Dr. Du's research focus is the intersection among poetry, narration, and hermeneutics. She is especially interested in how narratives and narration define how people perceive, experience and nativage the reality. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include Chinese language pedagogy, Classical Chinese, and medieval Chinese poetry and narratives.

Du has a B.A. in Chinese language and literature from Nanjing University, an M.A. in Classical Chinese Documentics from Nanjing University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Before joining Duke Kunshan, she taught Advanced Chinese Language and Culture at Princeton Day School and Classical Chinese at Swarthmore College.