Artist Kenson Truong was at work in a small nondescript gray building on a steep, hilly road in Roxbury that serves as a studio for Tufts’ School of the Museum of Fine Arts when I met him last week. He was tinkering with some black, glittery cubes at the time – cubes that appeared like props for the background of an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” of which Truong is coincidentally a fan. The black cubes, however, were part of […]
The mid-autumn festival, also known as the August Moon festival, is often celebrated with mooncakes – round pastries with sweet or savory fillings that symbolize the full moon. But the tradition of hand crafting the delicacy is slowly changing, say some pastry chefs, who are keeping the tradition alive locally.“The most difficult part of making mooncakes is cooking the syrup, which needs to be prepared a month in advance. It’s a very skillful process. Traditional hand-made mooncakes are the most […]
To advance study of cancer among the Asian Americans, the National Cancer Institute this spring set aside $12.45 million for researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The researchers’ aim will be to gather data and uncover potential causes of cancer in the Asian American population for whom the disease is the leading cause of death.“This study represents a significant advancement by recognizing these distinctions and offering relevant data specific to diverse Asian populations,” said Dr. Tim Rebbeck, […]
The Golden Monkey Cafe is a small, cozy restaurant located at 468 Chestnut St. in Lynn. The restaurant speaks to the perseverance, resiliency, and history of the food it serves and the people that prepare and present it. Unpretentious, the cafe is decorated with soft pink pastel walls and white trim, and is neat and tidy in its simplicity. In addition to offering free parking, the place affords some seating both inside as well as outside on the veranda for […]
It is no secret that for years Asian Americans had been sidelined in Hollywood, facing discrimination and disrespect. You might get a brief appearance of a short Asian nerd with the smell of “kimchi” in his lunchbox in school. And the typical Asian character in a Hollywood film was usually never played by an Asian actor, but by a white actor who played an Asian role. Famously, Mickey Rooney played an especially offensive Asian caricature in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” This […]
The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center is among several nonprofits in Massachusetts offering free English classes aimed at preparing immigrant students for college and jobs. But as the influx of immigrants to Massachusetts – including undocumented migrants – has increased, so has the demand for English lessons. And now many nonprofit groups like BCNC say Massachusetts is in a state of crisis when it comes to providing English classes to the people who need them most. Case in point: BCNC is […]
If a sense of belonging requires a secure sense of place and identity, the very act of engaging in a diaspora means the goal will always be out of reach. In their new book Where I Belong: Healing Trauma and Embracing Asian American Identity, co-authors Soo Jin Lee and Linda Yoon look toward building a bridge between the home that was and the home that might never become fully realized.As co-directors of Yellow Chair Collective, Lee and Yoon effectively make […]
Immigrants, especially immigrants without all their proper paperwork, get blamed for many ills of our nation. But such scapegoating is not only dangerous to our shared humanity, it is often just plain untrue. In fact, immigrants — especially and including undocumented ones — contribute in many ways to our society and in many ways keep it running smoothly. It’s easy to scapegoat, but it’s difficult to look inward and ask questions like, where would our nation be without immigrants, even […]
The consequences of the housing emergency in Massachusetts and the lack of Congressional action on immigration reform have collided to create a nightmare scenario that has Massachusett’s emergency shelter system apparently unable to cope. The state on Aug. 1 began to transition their “safety-net sites” to “temporary respite centers” and limit their usage to 5 days (with the possibility of an extension to 30 days) unless they are in a group prioritized for placement in an emergency assistance shelter, which […]
The nearly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. who lack the paperwork needed to stay here legally are often the target of politicians who decry the ills of “illegal” immigration. Yet, this group actually makes a massive contribution to the federal, state and local governments – paying billions to social programs they will never benefit from – according to a recent study. In fact, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in total taxes to all levels of government in 2022, through […]
