The Boston Chinese Photography Association is not just about helping people take better pictures, according to its leaders. The group is also about helping turn hobbies into lifelong forms of artistic expression.“Some people are very interested but don’t know how to shoot,” April Chai, the chair of BCPA, told the Sampan, in a recent interview. “Sometimes we start from helping them choose a camera, guiding them step by step. Many new members quickly win awards, which is deeply gratifying for […]

In her debut graphic novel “Noodle & Bao,” artist and writer Shaina Lu offers a heartwarming and powerful story of friendship, community, and fighting against gentrification. Set in the fictional Town 99, the book follows Momo and her best friend Bao as they work to save their beloved neighborhood food cart from displacement. Lu, a queer Taiwanese-American artist and educator based in Boston, draws deeply from her experiences working with youth in Chinatown.“I wanted to write and draw a story […]

Sometimes it’s difficult to witness the precipitous quality drop of a great writer. In the case of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the drop in quality is less disastrous than it is tedious. Murakami’s new novel “The City and its Uncertain Walls” comes six years after “Killing Commendatore,” itself an excessive mixture of perversity and magic realism. Murakami’s new novel has its origins in a short story published in 1980 and his 1985 novel “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the […]