Features

January 24, 2025 0

State Doles Out Funds for Security Amid Hate Fears

A Chinese bible group, Boston-area Islamic society, Sikh group and several Jewish organizations were among the dozens of nonprofits given a total of $5 million in funds earlier this month by the state to boost security amid increased fears of hate crimes. The grants are supposed to support more than 100 nonprofit organizations identified as being “at high risk of hate crimes or terror attacks” so that they can enhance their security, according to a statement from the administration of […]

January 24, 2025 0

Expert: Lead, Other RisksLurking in Drinking Water

by Darren Liu

As concerning amounts of contaminants are found in drinking water systems – whether it be “forever chemicals” or lead from corroding pipes – the Environmental Protection Agency has imposed the first national, legally enforceable drinking water standard in the nation. This would reduce levels of contaminants but come at a cost of replacing and upgrading pipes. PFAS – or polyfluoroalkyl forever chemicals – are estimated to contaminate dozens of public drinking water systems in 86 Massachusetts communities since, posing risks […]

January 24, 2025 0

Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi Persisted – And Helped End Mass Incarceration of Japanese Americans

by Adam Smith

Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi didn’t set out to be a civil rights hero. And she didn’t promote herself as one. But she played a key role in ending the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans – many of them U.S. citizens – during World War II. “Mitsuye was an ordinary person who was caught up in an extraordinary circumstance,” explains writer Frank Abe, who was part of a team who first told the personal story of Endo Tsutsumi in print, in the […]

January 13, 2025 0

Dr. Yipeng Ge’s Prescription for Injustices: Speak Up

by Adam Smith

Already outspoken on genocide of indigenous peoples, doctor took deep dive into Palestine studies at Harvard While at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health a couple years ago, Dr. Yipeng Ge faced a dilemma – and the decision he would make would profoundly influence the following years of his life. Already outspoken on the genocide of indigenous people and racism in North America, Dr. Ge, during graduate studies at Harvard, discovered the Palestine Program. Also taking courses in […]

January 3, 2025 0

Capturing the Moment: Boston Chinese Photography Association Helps People See Life Through an Artistic Lens

by Yuchen Hong

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 […]

January 3, 2025 0

STEM, Healthcare Associate Degrees Can Be Ticket Out of Poverty, But Study Finds Vast Disparities in Success

by Adam Smith

While Massachusetts is home to the world’s most elite universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s often community colleges that provide a lifeline to many of the state’s least well-off students. That’s thanks largely to programs that offer associate degrees in healthcare specialties and “STEM” – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – fields. These often two-year degree and certificate programs can help students land high paying jobs in nursing, medical imaging and dental hygienics as well […]

January 3, 2025 0

Asian Community Fund Aims to Bridge Gaps for Region’s AAPI Communities

by Yuchen Hong

When the Asian Community Fund (ACF) launched in 2020, it set out with a clear mission: to unify and empower the Asian American Pacific Islander community across Massachusetts.Founded during a period of heightened anti-Asian racism and in response to research showing less that 1% of philanthropic giving reaches Asian communities, ACF has become a vital resource for increasing visibility and support for local Asian communities. “We’ve been so invisible to date,” says Executive Director Danielle Kim, highlighting how the AAPI […]

January 3, 2025 0

Editorial: A Shameful Year of Silencing Dissent and Speech

by Editorial Team

It was just some years ago, when in the previous Trump administration, we saw demonstrations for Black Lives Matter take over the streets to rightfully call out relentless injustices, the Women’s March crowd into D.C. and demonstrations in support of science march through hundreds of U.S. cities. But, now, as we say goodbye to 2024 and begin a new year and another Trump administration, we should not forget the lonely and persistent voices that led the movement of compassion and […]

January 3, 2025 0

How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nomination Reflects Nation’s Public Health Skepticism

by Jeff Millman

Two decades ago, a president’s choices for leaders of public health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would not likely have generated much controversy. But in the years after the Covid-19 pandemic that spurred lasting skepticism from some segments of the American public, that is no longer the case. Especially for president-elect Donald Trump. Over the past month Trump has made nominations for the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and the Office of […]

January 3, 2025 0

Kiyoko Murata’s ‘A Woman of Pleasure’Finds Agency in an Untenable Situation

by Christopher John Stephens

There’s a reason why some stories should not be told by people outside their world. In the case of Arthur Golden’s 1997 novel “Memoirs of a Geisha,” adapted into a hit 2005 eponymously titled film, the Orientalism whitewashing was in full flower. Golden’s novel, set in the late 1920’s, roughly 25 years later than the events of Kiyoko Murata’s “A Woman of Pleasure,” told basically the same story. A daughter is sold into prostitution to cover her family’s debts. Both […]

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