Features

April 27, 2022 0

One Family’s Struggle to Get Mental Health Care Highlights a Problem Many Asian Americans Still Face

When James started taking a more active role in his mother’s health care needs around six years ago, he came to appreciate something he had not understood before. “I didn’t realize without [a family member’s] help that my mom is actually a survivor,” he said. Born in China, James’ mother emigrated to the United States as a young woman and has lived in the Boston area for over 40 years. She has also dealt with mental health issues since she […]

April 27, 2022 0

Delivered On Earth Day at Sunrise On the Bank of the Concord River

by Sampan Staff

Henry Thoreau’s first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, is a literary excursion recounting a two-week hiking and boating trip he and his brother John took into the White Mountains of New Hampshire a decade earlier in the late summer of 1839. In that richly symbolic work, this river represents the passage of all things in time, from individual lives to the whole histories of civilizations, while the elevated and wild region to which the brothers are […]

April 27, 2022 0

Asian Hate Is on the Rise in Massachusetts, but the True Number of Threats, Attacks Remains Elusive

by Chelsea Wang

Last July a Chinese American attorney was approached as she left her office at Tremont Street and Washington Street in Boston. A person came up to her, pulled on her reusable mask, and let the force of the elastic bands slap the mask back against her face. The perpetrator then ran away as the attorney demanded to know: Was she attacked because she was Asian? “I can do whatever I want,” was the response. After the attack, the attorney, who requested […]

April 27, 2022 0

From Dick’s Desk: What’s an HSA?

by Richard Soo Hoo

Dear Dick I’ve been happily working at my current job. I’m an electrician. I love my co-workers. I look forward to coming to work every day. The employee benefits are good, particularly, the health care coverage for me and my family. Everything is fine. That is, until 5 pm last Friday. My supervisor called me into the conference room. I lost my job along with 20 other employees. The company needed to cut costs to remain profitable. Since then, […]

April 27, 2022 0

National Poetry Month2022: Musings

by Moninisha Yadav

April’s nod to National Poetry Month is 30 days filled with recitations, incantations, slam poetry performances and spoken word gatherings that evoke the wonder of the 1950’s Beat Poetry gatherings once perceived as scandalous and impure. The fact that it fades away when May comes is less the calendar’s fault than it is our too short a love affair with poetry.. But as we impatiently wait for our flowers to blossom and for the world to stop hating, beautiful poetry […]

April 27, 2022 0

Yung Wing & the Earliest Chinese Students in Massachusetts

by Richard Auffrey

Springfield was one of the first cities in Massachusetts where Chinese arrived in the 1840s, primarily fueled by the desire for education. The start of this tale though extends back about 30 years earlier. Reverend Samuel Robbins Brown was born in 1810 in Hartford, Connecticut and in 1818, his family moved to Monson, Massachusetts, a relatively short distance from Springfield. Samuel attended the Monson academy, which prepared students for college, and he was part of the Yalecollege class of 1832. Samuel became a missionary […]

April 27, 2022 0

Understanding the Zeitgeist: Pachinko, Representation, and the Cultural Road Ahead

by Christopher John Stephens

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 […]

April 27, 2022 0

When Everything Happens at Everywhere, All at Once

by Xinyan Fu

When the Daniels started writing their script six years ago, no one would’ve thought that a movie centering on a Chinese American immigrant family would be marketable. But it did. Ever since its release, the movie“Everything Everywhere All at Once” became a phenomenon and a hit among audiences, critics, and box offices. On Rotten Tomatoes, both ratings from the Tomatometer and the audience reached 97%. And on April 5, the movie has officially become the highest-rated movie of all time […]

April 12, 2022 0

Restaurant Recovery from the Pandemic

by Moninisha Yadav

As we continue to move forward after the pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate hit a two year low of 3.6% in March of 2022. The hospitality industry was the first to be devastated by COVID 19. Restaurants are gradually recovering due to easing COVID-19 restrictions allowing for higher (in some places, even 100%) indoor capacity. However, many restaurants and small businesses are still struggling with issues like inflation when it comes to hiring employees back from when they lost millions […]

April 12, 2022 0

From Dick’s DeskTax Credits and Deductions for College Education

by Richard Soo Hoo

Dear Dick: I have two children attending two high priced Boston colleges. My son is a junior, and my daughter is a sophomore. So, I have two more years of tuition checks to write. Are there any tax writeoffs I can take to get some relief from the high cost of tuition expense? “Over-educated and Over-Taxed” —————————————————- Dear “Over-educated and Over-Taxed,” I agree, it costs a small ransom to send children to college these days. But you may benefit from […]

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