ON more than one occasion, Professor Yuan Ming has been mistaken for a man. It isn’t her appearance, but her high status in academe that confuses people. Yuan, 48, is president of the International Relations Research Institute of Beijing University, managing council member of the China Institute for Study of the United States, council member of the International Strategic Foundation of China and vice-director of the AsianPacific Research Center of Beijing University. Many people who had only heard of Yuan took it for granted that she was an It is not her appearance, but her high status in academe that confuses people. Yuan, 48, is president of the International Relations Research Institute of Beijing University, managing council member of the China Institute for Study of the United States, council member of the International Strategic Foundation of China and vice-director of the AsianPacific Research Center of Beijing University. Many people who had only heard of Yuan took it for granted that she was an