Archives - Sampan

Arts December 23, 2023 0

Lunchbox Moments Interview with Artist Aime Bantz

Step into the Pao Arts Center in Chinatown before Feb 17th of 2024 and you will be greeted with colorful walls covered in metal lunchboxes with phrases painted on them. The phrases are distilled from stories by people in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community who attended workshops with artist Aime Bantz. She wrote down the encounters they shared with her during communal meal times throughout their lives. Some of these encounters were positive moments of cultural exchange, but […]

Leisure December 23, 2023 0

Jiaoying Summers is No Joke

by Jia H. Jung

Comedian Jiaoying Summers, 33, shivered on the Congress Street Bridge and gazed at a museum and ships commemorating the Boston Tea Party that happened almost 250 years ago to the date. As fife music trilled in the morning air and men in tricorn hats and leggings stood in waiting, she pondered how colonists threw tea into the harbor to protest British tariffs, catalyzing the American Revolution. Looking down into the water, she mumbled that she would have just pretended to […]

Education December 23, 2023 0

Bilingualism is Superpower

by Sabrina Yeung

At a Nov 16 2023 national conference organized by the Department of Education, bilingualism was recognized for its profound contribution to the economic and political power toolkits for America.. This event, as a part of the Biden-Harris administration’s initiative to promote multilingual education, brought together experts and policy-makers to discuss the burgeoning role of bilingualism in an increasingly interconnected world. A key focus of the conference was the cognitive and economic advantages of being bilingual. A study done by Michelle […]

Food December 23, 2023 0

Are Food Additives Bad for You?

by Jeff Millman

Potassium bromate, propylparaben, brominated vegetable oil, and red dye number 3: no, this is not a list of materials for an organic chemistry experiment. Instead it’s a group of food additives that will be banned as part of the California Food Safety Act, which California Governor Gavin Newsom signed in October. The legislation won’t go into effect until January of 2027, but it’s made nationwide news – after all, these are common food additives present in everything from fruit cups […]

Food December 22, 2023 0

Food Resources In Boston Not Enough to Feed Everyone

by Aditya Venkatram

Food insecurity is currently one of the biggest problems for America’s poor. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, an astonishing 12.8% of U.S households were food insecure in 2022, meaning that they had a difficulty in providing an adequate amount for all family members due to a lack of resources. This equates to over 44 million people in the United States that went hungry, including 13 million children. Food insecurity rates vary significantly across the country, but in all […]

Leisure December 22, 2023 0

Ping Pong Serves as a Bridge Between Cultures, Generations

by Derek He

As many families across the country celebrated Thanksgiving with traditional turkey dinners, a group of local Asian Americans marked the occasion by competing in a ping pong tournament. Inside the Malden High School gym, students and adults competed during the holiday in the event led by Mei Hung, executive director of the Chinese Culture Connection. “Like other sports and arts, ping pong helps people who have language barriers communicate,” Hung said, adding that holding different divisions allowed participants of all […]

Front Page December 9, 2023 0

Asian American Organizations Join Protest Of Spy Law Viewed as Perilous to Civil Liberties

by Tracy Huang

Last month, 63 Asian American organizations gathered as a coalition to protest the reauthorization of Section 702. In a recent explainer, AP writer Eric Tucker laid out the facts:“Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners outside the United States. Law enforcement and intelligence officials see the program as vital to combating terror attacks, cyber intrusions, espionage and other foreign threats. The program, created in the […]

Front Page December 9, 2023 0

Artist Tammy Nguyen Asks, ‘What Is A Farm?’

by Harmony Witte

In Tammy Nguyen’s self-titled exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, she repeats a question that was originally posed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What is a farm but a mute Gospel?” It’s a question that Nguyen is prepared to try to answer through her paintings, collage, and self-published art books in the exhibit. Nguyen is a talented artist, born 1984 in San Francisco.Her father was a Vietnamese refugee. Her work spans several disciplines across environmental, geopolitical, and spiritual […]

Front Page December 9, 2023 0

Know Superfund Sites Near You. Report New Ones

by Yizhen Zhang

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, a total of $3.5 billion was allocated for Superfund cleanup work. The “first wave” of funding of approximately $1 billion aimed to fund, initiate cleanup, and clear the backlog of 49 previously unfunded Superfund sites including the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site in Massachusetts. Between 1940 and the late 1970s, at least two manufacturers in New Bedford used PCBs while producing electric devices and disposed of industrial wastes containing PCBs directly into […]

Leisure December 9, 2023 0

Nobel Prize Winner Claudia Goldin ‘Made Women a Topic of Study for Labor Economists’

by Brandon Wong

Labor economist and historian Claudia Goldin will be honored on Dec. 10 as the 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics laureate for her contribution to understanding women’s labor markets outcomes. She was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 9. Born in the Bronx borough of New York to Jewish parents, Goldin initially studied microbiology because of her fascination with Manhattan museums. While at Cornell University for undergraduate school, she identified her passion for history and economics and […]

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