April 25, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

A-VOYCE and MFA Teen Arts Council present “Breaking the Barriers” on Saturday, April 26 at 6pm. This open-mic event for youth will take place at Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. To RSVP or for more information about this event, please email tac@mfa.org. Hope to see you there!

Alan Ratliff
A-VOYCE Youth Program Coordinator
Asian Community Development Corporation

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April 22, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Historic Chinatown Walking Tours Show Early Immigrant Life

WHAT: How did Chinatown come about? Where did the Chinese first settle in the late 1800s? Did you know there was a communal oven for grocery stores to roast pigs, chicken and ducks? Join the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) for a walking tour of historic Chinatown and learn more.

WHEN: First Saturday of each month from May to October, 2008: May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 6 and October 4. Tour is approximately 90 minutes long from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

WHERE: Start at Chinese Historical Society Office at 2 Boylston St., G-3 at the atrium level.

REGISTRATION: $15 per person. Reservation required by calling CHSNE, 617-338-4339, fax to 617-338-9339, email to info@chsne.org or send in your registration to Chinese Historical Society of New England at 2 Boylston St., G-3, Boston, MA 02116. For more information, please visit www.chsne.org. Limited spaces, first come first served.

ABOUT Chinese Historical Society of New England
The Chinese Historical Society of New England is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 to document, preserve, and promote the history and legacy of Chinese immigration in New England. Programs include the Oral History Project, the Mount Hope Chinese Immigrant Memorial Project at Mount Hope Cemetery, scanning parties and field trips.

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April 22, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

ASPIRE 2008 Asian American Women in Leadership Conference
Harvard University - Emerson Hall
April 26, 2008, 8:30AM - 5:30PM
For complete speaker list and registration, visit www.girlsaspire.org/conference
**Register by April 15 for discounted rates**
Download the PDF Aspire 2008 Conference.

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April 17, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

On the day taxes were due, the Chinatown Blogger received this email from the office of City Councilor Sam Yoon. Below is a copy of the the email I received about a phone scam that has been targeting Chinese residents in Boston.

“Dear Community leader,
Councilor Yoon wanted to alert you to a fraud that is targeting elderly, non English speaking Chinese residents in Boston. This happened to the mother of a friend of the Councilor’s. The people running this phone scam are very aggressive and convincing. They tell the victim that they “won the lottery” and the victim should send a check to them for processing fees and they will deposit the winnings in their bank account, so could you please give us the account number, and etc. They did get the social security number of the victim. Fortunately I don’t think she gave them a bank account number.

Sam wants to try and do more to put out the word in the Chinese community about this. We will probably reach out to various Chinese social service providers and community groups and Elder Affairs and etc. I was wondering if you have run into this before, if you have a sense of how prevalent this is, if you have some safety tips that we could circulate and maybe what more we could do about prevention.

I am pasting in a copy of the daughter’s earlier email describing how the group operated. I did a check of the phone number that they gave her mother, and it is in Hong Kong. Thanks for your help. – Richard.

Richard Giordano
Aide to At-Large Councilor Sam Yoon
Boston City Hall, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02201

Please forward this to your friends, yahoo group etc, but most importantly call your parents/grandparents about this. I didn’t think it would happen in Chinese, but it did. It’s a SSN scam that has now moved to the east coast. A three person Mandarin speaking team(supposedly based in Hong Kong) has been contacting my mother last week about this promotional vacation meeting she should go to. She didn’t attend. They contacted her again in this week and chatted with her for a bit all under the guise of getting her birthdate, social security number, and other personal information. They told her she won their lottery, and she needs to provide her SSN so the money can be sent. Then they ask her for checking account number(she didn’t give them that).

Well, she gave away all the information, but thank goodness she didn’t go to the meeting else she could have been coerced on the spot to give them access to her checking account. Once they have access they will clear it all out. Now the disturbing part is this was very popular in San Francisco up until the public started warning the community through newspapers, radio, TV etc. I’m starting a one woman PR campaign to get the word out. I extremely upset this happened to my mom, AND I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I want to let the community know so no one else will be caught, and these con artists can move their operation out of the state. They are targeting unsuspecting non-English speaking Chinese elders, who probably don’t know what to do when fraud is committed. Well, they messed with the wrong victim!”

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April 7, 2008 by willng24.

As in any Olympics the journey of the ceremonial torch from Greece to the site of the Olympics is always adventurous. Not only does the team have to be concerned with weather conditions, but also protesters. This year, it seams like the torch is confronting more protesters than I’ve ever seen. Well it can probably be explained by:

1 – Media has gotten a lot better in getting information to the public. Additionally, everyone likes to see the drama of the Olympic torch.

2 – Since my heritage is Chinese it probably catches my attention more than before.

Keep in mind that the torch has yet to even arrive in China and it is already hitting all sorts of speed bumps. Just looking at the map above you can expect some craziness as the torch hits China.  Sadly, the torch isn’t coming to Boston anytime soon, but hopefully in the future we can host the Olympics.

I personally think that attacks on the torch are the biggest waste of time for protesters. The best protest is probably to not attend or watch the Olympics. If you really want to go to the extreme, don’t spend any money on businesses that support the Olympics and tell others why you are doing so. I think the business ratio is 1 happy customer tells 8 others, but 1 unhappy customer tells 32 others.

I have views on the issues with Tibet and China, but that isn’t going to stop me from watching the Olympics. Plus, it will surely be exciting to see how the Chinese plan to secure the whole Olympics event. Funny, I actually considered going to the Olympics as a graduation gift to myself. Thank god I’m too broke to do so.

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