Yu Fang has extensive international teaching experience which includes previous postings with the Confucius Institutes at Ricardo Palma Universidad, Lima, Peru (2016–18), Stockholm University, Sweden (2015), and Auckland University, NZ (2012). Her classes are described as open and inclusive, where participants are encouraged to apply what they have learnt to real-world situations.

Yu graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, from Zhengzhou University; she also gained a Master of Arts in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, from Fudan University. Yu has been a full-time Chinese language teacher at Fudan University, Shanghai, since 2015, and is currently on secondment at the University of Sydney Confucius Institute.