He said the pair were reckless for swimming among the big waves without life jackets
Liu, who lives in Shenyang city in the northeastern province of Liaoning, said he and his family were only in Dalian that day because they were going to a Richie Ren concert.
“Do not thank me. Thank Richie Ren,” he wrote on Douyin, adding: “I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been.”
To Liu’s surprise Ren found out about his good deed and invited him to his next concert in Shanghai in September.
On August 14, Ren thanked the “brother who saved life”, and looked for him on Douyin. The post went viral and attracted 6 million views on the platform.
Liu then posted in the comment section: “I dreamed about becoming friends with you two times recently, and I cannot believe my dreams have come true.”
“Helping others makes me happy,” he said.
Ren posted another video the next day, thanking Liu Zhongpeng and giving safety reminders to those who play on beaches.
The interactions between the fan and his idol have moved many online.
Liu, 36, is a loyal fan who uses Ren’s music as the background for most of the videos he posts on Douyin.
Taiwanese singer and actor Richie Ren, 58, became a household name in 1997 for his hit song “Too Softhearted”.
He captivated many fans in the 1990s and early 2000s for several songs such as The Sad Pacific, Girl Look This Way and Wave after Wave.
The evergreen star is also admired for his compassion and generosity.
He donated money to build roads and libraries in his father’s hometown Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province in the 1990s when the region was less developed.
In 2020, when Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan, he immediately donated 1 million yuan (US$139,000) and 200,000 masks to the city.
Ren, who is an enthusiastic cyclist, went to China’s alpine region to donate 500 bikes to children there in 2013 so they could commute to school more easily.
Last year, a 23-year-old Chinese woman showed up at one of the singer’s concerts in Shenyang to thank him for saving her life 22 years ago, which was a complete surprise to him.
It turned out Ren had donated 30,000 yuan (US$4,000) to her impoverished family when he had a concert in the same city in 2001, which paid for an operation to treat her congenital heart disease.