LATEST ARTICLES

Champion of the cause

Champion of the cause

A group of wealthy and respectable middle-class Sydney women gathered in a tea room in the 1890s, where they “sat by favour of that Chinese gentleman” Quong Tart while they considered how best to fight for the right to vote, a movement that was gaining ground in England.

Plucked from obscurity

Plucked from obscurity

The wiry bird scuffling around in the mountainous jungles near the northern Thailand-Myanmar border doesn’t look like much, but this scrawny red jungle fowl has been tapped as the primary ancestor of the modern world’s all-important domestic chicken.

Buoyed by hope in the midst of crisis

Buoyed by hope in the midst of crisis

Dr Xiaoling Liu, the newly appointed chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology, is well-placed to advise on the coronavirus crisis engulfing Australian universities. Born Chinese, she worked as a metallurgist and executive for Rio Tinto for many years before retiring from her executive position and later joining company boards.

China pressures Australia through higher education sector

China pressures Australia through higher education sector

Escalating signs that China is using its $9 billion annual spend by international students as leverage in its increasingly tense relations with Australia has prompted rapid action in Canberra to try to limit the damage in one of the ­nation’s most lucrative export markets.

In China Baby Love, Jane Hutcheon tells Linda Shum’s story

In China Baby Love, Jane Hutcheon tells Linda Shum’s story

China is hard for the outsider. The best-laid plans can get lost in deep tangles of bureaucracy and incomprehension in this huge nation. So the sheer courage of a retired Australian primary school teacher who has spent years navigating Chinese bureaucracy to help disabled Chinese children is worth some attention.

Chinese genome mappers

Chinese genome mappers

From most vantage points, this one-time shoe factory in southern China looks like a one-time shoe factory. Squeezed between other factories in this bleakly industrial zone of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, it has a flavour of the ordinary.

Fears for poorer Asian nations as Ebola outbreak keeps spreading

Fears for poorer Asian nations as Ebola outbreak keeps spreading

While nations with sophisticated health networks debate the merits of mandatory quarantine and whether to place a temporary ban on passengers flying in from West Africa, Asian nations are bracing for the worst, with some experts saying an outbreak of Ebola in the region is almost inevitable.

Bad Air Days

Bad Air Days

Massive LED screens in Beijing’s famous Tiananmen Square glow red through the haze. Pedestrians, many wearing space-age face masks to filter the toxic air, rarely even glance at the screens’ bold instructions: “Implement the Clean Air Action Plan”, “Improve air quality, start from myself, start with the small things, start now” and “It is everyone’s …read more

Match points

Match points

A long queue of fidgeting kids stretches back from the school’s door; kids whispering and giggling, intoxicated by the presence of fame. Tennis champion Li Na patiently autographs their tightly-clutched tennis balls, poses for photos and scrawls her name in book after book. Launching the English language version of her ghost-written autobiography ‘My Life’ in …read more

Wings of kindness

Wings of kindness

Xia Li doesn’t want to help clear away the dishes. She’s having fun, laughing and chattering, and she’s slow to get up from her chair. But a few quiet words from a retired Australian primary school teacher gets her up and moving. Sitting at the other end of the noisy dinner table, teacher Linda Shum …read more