She graduated from South China Normal University in 2005 with the equivalent of a First Class Degree in English Education for Primary and Secondary Schools. Freely taught at a prestigious Chinese boarding school in Guangdong province for 2 years, before relocating to the UK in 2007. She gained her British teaching qualification in Canterbury University, Kent in 2009 through the UK government's Overseas Trained Teachers Programme. Before moving back to Shanghai, she spent four years teaching in London and the South East of England.