Arts

August 25, 2022 0

A preview of Chinatown’s Films at the Gate Festival

The Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) is bringing the community together in Chinatown on Friday, August 26th through August 28th with the riveting Films at the Gate Festival. This reporter spoke recently with ACDC’s Director of Development and Communications Christine Nguyen about the festival’s origins and what people can expect this year. CHRISTINE NGUYEN: This year is the 16th iteration of the festival; we took a break in 2020. I wasn’t involved at the very beginning, but it was a […]

August 23, 2022 0

Magnificent Beast: an eye-opening Documentary

by Sonia Cavazos

An animal underestimated, and sometimes unseen. Underappreciated…and porcine. Questions of the history of pork taboo and the interesting relationship between pigs and humans has given birth to an astounding documentary: Magnificent Beast. Headed by Maine-based Asian American author Tess Gerritsen (author of the famed novels turned tv-series, Rizzoli and Isles) and her son Josh, this documentary travels the world to find why some cultures abstain from pork, the evolution of the pig population, and the pig’s dynamic relationship with people. From taking […]

August 9, 2022 1

Samurai Summer II: The exciting festival returns to Boston

by Sonia Cavazos

Filmmakers fight for inspiration. Directors dream and build their vision for the screen but each is influenced. Whether it is by a person or a culture, everyone is sparked by another work, and the Coolidge Theatre is showing just how much Japan has influenced film with a dazzling line up in their Samurai Summer II. This sequel is a carefully planned follow up to the debut in 2021. Created as a celebration of their 30th anniversary, the Coolidge Theatre began […]

July 24, 2022 0

Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival: Behind the Scenes

by Sonia Cavazos

Nestled in the history of ancient China lies the origins of the Dragon Boat Festival. Filled with food, wonderful cultural traditions, and inspiring, team-oriented races, today’s Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Races and Festival offer more than entertainment. It connects people and draws them into a different culture. Strong leaders and advocates have worked to bring not only representation, but appreciation of Asian culture in America. Volunteer led and volunteer based, the leaders of Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival […]

July 15, 2022 0

Ocean Vuong’s Time is a Mother: Death, Renewal, and Hope

by Sandy Battulga

At only 33 years old, Ocean Vuong has been making unprecedented waves in the literary world. He has received numerous accolades for his writing, a few of which include the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for his first poetry collection entitled Night Sky With Exit Wounds, a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and the Carnegie Medal in Fiction for his debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Time is a Mother is the newest poetry collection to come from the Vietnamese-American author, […]

July 12, 2022 0

Immigrant and Minority Representation at the Roxbury Film Festival

by Sonia Cavazos

Authentic and truthful minority representation in media and film is difficult to come by, but the Roxbury Film Festival has promised to do just that. The line up in this year’s festival celebrates the diverse untold stories of different minorities, with films that focus on immigration and poverty. Celebrating its 24th year in action, the Roxbury Film Festival boasts a startling line-up, the kick-off feature being Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. From influential Gospel singers during the Civil Rights […]

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

by Christopher John Stephens

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 […]

May 24, 2022 0

Japanese Breakfast and Mitski: Two Asian American Musicians Expanding the Conversation on Representation in Popular American Culture

by Moninisha Yadav

What is ‘indie rock’? Is it truly free from the restraints of corporate record label mandates, or is it simply the audio equivalent of a finely assembled glossy fashion spread in a magazine? Commerce usually likes to think it can manage the tastes and inclinations of the record-buying public, but in recent years some artists have challenged and expanded the pre-conceived notions of genre conventions that have been long populated (and dictated) by white people. Japanese Breakfast and Mitski are […]

May 24, 2022 0

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

by Christopher John Stephens

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 […]

May 24, 2022 0

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Asian Cultural Appropriation

by Sampan Staff

Comic book fans are an insistent subgroup of art aficionados. Some might go so far as to say they are belligerent. They covet elements of their heroes; Superman’s cape, Captain America’s shield, Spiderman’s mask, as if they are talisman objects of veneration. They hang objects on their walls, wear costumes during Halloween, don the same outfits at Comic Conventions, and blur the lines between a preoccupation and religious observation. Where faith has always depended on a creation myth to explain […]

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