December 20, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 24

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Boston

Phillips Square Planning Draws Interest, Concern in Chinatown

Phillips Square in Chinatown was buzzing with energy on Dec. 8, as families, city leaders, elders, and curious passers-by gathered around to discuss the plaza’s future. With confetti in the air, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and several city councilors made a festive appearance alongside Santa Claus, celebrating the moment as part of the annual Enchanted Trolley Tour that made stops across the city that weekend. The mayor expressed gratitude to Chinatown and briefly acknowledged the importance of the upcoming Phillips […]

‘Palestine Is the New Vietnam,’ Says MIT Linguistics Professor DeGraff

MIT professor Michel Anne-Frederic DeGraff has a long history as an expert in linguistics. His study in the field has propelled his career in academia at one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. His recent political activism, however, has gotten him in trouble with that very university. DeGraff’s supposed crime? Taking the side of solidarity with Palestine at a time when universities around the nation have increasingly cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism. Originally a student of computer science in the […]

Kairos Shen Has Big Visions for Chinatown

Kairos Shen is a familiar face to anyone who follows development in the city. During his lengthy career, Shen worked from 1993 to 2015 at the city’s development and planning agency, at the time called the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Before leaving the BRA, he rose to the rank of director of planning, wielding influence over development in the city – including for the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the South Boston Waterfront Innovation District, and the renewals of Fenway Park and Nubian […]

Holistic Approach Needed to Heal: Refugee Trauma Doctor

Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk, co-founder of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, has been working with torture victims and refugees for over 30 years. Specializing in the mental health evaluation and treatment of refugees and survivors of torture, she is currently the principal investigator for an Office of Refugee Resettlement grant addressing the holistic treatment of torture survivors. She spoke to Sampan at length about her life, her work, and what we can all do to protect human […]

MIT Suspends Student ‘Banned’ Over Essay

The South Asian American doctoral student at MIT who was effectively banned from the university’s campus over an essay he wrote related to Palestinian activism has been suspended until January 2026, according to the student. But Prahlad Iyengar, a second-year electrical engineering PhD. student, was not suspended for his essay that drew media attention over the past month. Instead, he told the Sampan in an interview this week, that while he is still “banned” from the university because of his […]

Artist, Writer Shaina Lu Draws From Life Stories in Chinatown

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 […]

Jon M. Chu’s ‘Wicked’ Is a Blockbuster Queer Romance Film for Our Times

“Wicked” is a blockbuster-bound love story for the ages in the grand style of Old Hollywood. This queer-coded romance tells the classic story of two enemies to lovers whose chemistry and complicated love for each other is so well known in the intimate world of female friendship. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) was born with green skin in the land of Oz and must fight to find her place in society. Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) is also looking to find herself and establish […]

Minority, Female Doctors at Teaching Hospitals Face Barriers to Job Advancement, Finds Study

Racial minorities and women face many barriers to getting promoted to advanced positions at teaching hospitals and in other academic medical jobs when compared with their white peers, found a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, “Race and Ethnicity, Gender, and Promotion of Physicians in Academic Medicine,” in fact, reveals persistent inequities in the career advancement of physicians within academic medicine. Disparities were particularly glaring for women and racial and ethnic minority groups. […]

Editorial: The Language Bullies Must Be Stopped

Two of the most damning accusations a person can face are being called a terrorist and an antisemite. It’s true, terrorism is abhorrent and antisemites are abhorrent. There is no question about either.But there is something equally as abhorrent: Falsely throwing these labels at people simply to silence them. The horrifying truth, however, is several people – especially minorities – have recently had their words incorrectly called either terrorist-related or anti-Semitic or both, and are facing real-life consequences for the […]

Review: Haruki Murakami’s ‘The City and Its Uncertain Wall’ Lacks Magic Touch

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 […]

404 Not Found

404 Not Found


nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)