November 22, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 22

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Top News

Converting Used Office Buildings Into Affordable Housing: Who are the Real Stakeholders

There is no doubt that the city of Boston is currently in the midst of a housing crisis. In the Boston Foundation’s annual report, the Greater Boston area received a failing grade in the year of 2022. The report cites confounding factors of economic growth and rising housing prices with the bottom line that middle and lower-income families will be struggling in the coming years to find affordable housing options if new policies are not adopted. The current issues will […]

Stay Safe as Scammers and Hackers Grow More Sophisticated

Today, Scammers and hackers have found many new ways to destroy our sense of security. Whether through phone, text, or email, scammers take on identities they believe their victims will trust. As technologies become more advanced, so have the scams. Fraudsters of today have figured out ways to conceal themselves from their targets by becoming masters of deception. Posing as real identities, they hope their victims don’t notice the small details that would give them away. According to the Federal […]

Living Your Best Life:  It Takes a Village

A five-minute walk from the historic On Leong Chinese Merchants Association building in Chinatown brings you to the Biewend building on Tremont Street. Dr. Wei Wang, a geriatrician and primary care physician, sees elderly patients here at Tufts Medicine’s primary care offices. He told Sampan that many elderly people living in Chinatown deal with chronic medical conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. This is true of older adults more generally. In the United States, nearly 95% of […]

At Home in Chinatown Exhibit: An Interview with Curator Lily Song

This reporter attended the opening reception of the exhibit called “At Home in Chinatown: A Residence Lab Retrospective” and the accompanying workshop “Remembering and Remaking Chinatown” at the Pao Arts Center on July 27th. The exhibit featured work and photographs of the processes of six local artists who participated in the Residence Lab and completed site-specific projects during the last four years of the program. There were 4 key themes on display in the show, including art as cultural belonging, […]

Peace, Reunification, and Healing: an Interview with Crossings Director Deann Borshay Liem on the two Koreas and Hopes for Resolution after Seventy Years

Emmy Award-Winning documentarian Deann Borshay Liem’s new film Crossings examines the 2015 journey a group of female peace activists takes to call attention to the still unresolved issues between North and South Korea. It starts streaming on July 22 at midnight on worldchannel.org, WORLD’s YouTube and the PBS app ahead of the July 23 television broadcast on WORLD at 10pm ET. SAMPAN: Your work is often about identity and the repercussions of history. Crossings shows, among other things, how the […]

Joy Ride: A True Joy Ride From Start to Finish

The latest film by director Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) is aptly named as it is a true joy ride from start to finish. It tells the tale of four Chinese American friends who embark on a journey to China to find one of their birth mothers. The film is simultaneously raunchy and hilarious, with a few surprisingly poignant moments mixed in, all of that along with an exploration of identity. Along the way, the main characters all learn to […]

DANGEROUS WEATHER ACROSS THE U.S.: How We Must Adapt to Survive

A severe weather pattern has been working its way across the United States over the past few weeks with a diversity of effects: heatwaves in the southwest, thunderstorms and tornadoes in the midwest, and thunderstorms and extreme flooding in the northeast. According to meteorologist Alex DaSilva, a dome of high pressure over Texas and an active jet stream pattern across the northern United States have been the driving forces of the extreme weather. Heatwaves are expected to continue to spread […]

Ruling on Admissions Invites Mixed Emotions From Sampan Readers

Editor’s Note: Sampan asked a cross-section of Massachusetts residents about the recent court ruling regarding Affirmative Action. We spoke with retired Executives, academics, students, parents, and teenagers. What follows are their emailed responses, edited for clarity and space. I am personally conflicted with how I feel about the overturning of affirmative action for college admissions. On one hand I can see the usefulness of affirmative action and how it creates a more diverse student body which is very important. As […]

Supreme Court: Harvard and UNC’s Use of Race in Admissions Process Is Unconstitutional

The Supreme Court ruled Friday, June 30th that Harvard’s and University of North Carolina’s use of race in the admissions process was unconstitutional, changing the impact of affirmative action in higher education. The 6-2 decision for Harvard and 6-3 decision for UNC ruled that both school’s admissions processes discriminate against Asian Americans and violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating “on the grounds of race, color or national origin.” The decisions […]

Immigrants and Their Stories: A Series of Narratives

In this series, we interview new immigrants to the US to hear their stories, struggles, and dreams. Here, we speak with Hu Yang (his name has been changed), from China. Hu Yang, from China Hu Yang comes from the city of Tai Shan in Guangdong Province, China. After graduating from college, he began working as an intern at the Bank of China. He remained at the bank for 17 years, rising to the position of Loan Officer Manager. Hu Yang […]

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