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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
There are few more universal signs of cultural prosperity than a well-stocked supermarket. At their best, they represent the widest array of what we can offer ourselves, our friends, and our neighbors. At their worst, they’re the embodiment of consumer excess, especially in the United States, as they are easily accessible primarily to people with their own transportation and money to spare. Walking down a football field length of at least a dozen aisles, tempted by everything: natural foods, fresh […]
Writer Min Jin Lee is having a moment. Culturally speaking, that conclusion is the ultimate two-edged sword for any artist. Is she being embraced purely for her work, or is there something more crass beneath the discussion? Her 2017 novel Pachinko, embraced at the time for carefully balancing the lives of four Korean generations as they struggle and eventually prosper in Japan, is the basis of the currently streaming (since March 25th) Apple TV + series created by Soo Hugh and […]
The film version of Murakami’s 2020 short story “Drive My Car” is a three hour meditation on grief, forgiveness, and redemption. A stage actor and director named Yusuke Kafuku travels from Tokyo to Horshima to mount a performance of the Anton Chekhov play Uncle Vanya. As written by Murakami and interpreted for film by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kafuku comes off as stubborn, stoic, hiding his true self. Kafuku is a prototypical Murakami make. He curates a classical music collection on […]
