She specializes in twentieth-century literature with a focus on women’s autobiography. She earned her doctoral degree in Chinese from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, in 2000. With her MA and BA in English, she has a passion for poetry, drama, and fiction by British as well as American writers. She co-authored Ying shi ru men [How to read English poetry] (Shanghai, 1990), which has been adopted as a textbook and is in its second reprint.