In November 1937, she joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and in January 1938, she arrived in Yan'an and enrolled in the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

[2] In July 1939, when the Chinese Women's University [zh] in Yan'an opened, Ding joined the advanced research class and served as the vice president of the student union.

[failed verification] She returned to China in September of the same year following the outbreak of the Korean War and in 1951, she was transferred to the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

[7][8][9][6] Xuesong retired in 1994 and in 2007, she donated ten cultural relics, including a commemorative bowl from the Danish Foreign Ministry, to the Chinese Museum of Women and Children [zh] in Beijing.

She accompanied him to North Korea in 1945, but appealed to Zhou Enlai to request Kim Il Sung's permission for them to return to China in 1950.