December 20, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 24

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Month: August 2024

Doc Explores How Gender Affects Usefulness of Psychiatric Drugs

Dr. Briana K. Chen is a neuroscientist whose work may one day change the way doctors prescribe antidepressants. As a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Chen studies sex differences, stress, and psychiatric disorders with an interest in developing sex-specific treatments for mental health conditions.Since the development of the first antidepressants in the 1950s, the subjects in clinical trials for medications to treat stress-related disorders have been primarily male. Chen says this is a problem for a number […]

Boston Offers Electric-Bike Vouchers to 1,000 Low-Income, Disabled Residents

Running errands and getting to work could become an easier task for hundreds of low-income and disabled Boston residents, thanks to a pilot program to help people pay for electric-motor-assisted bicycles. The Boston E-Bikes Incentive Program will provide around 1,000 vouchers worth from $800 to $2,400 to help cut the costs of buying an “e-bike,” or electric-motor-assisted bicycle. Each person eligible to receive the voucher will also get $150 to help pay for safety equipment such as helmets. “… We […]

Artist Kenson Truong Sheds Light on Asian, Gay Identity

Artist Kenson Truong was at work in a small nondescript gray building on a steep, hilly road in Roxbury that serves as a studio for Tufts’ School of the Museum of Fine Arts when I met him last week. He was tinkering with some black, glittery cubes at the time – cubes that appeared like props for the background of an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” of which Truong is coincidentally a fan. The black cubes, however, were part of […]

Chinatown Bakeries Keep August Moon Tradition Alive

The mid-autumn festival, also known as the August Moon festival, is often celebrated with mooncakes – round pastries with sweet or savory fillings that symbolize the full moon. But the tradition of hand crafting the delicacy is slowly changing, say some pastry chefs, who are keeping the tradition alive locally.“The most difficult part of making mooncakes is cooking the syrup, which needs to be prepared a month in advance. It’s a very skillful process. Traditional hand-made mooncakes are the most […]

Asian American’s No. 1 Killer Goes Under the Microscope – As National Cancer Institute Funds Large Study, We Talk to Doc About the Disease

To advance study of cancer among the Asian Americans, the National Cancer Institute this spring set aside $12.45 million for researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The researchers’ aim will be to gather data and uncover potential causes of cancer in the Asian American population for whom the disease is the leading cause of death.“This study represents a significant advancement by recognizing these distinctions and offering relevant data specific to diverse Asian populations,” said Dr. Tim Rebbeck, […]

Golden Monkey Cafe, a Cambodian Restaurant in Lynn, Is Full of History, Flavor and Family

The Golden Monkey Cafe is a small, cozy restaurant located at 468 Chestnut St. in Lynn. The restaurant speaks to the perseverance, resiliency, and history of the food it serves and the people that prepare and present it. Unpretentious, the cafe is decorated with soft pink pastel walls and white trim, and is neat and tidy in its simplicity. In addition to offering free parking, the place affords some seating both inside as well as outside on the veranda for […]

Asian Americans’ History in Hollywood Was Anything But Golden. Now, It’s Time to Shine

It is no secret that for years Asian Americans had been sidelined in Hollywood, facing discrimination and disrespect. You might get a brief appearance of a short Asian nerd with the smell of “kimchi” in his lunchbox in school. And the typical Asian character in a Hollywood film was usually never played by an Asian actor, but by a white actor who played an Asian role. Famously, Mickey Rooney played an especially offensive Asian caricature in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” This […]

Report: State Sorely Lacks English as Second Language Classes for Immigrants

The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center is among several nonprofits in Massachusetts offering free English classes aimed at preparing immigrant students for college and jobs. But as the influx of immigrants to Massachusetts – including undocumented migrants – has increased, so has the demand for English lessons. And now many nonprofit groups like BCNC say Massachusetts is in a state of crisis when it comes to providing English classes to the people who need them most. Case in point: BCNC is […]

‘Where I Belong’ Opens Book on Identity, Trauma. Co-Authors discuss healing Identity of Asian Americans

If a sense of belonging requires a secure sense of place and identity, the very act of engaging in a diaspora means the goal will always be out of reach. In their new book Where I Belong: Healing Trauma and Embracing Asian American Identity, co-authors Soo Jin Lee and Linda Yoon look toward building a bridge between the home that was and the home that might never become fully realized.As co-directors of Yellow Chair Collective, Lee and Yoon effectively make […]

Editorial: Don’t Discount How Undocumented Immigrants Give Back to the U.S.

Immigrants, especially immigrants without all their proper paperwork, get blamed for many ills of our nation. But such scapegoating is not only dangerous to our shared humanity, it is often just plain untrue. In fact, immigrants — especially and including undocumented ones — contribute in many ways to our society and in many ways keep it running smoothly. It’s easy to scapegoat, but it’s difficult to look inward and ask questions like, where would our nation be without immigrants, even […]

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