She is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and Peking University.
[2] From 1969, she worked for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
[2] She is a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, the Society for Asian Studies, the Academia Europaea.
[2] She has received honorary PhDs from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Aberdeen.
[2] In April 2010, she was named Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur.