Christopher John Stephens

Front Page September 20, 2022 0

Sampan Interviews a Vietnamese Native About Gun Culture in Vietnam and the US

As of 2018, Vietnam’s homicide rate was 1.52 per 1000 people, the 57th lowest in the world. Compared with the US, where the homicide rate was 4.88 per 1000 and we were the 157th lowest in the world, it’s no wonder that the biggest threat for many living in Vietnam is being victimized by pickpockets and bicycle thieves. Vietnam’s homicide rate is lower than France, Finland, Canada, and Thailand. In 2015, when Vietnam restricted civilians from gun ownership, a black […]

Boston September 7, 2022 0

A Bridge Towards Tomorrow: Sampan speaks with Monique Tú Nguyen – Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement

Government policies and mission statements are always driven by terms and phrases. Whether they exist beyond looking good on paper and sounding strong in stump speeches is the dream that isn’t always realized. For Boston’s MOIA (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement), the driving motivation rests in that final word: advancement. What does it mean? How is it measured? Can immigrants advance without successfully integrating themselves within the social fabric of their chosen land? What measures need to be taken in […]

Front Page September 6, 2022 0

Gun Possession in Morocco: Sampan Interviews a Citizen about Gun Culture in his Homeland and the US

In a 2018 failed bid for the 2026 World Cup, Morocco highlighted its limited threats from gun crime, especially compared to the United States. At that time, Morocco’s murder rate was 3 in 100,000, which looks comfortable against 5.3 in the United States. The rate has stayed more or less the same in Morocco over these past four years. In comparison, the United States experienced more gun-related deaths in 2020 than any other in recorded history. This reporter recently had […]

Boston August 23, 2022 0

Complaints about the T: Sampan readers speak Out

We hit the streets this week to ask readers how they are coping (and will continue to cope) with the ongoing Green Line problems and the unprecedented month long shut down of the Orange Line starting August 19. Mayor Wu has pledged to make all the Boston blue bikes free for the duration of the shutdown. Extra shuttle buses will clog the streets to assist Orange Line riders coming in and out of the city, and the lucky few who […]

Boston August 22, 2022 0

Building Bridges and strengthening relationships: an interview with Boston Police Superintendent James K. Chin

The ideal of great community relationships between the police department and neighborhoods of any major city in this country is often in stark contrast with the reality. Crime statistics and verifiable incidents are too often recounted in a seemingly endless cycle of false moves, misinterpretations, and bad feelings from those on either side of issues regarding the sometimes strained relationships between police and the public they serve. The end result is more often than not a litany of complaints and […]

Boston August 19, 2022 0

The Games go on: 77 Years of Chinese American Volleyball

Sampan talks with Dr. Bobby Guen of the North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament ahead of Sept. 3-5 event. Nearly a century ago, the Immigration Act of 1924 had basically shut down immigration from Asia to the United States. No Asians were eligible for citizenship and those who were in the U.S. could neither enter nor leave the country. By the late 1930s, the only thing a typical Chinese laborer — mostly in laundry or restaurants — in Chinatown could […]

Leisure August 8, 2022 0

Meeting Our Neighbors at the Chinatown Summer Ice Cream Social

Tufts University Government and Community Relations hosted an Ice Cream Social in the neighborhood on the Health Sciences Campus in Chinatown on July 21st. It was a great opportunity to beat the heat and meet our neighbors. This reporter had the opportunity to interview Liza Perry, Deputy Director, Tufts University Government and Community Relations, about the past, present, and future of Tufts University’s role in the Chinatown community. What initiatives are you hoping to launch after the summer’s over? We […]

Front Page June 30, 2022 0

Charting new courses while staying in your lane: Julie Otsuka’s The Swimmers

In Julie Otsuka’s remarkable novel The Swimmers, even the most judicious reader might not notice they’re experiencing a miracle. Dive deep to the bottom of this pool and understand that within a few pages, Otsuksa has created a full world of people who feel most alive in the depths below the city where they’ve spent so many years swimming a regimented amount of laps back and forth. One of them, a woman named Alice who is withering away from dementia, will […]

Features June 17, 2022 0

Thank You, Mr. Nixon: stories Gish Jen’s fiction looks at the complicated 50 year legacy of China/U.S. normalized relations

Going back to 1949, according to history.state.gov, the U.S.Ambassador had met with Communist Ambassadors to discuss U.S. recognition of the newly declared (as of October 1, 1949) PRC (People’s Republic of China.) Had Mao not declared his intention to side with the Soviet Union, recognition could have come much earlier than 1972. The United States stayed out of the Chinese Civil War, even though “the Truman Administration was prepared to abandon the Nationalists and allow the Communists to take over […]

Features May 24, 2022 0

A Song Everlasting: Ha Jin and the Absolute Cost of Creative Freedom

The status of a creative writer in their own culture is always tenuous, always in flux. Are they best as servants to the status quo, or are they only understood within the context of what they manage to overturn? Think of American authors like James Patterson or Tom Clancy, whose bestsellers over the course of their many decades follow standard formulas of handsome rugged heroes and clearly defined bad guys. Their creativity exists in their ability to define and perfect […]

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