

Review: ‘Fun Home’ Opens Window into Queer Family Secrets, Slippery Memories
Fun Home is a beautiful queer memoir-musical about investigating one’s past and wrestling with the maddening slipperiness of memory. Based on Alison Bechdel’s award-winning graphic memoir, the story follows Alison’s childhood, coming of age, and coming out story as a butch lesbian, as well as her attempts to understand her closeted gay father.
Virginia Sun
Dec 19, 2025


Book Review ‘Goddess Complex’ Looks at Our Mirror Selves … and a Woman’s Purpose
T he notion of a doppelgänger in literature has been used for centuries, with varying degrees of success. Think of the ghost of Hamlet’s father, materializing to haunt the tortured Denmark Prince about crimes transpired and crimes yet to be. Consider Edgar Allan Poe’s William Wilson, in which the double trails our hapless character through his life. There is a doppelgänger in Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Dostoyevsky’s The Double, Patricia Highsmith’s The
Christopher John Stephens
Dec 5, 2025


Theater Review: ‘Sardines’ Packs in the Impossible: Death and Laughs
S ardines is a comedy show about death. A 60-minute one-man show, comedian Chris Grace presents a compelling autobiographical monologue about life and death. He shares his personal experiences with grief, deftly swerving from high-energy moments to vulnerably, sharing about losing family members, as well as his husband and Sardines director Eric Michaud’s cancer experience. These well-executed emotional fluctuations included Grace orchestrating an audience a cappella renditi
Virginia Sun
Dec 5, 2025


Writing, Comic Timing Make Playfest 8 a Class Act
Performed at The Foundry’s black box theater the weekend of Nov 8, Playfest featured nine short stories from a band of Boston-based playwrights. Each compellingly showcased the creative heft of local writers and the comedic chops of an all-Asian American and Pacific Islander cast and crew.
Anna Hu
Nov 25, 2025


Asian Ballet Project Uses Film to Explore Identity, Adoption
The Asian American Ballet Project is transforming an ambitious dance project that expresses the emotional and personal journey of cross-racial adoption into a film that will be played at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The 10-minute film, Reclamation, will screen on a loop from 3 to 8 p.m. in Calderwood Hall during the Museum’s Free First Thursday event on Dec 4.
Daria Mohan Zhang
Nov 21, 2025


'The Ceremony' Masterfully Explores Trauma Across Generations
Review of The Ceremony, which ran at the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre at Boston University. T he Ceremony is a masterpiece. The sixth play in playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-play cycle about three generations of a Nigerian-American family, The Ceremony features a wedding between a Nepali-American woman (Lumanti Shrestha, played by Mahima Saigal) and a Nigerian-American man (Ekong Ufot, played by Kadahj Bennett). Although the couple is deeply in love, their families and family
Virginia Sun
Nov 21, 2025


Review: ‘Kim’s Convenience’ Serves Easy Laughs, but Emotional Depth Is Out of Stock
The comedy theater performance of Kim’s Convenience is adapted from the hit TV series by the same name, but perhaps it sticks a little too closely to the script.
Virginia Sun
Nov 17, 2025


Boston Asian American Film Fest on Tap at Local Theaters
The 17th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival runs through Oct. 26 with screenings at the Coolidge Corner Theater, the Emerson Paramount Center, the Museum of Science and elsewhere. ArtsEmerson, the main sponsor of the event, says the film festival “empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community.” One of the key short documentaries, “Love, Chinatown,” directed by Luk
Sampan Editor
Oct 17, 2025


Miss Chinese Boston Crowns Lauren Xu
Hundreds of business and community leaders gathered on Oct. 5 at Empire Garden Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown for the coronation of Miss Chinese Boston 2025, Lauren Xu. In attendence were Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, City Councilor At-Large Erin Murphy, former Suffolk County Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Robert J. Dello Russo, Boston Veterans Services Commissioner Robert Santiago, Miss Boston 2025 Tess Riordan, and Miss Worceste
Esther Zee Lee
Oct 17, 2025
‘Much Ado About Keanu’ Is Just Too Much to Be an Excellent Adventure
The problem with many pop culture Critical Studies texts is that they take themselves too seriously. Readers need only go back to academic Camille Paglia, whose 1990 writing on then mega superstar Madonna tried to elevate the singer actress to the status of feminist icon. Paglia’s writing on Madonna has not aged well. More effective has been the 125 volumes and counting Open Court Philosophy series, which has effectively contextualized such subjects as Bob Dylan, Mister Roger
Christopher John Stephens
Oct 17, 2025
News Roundup: Nominate a Biz, Filipino Fest, Journey of Light
City Seeks Legacy Business Nominees The City of Boston is seeking applications for the Legacy Business Program, in which the city...
Sampan Editor
Sep 19, 2025
Tracy Slater’s ‘Together in Manzanar’ Shows That History Does Repeat Itself, Time and Again
P olitical life in these United States since January 20th has proved conclusively that nothing really happens by random chaos. There is...
Christopher John Stephens
Sep 19, 2025


Kristina Wong’s Hunger for Change: ‘#FoodBankInfluencer’ comedian on pranks, activism & economic injustice
Courtesy photo: #FoodBankInfluencer J ust minutes into an interview with comedian and activist Kristina Wong about her upcoming Boston...
Adam Smith
Sep 5, 2025


Iskwelahang Pilipino at Lowell Fest Offers Taste of Philippines
Photo Credit by Liam Crampton For one weekend a year, in downtown Lowell, the second-largest free cultural folk festival in America takes...
Liam Crampton
Aug 22, 2025
News Roundup: Film Showings, Development Meeting
‘Reconnecting Chinatown’ Join architects, landscape architects, engineers and city officials to discuss the potential development of...
Sampan Correspondents
Aug 22, 2025


Nguyen’s Intense ‘To Save and to Destroy’ Essays Find Voice Within the Empire
The legendary 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote for only five years, quit by the time he was 21, but left us with one of the more...
Christopher John Stephens
Aug 22, 2025


Japanese Temple Offers Enlightenment in Darkness - With strong influences from old China, sprawling Zentsuji temple on Shikoku island connects visitors with the past and themselves
Photo Credit by Adam Smith Grown men are not supposed to be afraid of the dark. But I suddenly felt a sense of nagging fear as I was...
Adam Smith
Aug 22, 2025


Sampan Staff
Mar 27, 2022









