Boston

June 21, 2024 0

‘Yellow Face’: A Play Ahead of Its Time

“Yellow Face,” which is now performing at Boston’s Lyric Stage Theater on Clarendon Street, was written some 17 years ago. But in many ways, it’s just now fully enjoying the spotlight. The play, by award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, will mark its Broadway premiere starring Daniel Dae Kim this fall and an Audible version is currently available. “Issues that are at the center of it, issues like representation and appropriation and whitewashing and casting, they were still relatively obscure issues […]

June 21, 2024 0

Director Yang Qiu Explores Humanity With Artistic Eye, Despite China’s Long Gaze

by DongDong Yang

Chinese director Yang Qiu presented his first feature film “Some Rain Must Fall “ at this year’s Tribeca Festival in New York. The film depicts the story of Cai, a mother and housewife who deeply values her family, but whose life loses track and spirals out of control after an unexpected accident. The film received the Encounters Special Jury Award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and premiered at the festival’s International Narrative Competition. Yang Qiu, a prominent filmmaker […]

June 21, 2024 0

Report: When It Comes to Tapping Into Foreign-Educated Talent, Here’s What the State Can Do

by Adam Smith

When it comes to tapping into a large number of educated workers, many of whom are bilingual, Massachusetts appears to be missing out. Big time. That’s a takeaway from a new report on the some 240,000 foreign-educated immigrants in the state – 106,000 of whom hold a bachelor’s degree and 134,000 of whom have completed at least some grad school. Many of these immigrants earn less than their U.S.-educated peers and work in jobs that fail to fully use their […]

June 7, 2024 0

‘Yellow Face’ Explores Identity Across Generations, Continents

by Harmony Witte

“I’m always thinking about, ‘why are we doing this play now?’,” actor Michael Hisamoto told the Sampan of the Lyric Stage production of “Yellow Face.” Hisamoto has a key role in the play, written by David Henry Hwang. The semi-autobiographical show is about the playwright, who appears in the play and is the narrator. It’s about Hwang’s life, his father, and the period of the 1990s and the 2000s. It covers big themes like the “yellow peril” and the Asian […]

June 7, 2024 0

An Untold Victim of Anti-Immigrant Speech: Latino Teens and Families

by Esther Wang

Naikiry, a 20-year-old community college student and full-time worker, knows first-hand the trauma that can be caused when a Latinx family falls apart as it moves the U.S. Her family began to unravel when they emigrated from the Dominican to the U.S. in 2015 and were forced to leave behind her mother, who has yet to join them here. The separation, along with the shock of arriving in a new country, caused Naikiry’s family to fall into depression, loneliness, and […]

June 7, 2024 0

Sometimes Hard Work is Not Enough: So Expand Earned-Income Tax Credit

by Angela Divaris

The Earned-Income Tax Credit has been widely hailed as one the most successful antipoverty programs in the country, and it’s time our state allowed immigrants without Social Security numbers to benefit from the credit, too. The EITC is aimed at boosting the incomes of low-to-moderate earners, especially those with minor children. There is a rich body of research showing how the EITC lifts millions of households out of poverty and encourages employment. Massachusetts is among the 31 states that have […]

June 7, 2024 0

Fond Memories of Jasper White Served Up by Local Chefs, Others

by DongDong Yang

Jasper White, who died last month at age 69, was a pioneering chef who significantly elevated New England cuisine through his restaurants, Jasper’s and the Summer Shack. White’s culinary legacy is deeply rooted in seafood, particularly his signature dish, pan-roasted lobster. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, White honed his skills in dining rooms of several Boston hotels. He opened his first restaurant, Jasper’s, in 1983. At Jasper’s, White focused on modern American dishes using local ingredients, earning […]

June 7, 2024 0

Lunar New Year Now Holiday in Quincy As School Vote Bypassed

by Harmandeep Singh

Groups in Quincy fighting to establish the Lunar New Year as an official school holiday made a major win last month – but not in the way many expected. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch overrode the decision of the school committee to oppose the proposal for a Lunar New Year school holiday, following an earlier city council vote to recognize the day. But that move surprised the school board, which saw the mayor’s decision as undermining the school group’s authority.Quincy residents […]

June 7, 2024 0

In Face of Protest, Skip Schiel Wants You to Picture the Plight of Palestinians, Refugees

by Adam Smith

Photographer Skip Schiel keeps a photo of a boat full of refugees hanging on his wall in his home in Cambridge. It’s not a photo that he took, but one that was sent to him in a fundraising campaign. “I’m looking at it right now,” he said during a phone call with the Sampan. “It was made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It’s a boat full of people of different colors, maybe a 100 or more, looking […]

June 7, 2024 0

Palestinian-American Speaks Out After Library Photo Reception Taken Over

by Adam Smith

Laila Kassis had never heard of Skip Schiel’s photography before she was asked to talk at the reception in mid-May for the exhibit “The Ongoing and Relentless Nakba, the Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948 to the Present.” Kassis, a Palestinian-American, said when she did see the 14 or so photos in the show, she noted how underwhelming it all was, given the subject. “It was very simple and innocuous.” There was no big statement or in-your-face message, just photos of the […]

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