[1] Yu was born in 1897 in Tongcheng, Anhui Province during the late Qing dynasty.
He attended the Tongcheng Secondary School which was notable for its creation of many political and revolutionary figures of the period.
[2] After graduating from Tongcheng Secondary School, Yu went to Japan and then the United States to continue his education in a work-study program.
The Kuomintang Secret Police eventually had Yu listed as a Communist spy.
He went on to become a member of the Jiangsu Province Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee and the deputy director of the Nanjing NLD student organization.