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January 3, 2025 0

Capturing the Moment: Boston Chinese Photography Association Helps People See Life Through an Artistic Lens

The Boston Chinese Photography Association is not just about helping people take better pictures, according to its leaders. The group is also about helping turn hobbies into lifelong forms of artistic expression.“Some people are very interested but don’t know how to shoot,” April Chai, the chair of BCPA, told the Sampan, in a recent interview. “Sometimes we start from helping them choose a camera, guiding them step by step. Many new members quickly win awards, which is deeply gratifying for […]

January 3, 2025 0

STEM, Healthcare Associate Degrees Can Be Ticket Out of Poverty, But Study Finds Vast Disparities in Success

by Adam Smith

While Massachusetts is home to the world’s most elite universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s often community colleges that provide a lifeline to many of the state’s least well-off students. That’s thanks largely to programs that offer associate degrees in healthcare specialties and “STEM” – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – fields. These often two-year degree and certificate programs can help students land high paying jobs in nursing, medical imaging and dental hygienics as well […]

January 3, 2025 0

Asian Community Fund Aims to Bridge Gaps for Region’s AAPI Communities

by Yuchen Hong

When the Asian Community Fund (ACF) launched in 2020, it set out with a clear mission: to unify and empower the Asian American Pacific Islander community across Massachusetts.Founded during a period of heightened anti-Asian racism and in response to research showing less that 1% of philanthropic giving reaches Asian communities, ACF has become a vital resource for increasing visibility and support for local Asian communities. “We’ve been so invisible to date,” says Executive Director Danielle Kim, highlighting how the AAPI […]

January 3, 2025 0

Editorial: A Shameful Year of Silencing Dissent and Speech

by Editorial

It was just some years ago, when in the previous Trump administration, we saw demonstrations for Black Lives Matter take over the streets to rightfully call out relentless injustices, the Women’s March crowd into D.C. and demonstrations in support of science march through hundreds of U.S. cities. But, now, as we say goodbye to 2024 and begin a new year and another Trump administration, we should not forget the lonely and persistent voices that led the movement of compassion and […]

January 3, 2025 0

How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nomination Reflects Nation’s Public Health Skepticism

by Jeff Millman

Two decades ago, a president’s choices for leaders of public health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would not likely have generated much controversy. But in the years after the Covid-19 pandemic that spurred lasting skepticism from some segments of the American public, that is no longer the case. Especially for president-elect Donald Trump. Over the past month Trump has made nominations for the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and the Office of […]

January 3, 2025 0

Kiyoko Murata’s ‘A Woman of Pleasure’Finds Agency in an Untenable Situation

by Christopher John Stephens

There’s a reason why some stories should not be told by people outside their world. In the case of Arthur Golden’s 1997 novel “Memoirs of a Geisha,” adapted into a hit 2005 eponymously titled film, the Orientalism whitewashing was in full flower. Golden’s novel, set in the late 1920’s, roughly 25 years later than the events of Kiyoko Murata’s “A Woman of Pleasure,” told basically the same story. A daughter is sold into prostitution to cover her family’s debts. Both […]

January 3, 2025 0

B.U. Doctor: Clinical Trials for Cancer Are Increasingly Less Diverse

by Kristen Si

Thousands of clinical trials are run in cancer research every year to test new treatments and gather data about their effectiveness. But these studies can lack a diversity of participants, new research has indicated.For example, Dr. Heather Ann Edwards, an associate professor of otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, found in a new study that over time, diversity in head and neck cancer clinical trials has decreased. This is bad news, because […]

December 20, 2024 0

Phillips Square Planning Draws Interest, Concern in Chinatown

by Virginia Sun and Zoe Voss Lee

Phillips Square in Chinatown was buzzing with energy on Dec. 8, as families, city leaders, elders, and curious passers-by gathered around to discuss the plaza’s future. With confetti in the air, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and several city councilors made a festive appearance alongside Santa Claus, celebrating the moment as part of the annual Enchanted Trolley Tour that made stops across the city that weekend. The mayor expressed gratitude to Chinatown and briefly acknowledged the importance of the upcoming Phillips […]

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