Editor's note

Women hold up half the sky, as Mao Zedong famously proclaimed, but too often their stories have been excluded from the writing of history. When it came to what was judged important, men mostly took the starring role. This week we have launched a new series, profiling under acknowledged women through the ages. 

We have looked at the feminist revolutionary Théroigne de Méricourt, Australian photographer and intrepid traveller Elsie Masson, 17th century Dutch woman Petronella Oortman, whose giant dolls house was a window into her hopes and dreams, and the Russian writer Lydia Chukovskaya, who heroically committed to memory the poems of her persecuted friend, Anna Akhmatova.

Today, historian Antonia Finnane introduces us to the moving story of Hop Lin Jong, a Chinese immigrant in the early days of the White Australia policy whose life might have passed in obscurity if her daughter had not been murdered. Over the coming months we will introduce you to more of history’s “hidden women”, from activists to authors to artists.

Suzy Freeman-Greene

Section Editor: Arts + Culture

Top story

The family of Hop Lin Jong (who is pictured on the far left) at the wedding of her daughter, Ruby (third from right) in 1924. Ruby was murdered by her husband the following year.

Hidden women of history: Hop Lin Jong, a Chinese immigrant in the early days of White Australia

Antonia Finnane, University of Melbourne

Hop Lin Jong's arrival in Western Australia in 1901 was remarkable only because she was Chinese. Her life might have passed in obscurity if not for the murder of her daughter in 1925.

Relationships with China, the Middle East, India and the Pacific will be ones to watch in 2019. AAP/The Conversation

Australia should brace for a volatile year in foreign policy in 2019

Susan Harris Rimmer, Griffith University

Australia's international relationships were tested in 2018. And the coming year may prove to be even more challenging.

Arts + Culture

Science + Technology

Cities

  • Is your ‘experience diet’ making you unwell?

    Jenny Donovan, La Trobe University

    If the menu of potential activities that do us good is made to look uninviting or challenging, we are more likely to choose the easier but less healthy option.

Environment + Energy

Education

  • Six ways to support new teachers to stay in the profession

    Dr Suzanne Hudson, Southern Cross University; Alexandra Lasczik, Southern Cross University; Sarah James, Southern Cross University

    Many new teachers leave the profession after only five years. Here are six steps schools can take to better support new teachers.

Politics + Society

 

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