The newspaper was founded in 1972 by volunteers of the Asian American Civic Association, then known as the Chinese American Civic Association; its slogan is "the only bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in New England."

A sampan is a flat-bottomed wooden boat, still used today in parts of Southeast Asia for fishing, transportation or even habitation.

It is a metaphor, which symbolizes that this newspaper would bring news of the Chinese community, in both Chinese and English, around the city of Boston, providing a means to acquire information about the community to non-English speakers as well as non-Chinese speakers.

Sampan primarily reports on the news of Chinatown and Asian Americans of Greater Boston.

As a free, nonprofit newspaper, Sampan makes its revenue almost entirely by advertisements.