved his family from Taiwan to O'ahu, where he owned a building at 641 Ke'eaumoku St. His only child was 6 years old. Debbie could speak only Mandarin and Taiwanese when her academic odyssey began in the first grade at Kahalu'u Elementary School.

"I loved school," she said. "I learned English by watching my (English as a Second Language) teacher. I don't know what she looked like because I was always watching her lips and listening to her voice."

Her family moved to Hawai'i Kai and she attended Haha'ione Elementary from the fourth through sixth grades. By the fourth grade, she could speak English but was just "a C student," Debbie said.

Her mother urged her to attend St. Andrew's Priory, and it was there as a seventh-grader that her transformation to an exemplary one began.

In 30 years at St. Andrew's Priory, college counselor Belinda Chung cannot recall working with a more determined student than Debbie Liu.

"Debbie has a passion to learn everything," Chung said. "Last summer, she had an opportunity to do a police forensic lab and mentorship research program at UH. She also wanted to take courses at HPU. Most students would pick one. But Debbie doesn't give up; nothing is impossible to her, and she figured out a way to do all three by making arrangements with each on her own."

As an advanced science student, she has been allowed to observe microbiology research at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. Her personal interests are human genome and anti-viral vaccine research. She participated in two Queen's Medical Center conferences on "Genetics and Molecular Biology: From Discovery to Practice."

Debbie has earned $11,500 in scholarship money, including $8,000 from Executive Women International for her autobiography.

"I feel there is greatness in my future," she said.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.