Xu’s research interests include language teaching, intercultural communication, community-based language learning, and language curriculum design. She has taught Chinese at all proficiency levels.

She is a co-author of Acting Chinese: An Intermediate–Advanced Course in Discourse and Behavioral Culture (Routledge, 2021).

Xu holds a B.A. from Beijing Normal University, an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Beijing Normal University, and an M.A. in Education from the University of Bath. Before joining Duke Kunshan University, she was a lecturer in Chinese at Princeton University and later served as Language Director at the Alliance for Global Education. During this period, she also served as Language Director for the U.S. State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship Program and taught in several language programs, including Princeton in Beijing and the Middlebury College Chinese School.