Fan Guoyu was born 1903 in Lijiang, and studied at Beijing Normal University and the Beijing University Research Institute, graduating in 1933. In 1936 he returned to Yunnan, serving at Yunnan University's Cultural History Institute as professor, a position he continued after 1949. He served in many academic functions and published extensively on early Yunnan history and ethnic minorities. 

He was born in Lijiang, where is former home is now a tourist attraction.