Archives - Sampan

Boston April 30, 2025 0

‘She Represents All of Us’: News Legend Connie Chung Shows She Could Tango With Nixon … and Crack a Good Joke

Going to see Connie Chung talk is like going to a stand-up show where the comic also happens to be a famous journalist. The more than 200 audience members who filled the GBH Calderwood Studio for “A Conversation with Connie Chung” this March likely had a good idea of who she is: the first Asian American to anchor a broadcast program in the United States. They might have known that she broke into the industry and pushed her way to […]

Boston April 29, 2025 0

These Students We’re Sure They’d Study in the U.S. Not Anymore

by Darren Liu

Sampan’s Hong Kong-based reporter Darren Liu asked several young adults from abroad whether the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants made them think twice about studying in the U.S. That was in mid-March and the views were mixed. Liu recently followed up with the students after several high-profile abductions and detentions of university students and graduates occurred — including many with no criminal charges — and student visa cancellations. Here is what these students are thinking now as many have grown more cautious: […]

Eddie Ahn Draws From His Life as an ‘Advocate’: Artist Chats About Creating Graphic Novel

by Anna Hu

During the height of Covid in 2020, environmental policy advocate Eddie Ahn started what he thought was just a pandemic project — posting snippets of his comic book memoir to social media. The posts — about career anxieties, the bumpy road to artistic success, and growing up Korean American with industrious immigrant parents — resonated with readers. And then his comic strips took off. The original goal was to develop a series of short stories for the small but well-respected […]

History April 25, 2025 0

Vietnamese Americans Tell Story of Diaspora in Own Words at 50-Year Anniversary Event

by Adam Smith

This April marks a half-century since refugees began flooding from Vietnam after the end of the war, making their perilous escape from persecution and violence. In recognition of this anniversary, hundreds of Vietnamese Americans and others are slated to gather on April 26 at Boston College High School in Dorchester for “Remembering Black April: 50 Years of Vietnamese Diaspora.” “It’s a pretty momentous year and time to think about the impact of the war’s legacy on families and communities,” said […]

Business April 25, 2025 0

Chinatown Eatery Owner Speaks Out

by Martin Gao and Lydia Lowe

The owner of Double Chin Restaurant and Bao Bao Bakery says she is facing eviction from her two Chinatown businesses, after about 8 years in operation. Owner Gloria Chin grew up in Boston and says that Chinatown “has always been a really big part of my identity” as her family has been involved in businesses in the neighborhood for multiple generations. We spoke to her about the struggles of running a business in the area — including hiring staff, rising […]

Boston April 25, 2025 0

Docs at Arab Conference at Harvard: We Need Solidarity Not Charity

by Adam Smith

On a weekend when much of the U.S. media was fixated on the latest tariff spat with China, a small group of doctors in Boston was focused instead on the humanitarian crisis worsening in another part of the world: Gaza. Israeli forces had – just hours before the doctors met in the Harvard medical campus – struck Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Gaza’s only remaining Christian hospital and, according to press reports, the last fully operating hospital in Gaza City. As the […]

Editorial: These Two Judgments Are Worth Reading

by Editorial Team

We’ll leave the writing in this editorial to two voices that deserve to be magnified. First, the words of Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, who rejected an appeal by the Trump Administration in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly sent to an El Salvadoran prison: “It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is […]

‘No One Can Walk It For You’ – Iranian-American Haleh Liza Gafori to Appear in Hub to talk about Her Translation Life

by Kevin A. Mani

Haleh Liza Gafori had the offer of a lifetime. And then she said no. Gafori was one of the lucky few to get accepted into Harvard Medical School. But instead, the Iranian-American writer and translator decided to pursue her true passion: The arts. “It’s a pity,” her mother said recently, holding a framed copy of her daughter’s acceptance letter. Instead, Gafori earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the City College of New York.Now, years later, […]

Arts April 25, 2025 0

‘Beastly’ Is Poignant But Fails to Address Elephant in the Room

by Virginia Sun

The one-woman theater performance Beastly: An Autobiographical Feminist Folk Tale at the Boston Center for the Arts opens in a not-too-distant dystopian future where oil tycoons rule while the world burns. Melissa Hale Woodman, who created and starred in Beastly, delves into female sexuality, identity, and aging, while connecting these autobiographical experiences with critiques of patriarchy, corporate greed, and climate crisis. The show is told through interwoven short personal monologues with Woodman dressing up as animals to tell fables in […]

Arts April 25, 2025 0

‘A Man of No Importance’ at Speak Easy Theater Compassionately Explores Queer Life

by Virginia Sun

The musical A Man of No Importance, set in 1960s Dublin, delved thoughtfully into how love, community, and art can be spiritual bulwarks for a closeted queer person amid homophobia and conservatism. At Speakeasy Theater, this wonderfully acted and staged performance addressed queer themes of both “coming in” to oneself and coming out to the world with emotional depth, vigor, and bravery. Paul Daigneault directed this beautifully produced musical, his last show after 34 years at the helm of the […]

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