Duff's father died when he was three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Duff's work is considered by leading scholars to be iconoclastic and controversial, his most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was Nine Diaries.

Duff's father died when he was three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Duff's work is considered by leading scholars to be iconoclastic and controversial, his most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was Nine Diaries.