October 25, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 20

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Top News

Asian Hate in California and Massachusetts: Two Sides of the Same Coin

On an October night in Los Angeles, a riot of white Californians looted, shot and lynched any Chinese American they saw. “Fifteen stark, staring corpses hung ghastly in the moonlight, while six, seven, or eight others, mutilated, torn and crushed, lay in our streets, all of them Chinamen,” relayed a haunting statement the morning after. This was 1871. That night, an estimated nine percent of LA’s Chinese community was killed. An event forgotten somewhere in history, this massacre is believed […]

What has happened to Asian Enrollment at US Colleges?

College is a strategy for the students to build their future pathways. Yet for the Asian students, their access to college might be different compared with students in other races. This article presents the possible racial bias of colleges when applying, cultural expectation from the Asian students, competition of the colleges, and the impact to the students made by the COVID-19. Does racial bias really exist among the top schools? According to Robert VerBruggen’s report on racial preferences on campus, […]

The Orange Line: Ready by September 19???

This reporter attended a September 12, 2022 virtual media roundtable for the immigrant-serving community during which MOIA (The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement), BPHC (Boston Public Health Commission), the Streets Cabinet and the MBTA made themselves available for questions. As public transit commuters know, the entire Orange line and parts of the Green and Blue lines are currently not operating because of long needed emergency repairs to address structural issues, track issues and signaling issues. This shutdown has been impacting […]

Global Warming in China: Living With Today’s Social and Economic Dilemmas

There is no doubt that human beings are already living in the era of global warming – everywhere, including China. In Shanghai, we have gone through 49 days of so-called high-temperature (over 35°C) days in the past two months. There were 7 days officially recorded over 40 °C. The last time that Shanghai was this hot was 150 years ago. Besides, keep in mind that Shanghai is a humid city, which can make 40°C feel like over 50 °C. What […]

A Bridge Towards Tomorrow: Sampan speaks with Monique Tú Nguyen – Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement 

Government policies and mission statements are always driven by terms and phrases. Whether they exist beyond looking good on paper and sounding strong in stump speeches is the dream that isn’t always realized. For Boston’s MOIA (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement), the driving motivation rests in that final word: advancement. What does it mean? How is it measured? Can immigrants advance without successfully integrating themselves within the social fabric of their chosen land? What measures need to be taken in […]

Gun Possession in Morocco: Sampan Interviews a Citizen about Gun Culture in his Homeland and the US

In a 2018 failed bid for the 2026 World Cup, Morocco highlighted its limited threats from gun crime, especially compared to the United States. At that time, Morocco’s murder rate was 3 in 100,000, which looks comfortable against 5.3 in the United States. The rate has stayed more or less the same in Morocco over these past four years. In comparison, the United States experienced more gun-related deaths in 2020 than any other in recorded history. This reporter recently had […]

Aspirin, Heart Disease, and You

Once upon a time, bloodletting and lobotomies were common medical procedures. Cocaine was prescribed for depression, and doctors treated asthma with cigarettes. Conventional medical wisdom – fortunately for us – changes over time. The progress of science is cumulative: as we gather more evidence, we build upon our existing knowledge and abandon those practices for which there is little empirical support. Earlier this year, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a volunteer panel of experts that issues evidence-based […]

The Shutting Down of Orange Line: How It Affects Bicyclists

Starting from Friday night, August 26, the MBTA’s month-long shutdown of the Orange Line for overdue repairs will be scheduled to resume service until Monday, September 19. According to Governor Charlie Baker, in this way, the subway will get faster track maintenance instead of five-year-maintenance on nights and weekends. What does this public transportation decision mean? What population will it affect? When reading this article, the readers of SAMPAN might already sense the influence of the temporary shutdown of the […]

Lantern Stories, by Yu-Wen Lu, at Chinatown’s Chin Park, Boston, MA. August 2022

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy recently re-installed Lantern Stories in Chinatown’s Chin Park. It’s by Taiwan native and Boston-based interdisciplinary artist Yu-Wen Wu. While its first iteration in 2020 was embraced by the community, it faced COVID-19 restrictions. With this new iteration, Wu created new images that evoked the reality of exclusion acts and racial hatred and the necessity of unity and cohesion. This 2022 version of Lantern Stories also features contributions from other local artists. Wu’s themes cover migration, displacement, arrival, assimilation, and […]

Labor Shortages and Climate Crises: Immigrants Impacted in Food Supply Industry

Immigrants have long played a key role in the creation of the national food supply. Previously, the US faced a labor shortage in the food industry before COVID, only to have it exacerbated by the pandemic. According to a July 2022 report from the American Immigration Council, the existing labor shortage consists of two key parts: “an increase in retirements as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age, and lower labor participation rates since the pandemic.” Immigrants’ positive impact on […]

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