Formerly a lecturer in English Language and Literature at Hubei University, Yuanfang Shen studied at Monash University and in 1993 completed a Master of Arts (MA) degree titled Inscribing China: Australian Fictional Representations 1979-1989. Her Doctor of Philosophy ( PhD) degree at the Australian National University (ANU), on autobiographical writing by Chinese-Australians, was awarded in 1998. In 2001 Dr Shen worked as Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Coordinator of the Centre for the Study of the Chinese Southern Diaspora at ANU. She has published many articles on a diversity of themes ranging from contemporary Australian and Chinese Literature and gender studies to migration.