As a child, Peter Ng often watched dragon boats as they sped by Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau island. He was filled with awe and envy. “But I was not allowed to join a team because I was too young. I always wanted to,” Ng told the Sampan recently. Now, his love of the races and dream of taking part in them has led to a major personal success: He founded the newly opened Dragon Boat Museum in Quincy – the […]
Going to see Connie Chung talk is like going to a stand-up show where the comic also happens to be a famous journalist. The more than 200 audience members who filled the GBH Calderwood Studio for “A Conversation with Connie Chung” this March likely had a good idea of who she is: the first Asian American to anchor a broadcast program in the United States. They might have known that she broke into the industry and pushed her way to […]
Sampan’s Hong Kong-based reporter Darren Liu asked several young adults from abroad whether the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants made them think twice about studying in the U.S. That was in mid-March and the views were mixed. Liu recently followed up with the students after several high-profile abductions and detentions of university students and graduates occurred — including many with no criminal charges — and student visa cancellations. Here is what these students are thinking now as many have grown more cautious: […]
On a weekend when much of the U.S. media was fixated on the latest tariff spat with China, a small group of doctors in Boston was focused instead on the humanitarian crisis worsening in another part of the world: Gaza. Israeli forces had – just hours before the doctors met in the Harvard medical campus – struck Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Gaza’s only remaining Christian hospital and, according to press reports, the last fully operating hospital in Gaza City. As the […]
“Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe.” This line was among the chants shouted by the thousands of people gathered in Somerville to support Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk in late March after she was abducted and set for deportation at the direction of the U.S. Secretary of State in what has by now become an international drama. The call from the protesters may have been more than a simple rallying chant, however, and more likely one of the […]
In the black box theater inside Chinatown’s Josiah Quincy School last month, hundreds of people reached into their little gift bags and pulled out small bottles of soap. As Dr. Heang Leung Rubin led the room in a collective wish, her voice was gentle: “Close your eyes and imagine — what could Chinatown look like in ten years?” Kids, young families, seniors, city officials and others all held their wishes in silence. Then, as bubbles filled the room, they caught […]
The second administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump has begun cracking down on immigration, abruptly shortening temporary protective status for Haitians and others fleeing violence, and is now trying to deport a well-known Palestinian rights activist at Columbia University – with threats to cancel visas of many more. How is this news shaping the views of students and graduates around the world who have helped fund America’s colleges and universities in Boston and beyond through tuition? Our Sampan reporter based […]
Walking through Chinatown today, you will encounter layers of its identity: the memories of a Chinatown long gone, the visions of a Chinatown that could have been, the Chinatown that remains a home for long-term residents, and the Chinatown being reshaped for tourists and transplants. In a neighborhood that has been created and stewarded by immigrant Asian American residents, luxury developments now dot the landscape – raising rents, and displacing residents. At the same time, those developments have exacerbated the […]
Buttoned-down suburb of Boston sees an explosion of Chinese, Japanese and Korean food, shopping spots For Asian international students like Nikki Song, Newbury Street used to be her go-to spot to hang out. “It was our only option,” said Song, a Chinese international student studying at Northeastern. But then she discovered an unlikely alternative: Brookline, a town once mainly viewed as a quiet and stodgy suburb with dining options that mostly included family restaurants, a couple of Irish bars and […]
About a decade ago, while in grad school, artist Verónica Pérez received a strange gift: a trash bag full of hair. And they immediately put the furry find to good use. “That was my foray into using hair to represent a human or a body, without actually putting a body into the piece,” says Pérez of their method of creating sculptures. Since that time, the artist’s main medium has become artificial hair. Perez is among the 14 artists who are […]
