Professor Yang is interested in Chinese education and bilingual Chinese dictionaries by Christian missionaries who came to China during 16th to early 19th century. She examines their language learning strategies and proficiencies, in an effort to better understand the wave of cross-cultural communication of that period. She has won a number of fellowships and been a visiting scholar in Hong Kong and abroad. She majored in English Language and Culture at Xi’an Foreign Languages University, where she earned her B.A.