Lan Le has lived in Massachusetts for over 40 years, after her family came here as refugees in 1981. They fled war-torn Vietnam by boat when she was just 9, and spent time living in a refugee camp in Macau before settling in the United States. She has no real connection to her birthplace and has since raised her nine U.S. citizen children in the U.S., where she holds a green card. But now she, like thousands other immigrants, faces […]
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has a heat map of the United States that at first glance appears like the state-by-state map Americans grew so accustomed to during the Covid pandemic. Texas and Florida are dark maroon, while many other states are hot orange. Massachusetts is a tad lighter, but still fiery. The map, however, is not warning of the danger of disease spread. It’s warning of something just as perilous to Democracy: attempts to curb free […]
As libraries across then nation face ever growing pressure to remove books from their shelves, censor materials and cancel events, staff at these public institutions are taking the brunt of the stress.“I have strong concerns about librarian burnout,” a librarian in Greater Boston, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely, told the Sampan. “I personally know of many librarians who are considering or have left the profession and moved on to corporate … or … retail positions […]
Elizabeth Mochizuki, the Asian American Ballet Project’s artistic director, distinctly remembers what was going through her mind during the group’s first time on stage. “I remember being like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s really happening. It’s just us. We’re doing ballet,’” Mochizuki told the Sampan of the all-Asian-American performance. “It was something I’ve never seen before. I just wanted to bring people together to create this idea, share our stories and our experiences.” Prior to the debut, Mochizuki said, she felt […]
“Yellow Face,” which is now performing at Boston’s Lyric Stage Theater on Clarendon Street, was written some 17 years ago. But in many ways, it’s just now fully enjoying the spotlight. The play, by award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, will mark its Broadway premiere starring Daniel Dae Kim this fall and an Audible version is currently available. “Issues that are at the center of it, issues like representation and appropriation and whitewashing and casting, they were still relatively obscure issues […]
Chinese director Yang Qiu presented his first feature film “Some Rain Must Fall “ at this year’s Tribeca Festival in New York. The film depicts the story of Cai, a mother and housewife who deeply values her family, but whose life loses track and spirals out of control after an unexpected accident. The film received the Encounters Special Jury Award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and premiered at the festival’s International Narrative Competition. Yang Qiu, a prominent filmmaker […]
Photographer Skip Schiel keeps a photo of a boat full of refugees hanging on his wall in his home in Cambridge. It’s not a photo that he took, but one that was sent to him in a fundraising campaign. “I’m looking at it right now,” he said during a phone call with the Sampan. “It was made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It’s a boat full of people of different colors, maybe a 100 or more, looking […]
Sampan sat down with the conductor of the Boston Festival Orchestra, Alyssa Wang. Wang discussed the orchestra’s upcoming program, “A Celebration of Chinese Arts and Culture,” as well as her thoughts on inclusion and engagement in music, and what it means to her to be leading the performance as a Chinese American. BFO’s “A Celebration of Chinese Arts and Culture” will be held on July 28, 3 p.m., at Jordan Hall in Boston.Tickets can be purchased at: bforchestra.ticketleap.com/scheherazade/Sampan: Will you […]
In three magical opera performances, “The Book of Mountain and Seas” at Boston’s Emerson Paramount Center transported packed audiences of theatergoers to another time and place. The 12-member Ars Nova Copenhagen choir, six puppeteers, and two percussionists worked together during the 75-minute-long shows to bring Chinese creation myths to life in an awe-inspiring way. In what is the final show of the Arts Emerson 2023/2024 season, “The Book of Mountain and Seas” breathed life into the ancient tales with its […]
For artist Swati Athale, creating a picture can be as simple as drawing the shapes we all know, such as circles or squares. This is true, she says, even for traditional, intricate Indian works, such as the Warli tribal paintings and well-known Madhubani paintings. “They are more simple and each painting has similarity, relying on the geometry,” Athale, a professional graphic designer, who was trained at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and in fine arts at Nagpur University […]
