Month: May 2020

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for supporting my blog and for your interest in my adventures (both culinary and life) living in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to keep many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope this blog highlights that once the world begins to recover, things will improve, and you should treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this update continues to find you, your family, and your friends all staying safe and healthy. I’m sure that as the temperatures have warmed up, many of you are finding it more difficult to continue to stay at home. I encourage all of you to remain vigilant. Please continue to wear masks when you go outside and to social distance. Based on what I’ve heard from those of you who’ve written in, it comforts me to hear that many of you are taking a cautious approach. Hopefully things will slowly improve over the next two months (assuming people continue to wear masks and social distance).

As the outbreak and recovery(?) has continued in both the US and Europe, I hope that you are all doing your best to maintain a positive attitude even in these difficult times. While my experience here in Shanghai has been remarkably different from your own, I understand and empathize with the difficulties and fears that many of you are facing. The best advice that I can offer you is to try to find small enjoyments (either virtually or with your loved ones) to do each week. I know that for me, when things were at the worst here, I treasured getting coffee with friends, going for runs or walks, or chatting with friends and family on FaceTime back in the US. I hope you are able to do some of these same activities.

In Shanghai, things have mostly returned to normal. The schools and prevalence of masks are the primary differences. Most secondary and elementary schools are starting to bring students back to school (it runs through July). However, SJTU (and other universities) are still closed. My research supervisor, Prof. Ying Zu, has started to go in to the office a few times per week, so likely over the next couple weeks, I’ll start to return to the office on a limited basis. The primary reason I don’t want to go in/am recommended not to go in frequently is because I have to take public transportation for an hour to get to work.

The statistics have continued to maintain/improve. We are now in the period of very small number statistics. There are only 8 remaining active cases in Shanghai and just 3 in Beijing. The recovery rate in Shanghai is up to 97.7% and in China the rate is up to 94.4%. Given that China is ~ 6 months out from the outbreak of covid-10, these numbers are very encouraging and highlight how successful social distancing, quarantining, and stay at home orders can be. There have been a very small number of new cases each week; however, all of those are imported cases. So, I think a lot of the fear of a second outbreak is related to when China will reopen its borders.

After an exhausting week of my DES conference, this was a much needed quieter research week. I spent most of my time working on my measurements of the Luminosity Function and am very close to having the desired results for the 2nd of two plots I’m hoping to reproduce! I also spent time working to revise my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation. Additionally, we also had another successful week of AstroCoffee presentations as well as my normal Zu Group meetings.

As I’ve mentioned, one of the things I’ve enjoyed during the covid-19 pandemic is the opportunity to talk to my friends and family more! On Monday morning (Sunday night in the US), my Mom organized a Zoom family reunion for members of her side of the family. It was great catching up and seeing many family members I hadn’t seen in years!

Like most weeks, I did a lot of running! I went for 4 runs this week. Thankfully, it was suprisingly cool on a few days (in the 60s/70s, which felt so amazing after days in the 90s), so, I had to take advantage of the cooler weather and go for some long runs!

While I didn’t get any great pictures of the flowers here in Shanghai this week, I did see a lot of other cool buildings,statues, and advertisements!

My personal favorites this week were the cat statues and the statue of the panda! As many of you know, I love pandas!

While this may not be as exciting to you, I ordered (successfully) from Taobao for the first time! Taobao is basically the Chinese Amazon. Although I have used the English version (which doesn’t have everything) frequently, successfully navigating the Chinese App (with some help from Shimi), which has no English was a big success! I ordered some delicious tempeh, which I turned into fajitas!

My other social interactions were food or Jewish related, so I’ll be posting the pictures and descriptions there!

Food in Shanghai

I had some fantastic and delicious meals this week! On Tuesday, I got dinner and ice cream with my friend Heather! We went to one of my favorite Chinese vegetarian restaurants! It’s been a while since I’ve gone to this restaurant and I really enjoyed getting to peruse the menu (on a tablet) and have so many options!

Heather and I had a got sword beans (which are amazing and a must try when in China!), spicy tofu, gluten (similar to seitan) with bamboo and mushrooms, and spring vegetables (okra, carrots, and baby corn!). My two favorites were the sword beans and the gluten! We also got gelato. I got coconut and strawberry with chocolate chips!

On Sunday, Heather and Shimi hosted a fantastic and delicious vegan potluck! There was so much amazing food. Thanks to Shimi for many of the mouthwatering photos (i.e., he took the artistic ones)! I think you’ll all be licking your lips after seeing the amazing spread! Heather made a jackfruit and mushroom bbq sandwich, I made tempeh fajitas, and we had delicious chinese style eggplant, pesto pasta, as well as salsas, tahini sauce, and peanut sauce! Heather also made homemade vegan coconut-peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream! If not for the stimulating conversations, all of this fantastic food would have put me into a food coma!

As you can tell, the food was undoubtedly fantastic! I want to thank Heather and Shimi for hosting such a fun afternoon! It was so great gathering together in a largish group and having conversations ranging from politics, academia, the current situation in the US, to international shipping, and economics! It’s events like these, getting together with new and old friends, that have helped mark how Shanghai has recovered from covid-19! Additionally, I’m so grateful to Heather and Shimi for being such supporting, inviting, and loving friends! I can’t emphasize enough how much more I’ve grown to enjoy my life here in Shanghai thanks to the two of you!

In addition to the amazing food you saw above, I did a ton of other cooking this weekend. I made Potato Kugel (for Moishe House’s Shavuout Shabbat), Buffalo chickpea burgers, roasted carrots and chickpeas, as well as Israeli salad. So, clearly this will be another week of great eating!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, Moishe House hosted a Shavout Shabbat! Shavuot is a harvest holiday, which for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, people eat lots of dairy. Since I try to keep a mostly vegan diet, this concept is a little tricky. So I decided to make the Jewish staple, a potato kugel. This was my first attempt at a kugel and thankfully it was a hit!

I can’t talk about Moishe House without sharing a photo of Lucky, the dog the residents are fostering. She’s adorable and friendly, and makes going to Moishe House even more fun!

Another part of Shavuot is that many people spend 24 hours studying. As part of this, Moishe House international did a 24 hour Zoom learning session. I joined for the session led by my friend Hannah Maia. She gave a very interesting and informative talk on the history of Jews in Shanghai, which really helped to contextualize a lot of the history that I’ve previously learned on the walking tours with Historic Shanghai.

This was a very enjoyable week, filled with an assortment of fantastic meals and even better conversations. I’m so fortunate to have met so many interesting people through Moishe House, Kehilat Shanghai, and friends like Heather and Shimi. I’ve now been in Shanghai for 8 months, and it’s really nice that my social circle is expanding! While I’m sure some of you are jealous that I can see people in person, I hope that you all realize just how much you’ll enjoy it when you can. Prior to the lockdown, I know I didn’t enjoy these experiences as much as I do now!

I hope that this update about my culinary adventures, life, and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai gives you optimism that things will improve wherever you are and also makes you hungry! This upcoming week should be fairly normal. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for supporting my blog and for your interest in my time living in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to keep many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope this blog highlights that once the world begins to recover, things will improve. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I do emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this update again finds you, your family, and your friends all remaining safe and healthy. I really want to emphasize again how reassuring I find hearing about how you are doing and how you are trying to make the best out of what is decidedly a difficult and trying situation. Hopefully, wherever you are things are beginning to improve and you are all seeing the signs of spring around you, much like the beautiful flowers and warm temperatures that surround me here in Shanghai.

As the US continues to prematurely reopen, I can’t stress to you enough that I think that you should continue to socially distance and work from home (if possible). Many of these places are reopening for economic not health reasons, which is dangerous and wrong. When Shanghai reopened, there were fewer than 100 cases in the city and the number of reported cases in both Wuhan and the rest of China had consistently decreased for a few weeks. While I know that it may seem difficult to not get back to your normal routines, I implore you to be cautious. With warmer weather, you can still enjoy some nice runs, walks, or even time just spent sitting on your porch while social distancing. Also, please continue to wear masks. While wearing masks are not nearly as ubiquitous in Shanghai (at least among the foreigners) as they once were, the majority of people here will likely continue to wear masks throughout the summer. Wearing a mask sends a message that you’re taking precautions, and that you care about your neighbors.

In Shanghai, other than the prevalence of masks, life has mostly returned to normal. Many of the primary – secondary schools have reopened (with students now back in classes). Nearly all stores and restaurants (that were able to survive financially) have reopened. We still have temperature checks at some locations (like malls and hotels), but by now those aren’t really a big deal any more and just basically part of my normal life. SJTU still has not officially reopened for students. Some graduate students are back on campus, but most undergrads and first-year grad students have not been allowed to come back.

Now, for this weeks covid-19 analytics update. Shanghai has 14 active cases (only 3 in Beijing). The recovery rate in Shanghai is up to 96.8%, while China as a whole is at 94%. Regardless of how you feel about the numbers, it’s comforting to see such a high recovery rate. I’ll note that since much of China (outside Wuhan and Hubei province) was not hit as hard by covid-19, due to the harsh restrictions placed on travel as well as the more forced lockdown, reaching this rate of recovery so soon is likely not going to happen elsewhere. However, it is comforting to see recovery rates rising around the globe.

I do want to note that two of the new cases this week in Shanghai were domestic cases of people traveling from outside of Shanghai to Shanghai and then testing positive for covid-19. There’s lots of contact tracing in China, so the government is able to track where everyone has been, which allowed people who came in contact with those individuals to be tested. However, there is a cognizance that a second wave is definitely possible. Given that reason, my supervisor has recommended I avoid public transportation, so I likely won’t be going back to the SJTU campus at least for a little bit longer.

In terms of Astronomy, this was an exhausting week. This week was the DES collaboration conference done on Zoom. DES is based out of FermiLab in Chicago, which unfortunately for me, led to a lot of really late nights. Generally, I was able to attend the morning sessions from 10:30pm – 1:00am. I presented my research on the evolution of the stellar mass-halo mass relation twice and received good feedback both times! Additionally, there were a lot of great talks that I got to listen to as well as a few others I watched recordings of. While it’s definitely convenient to not have to travel, I did miss getting to meet more members of the collaboration and talking about new projects with potential collaborators. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have in person conferences again next year. Below you can see me (5th row, third from the right) in our DES virtual group photo!

In addition to the DES meeting, I also spent time revising my DES paper (which is close to being submitted :)) and made a ton of progress on my Luminosity function research and hope to have results later this week, since I now have all the measurements I need to actually construct a Luminosity Function :)! Unsurprisingly, I spent a lot of time on Zoom this week. In addition to the DES telecon, we also had a successful first week of Zoom astrocoffee as well as my normal Zu group meetings.

The weather in Shanghai has continued to be warm, but not brutally hot yet (though everyone tells me that’s coming). Most days it’s in the low-mid 80s, so I’m still able to go running (either in the morning or evening). This week, I did four runs! For those of you who are curious, I generally run about 15-20 miles per week (each run is 4.5-5+ miles). One benefit of working from home is that it’s much easier to fit running into my schedule! As usual, I saw a lot of beautiful flowers this week. I really like how these kind of flowers are all around the city and the colors are just fantastic!

During my walks and runs, I also saw some cool sculptures and posters!

Having seen Degas’ ballet sculptures many times before, it was very cool to see this modern update in downtown Shanghai!

Since the DES weekend completely took over my week, I took Saturday as a rest day to recover. I followed that up with a busy and fun Sunday! I went on a walking tour of the Jewish sites within the Former French Concession (which I’ll talk about later) and then went to a picnic on the West Bund with my friends from Moishe House. The West Bund is a park that reminded me a lot of Riverside Park in NYC mixed with being transported back to the Main Green at Brown or Diag at Michigan! There were tons of people there with their pets. Mostly dogs, but a few cats. There were also people doing acro-yoga, slacklining, juggling, and playing basketball.

Additionally, you can also see some of the furry friends who joined us for our picnic as well as a picture of an adorable cat inside a local women’s clothing store!

Overall, a picnic in the park with friends was a fun way to relax and enjoy the beautiful and warm weather on Sunday afternoon! Additionally, I didn’t realize it, but there’s a really awesome running trail all along the Huangpu River, which I definitely need to check out for some long (8+ mile) runs!

Food in Shanghai

Unfortunately, I don’t have any amazing meals to share with you this week, since I ate all my meals at home. However, I did do some more cooking. I made a tofu pie as well as a couscous salad (for the picnic). I also got fresh lychees for the first time! I didn’t know what lychees looked like, since whenever I’ve had them they’re peeled!

They’re very sweet and I’m really enjoying them! It’s awesome trying all these different fruits here that are really hard to get back home.

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Sunday morning, Patrick Cranley, from Historic Shanghai, led a walking tour of the Jewish heritage sites within the Former French Concession for members of the Kehilat Shanghai community. Many of these buildings were owned by members of the first two waves of Jewish immigrants to Shanghai. The first were the Sephardic Jewish families (like the Sassoon family) who came to Shanghai in the late 19th century. The second were members of the Russian Jewish community, who came following the Russian revolution. Since none of the sites are obvious Jewish landmarks (i.e., they aren’t synagogues), it was really interesting learning about them, especially since I often go running in and around the Former French Concession and pass by these locations frequently!

Aside from some of the group photos, you can see a few highlights of the art deco style that permeates many of the buildings built in Shanghai in the 1920s. Some of the sites on our tour included the Cathay Mansions, Little Moscow, the location of the New Synagogue, the Shanghai Jewish club, and the first Sassoon residence.

Overall, it was really nice getting to see so many of the Kehilat Shanghai community members, some of whom I hadn’t seen in months, come together to learn about different aspects of the Jewish heritage here in Shanghai!

Overall, this was a very eventful week! While I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, I’m actually looking forward to a quieter week (at least in terms of research) and getting back to my normal routine. It’s weird to say that working from home is my normal routine, but I’ve actually been working from home longer than I worked in the office at SJTU :).

I hope that this update about my life and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai gives you optimism that things will improve wherever you are. This upcoming week should be a fairly normal week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for supporting my blog and for expressing interest in my life and experiences in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to keep many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope this blog highlights that while this period of enforced isolation is difficult and emotionally taxing, things will eventually improve. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I do emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not be applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this week’s post again finds you, your family, and your friends continuing to stay safe and healthy. I continue to be relieved every time I hear from you all about how you are doing. Being so far away from my family and friends, especially during this time of crisis, has been difficult. So, just as I appreciated your words of encouragement back in January and February, I know am comforted hearing from you after each post. Although I’ve been dealing with the ramifications of covid-19 for a few months longer than you have, I think we’ve all reached the point where we’ve gotten into new routines. Whether it’s working from home, doing exercise classes online, going for longer runs/walks, or finding new hobbies, I hope that each week you’re able to take some time to relax and do something enjoyable to stay positive. Whether it’s catching up with friends via Zoom, chatting with family, or getting some of your favorite foods, I hope that you find joy each week.

As I read the news from afar about the US and Europe reopening, I grow increasingly concerned. It seems like there is no strategy being employed consistently in the US. While New York state has actual goals that must be maintained for reopening, other states appear to be in a complete free for all. Given that most of these approaches are the exact opposite of the approach taken by the Shanghai Municipal government and China as a whole, I can’t help but fear that this will lead to a second surge (which I’m not entirely sure many in the US are cognizant of). Therefore, I really can’t emphasize enough the importance of maintaining social distancing, washing your hands, and wearing masks! Even as the number of cases has died down here, most people are still wearing masks.

In Shanghai, life is maintaining it’s new normalcy. Schools continue to reopen, including some elementary schools. Unfortunately, SJTU has yet to announce a reopening plan for the spring semester. However, my research supervisor, Prof. Ying Zu, went to the office for the first time since January last week. So, maybe in a week or two I’ll make the trek from Xintiandi to Minhang. Most people continue to wear masks when outside, though I’ve noticed it’s not as universal as it was (but still the vast majority). The big change in China recently has been the relaxing of travel quarantine requirements for domestic travelers to Beijing. One of the Kehilat Shanghai board members was able to travel to Beijing this week (via airplane), since there’s no longer a 14 day quarantine. So, maybe at some point this summer I’ll get to leave Shanghai (I’ve been in Shanghai and no other city since October) and visit another city/province in China! 🙂

In terms of the overall statistics, the numbers continue to improve. All new cases have been imported. There are just 17 cases in Shanghai and only 7 active cases in Beijing. The recovery rate in Shanghai has risen to 96.3% and the overall recovery rate in China is 94.3%. While the numbers differ in each country, and are likely not entirely accurate anywhere in the world, I think that it’s important to remember that if the actions taken by the government are swift, decisive, and backed by science, not economics, it is possible to recover from this pandemic.

In terms of my Astronomy research this was a fairly productive week. Much of my week was spent working on my DESI project studying the spectroscopic completeness of clusters. Additionally, I also began working on my Luminosity function project again. I’m currently working on 4 different projects, which makes it hard to balance each project and make sure they all are adequately being addressed at one time. In addition to my regular Zoom telecons, this past Friday, we restarted the SJTU astrocoffee, which is a discussion of recent relevant papers, selected by presenters. We’ll be returning to a 3x per week format done on Zoom! Also, this upcoming week is the DES virtual Collaboration Meeting, which I get to present twice at! Unfortunately all the talks are late at night, so there will be a lot of late nights this week. Yay international collaborations based in Chicago! 🙂

Shanghai has continued, at least in my opinion, to oscillate between very warm (upper 70s) and hot temperatures (upper 80s) with lots of humidity. While the heat is manageable to an extent, the humidity makes it hard to run, especially when wearing a mask. Despite that difficulty, I still managed to go for 3 runs this past week. However, I’ll need to look into a gym soon, since it’s starting to get too uncomfortable for me to run frequently.

Being outside as much as I was allowed me to get lots of great pictures of the lovely flowers in Shanghai!

One of my favorite parts of Shanghai is how artistic the city feels. Whether it’s beautiful flowers, interesting sculptures and advertisements, or the use of lights at night, the city always feels alive. You can even see the highways lit up and if you look closely can even see that the city puts flowerbeds on the sides of the highways.

I also saw a lot of really interesting statues/sculptures/advertisements this week!

Also, there’s a new mural of Hokusai’s wave being painted on on the doors to one of the buildings on the street that I live on!

Last, but not least, I got a few more cute pictures of cats living in Shanghai

The combination of warmer temperatures plus thunderstorms as well as the upcoming DES virtual collaboration made this week a little more work focused. However, I still was able to join my friends, Heather and Shimi for a Shabbat dinner! Along with great food we had interesting discussions about Israeli and US politics as well as how covid-19 has influenced education (i.e., taking classes online). I hope that eventually you’ll be able to safely enjoy each other’s company as I’m able to do here.

Food in Shanghai

As many of you know, I’m not super comfortable when it’s really hot and humid and I’m generally nervous that I’m going to melt this summer in Shanghai. I’ve had the benefit of living in colder climates all my life (Saratoga Springs, Providence, Ann Arbor) where it doesn’t get really hot until July/August. Unfortunately that’s decidedly not the case in Shanghai. So, to attempt to beat the heat, I’ve started making frozen deserts! For my first attempts, I made a strawberry sorbet and orange strawberry sunrise popsicles!

Both deserts were very refreshing! I also tried mangosteen for the first time. I think the only time I’d ever seen mangosteen in the US was at Juniper, the frozen yogurt/smoothie store Emmet and I frequented while we were at Brown. You only eat the white part and the fruit itself is very sweet and refreshing!

I also did a lot of cooking this week. I made Mushroom french dip style sandwiches, vegan mozzarella cheese (for the sandwiches), roasted chickpeas, and a quinoa salad with white beans, sword beans, peppers, onions, and preserved lemon! In addition to the frozen deserts, I also made tahini oatmeal date cookies, which taste like halva! So, I’ll have plenty of delicious food to enjoy!

As I mentioned, on Friday, I got Shabbat dinner with my friends at one of our favorite Indian restaurants! This week we tried a fried chickpea curry served with puffy white bread, saag paneer, and a vegetable curry! As usual everything was fantastic!

Additionally, after dinner, Heather and I went for desert. For those long time readers, you may recall that I’ve commented that I haven’t had any Chinese deserts since moving here. Most restaurants have gorgeous french style pastries. However, on Friday, Heather took me to a small Chinese desert restaurant. We got mango pomelo sago, which is a mango custard with tapioca balls topped with mango and pomelo, and a mango sticky rice ice cream, which was ice cream topped with black sticky rice and fresh mango!

Both deserts were really great! Other than the ingredients used, the biggest difference between Chinese and American style deserts is the amount of sugar. American deserts are very sweet (almost too much at times), whereas the the sweetness in these deserts came mostly from the fruit. I also really enjoyed all the different textures that these deserts had!

Although this was another quiet week, it allowed me to spend a lot of time on research, while also affording me the opportunity to catch up with friends from Brown and Michigan, as well as seeing friends here in Shanghai. I want to emphasize how nice even small interactions are. While some of you may be planning elaborate vacations, I think you’ll find that the first time you get together with friends or family for a nice meal will be just as rewarding!

I hope that this update about my life and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai leaves you with optimism that things will improve and reach a new normal. This upcoming week will be busier as the DES meeting will likely adjust my daily schedule to start and end a bit later than I’d like (in my attempt to stay up for a lot of Zoom presentations). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for supporting my blog and for your interest in my life and experiences in Shanghai! As covid-19 keeps many of you sheltered in place, I hope this blog highlights that while forced isolation is trying, eventually things will improve. In Shanghai, life is close to returning to a new normal. I do want to emphasize that the timeline of recovery in Shanghai will not be applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how Shanghai is recovering from covid-19, how I’ve dealt with it, or life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that all of you are doing well and that you have continued to stay safe and healthy. It’s been very reassuring to hear from so many of you about how you are staying healthy and keeping yourselves occupied while remaining at home. I know that for some of you, like my parents, the academic semester has ended (or will be ending soon), and you now find yourself with more free time. I hope that this transition to a different schedule has gone well and that you are finding new activities (whether it’s reading, exercising, or other new hobbies) that keep you upbeat. I know that for me maintaining a positive attitude has been extremely helpful during the covid-19 pandemic. Regardless of whether it was a now normal week of working from home, or maybe your first week back at work (depending on where you live), or a transition week to the summer schedule, I hope that it was still an enjoyable and safe week.

As I write this, it’s Mother’s Day. Since I won’t be able to travel home (for a while) to see my Mom and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day! in person, I wanted to take the opportunity to do so here. Mom, thank you so much for your endless love and support, especially as I’m half way around the world on my academic journey! I miss you and hope to see you (and get more jam 🙂 ) soon! Also, to all the mothers who are reading this, I hope that you and your families are able to do something special to mark the day!

In Shanghai, life continues it’s gradual return to normalcy. While unfortunately SJTU remains closed (and my research supervisor, Prof. Ying Zu, remains skeptical that the university will reopen), some of the more senior graduate students have been allowed to return to campus. I think if I wanted to, I can go to campus. However, since Ying is still working from home and I would prefer to avoid the commute on the subway, I’ve chosen not to. Additionally, some of my friends who are teachers are now back at work (although for some, they are at school, but the students remain online). Almost all stores and restaurants are now open. The only really noticeable difference is that everyone still wears masks. I know that wearing a mask may seem difficult (they’re not always comfortable), but I think it’s really important that you wear one every time you go outside. Wearing a mask offers some safety benefits, but also emphasizes that you view the continued health and safety of your neighbors as a priority! So, don’t be like the current administration, please wear masks.

In terms of statistics, the numbers have continued to improve in Shanghai. In total, there are just 26 active cases (19 in Beijing). This update places the recovery rate at 95%. For China as a whole, the recovery rate has risen to 94.1%. While I admit there is a lot of skepticism about the numbers in China, I strongly believe that while these numbers may not be entirely accurate (they aren’t in the US for the same reasons they aren’t here), the general trend of a rising recovery rate remains. I strongly believe that if people continue to wear masks, social distance, and remain vigilant, the situation will improve. So, please continue to take the necessary precautions. Additionally, I also think it’s important to stay vigilant because as I’ve mentioned before it’s likely a second wave may occur and even here in China, we are cognizant of that.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a very productive week! Since you now can all understand my research a little bit better, I hope that this update makes sense! I made some very nice measurements on the spectroscopic completeness of galaxy clusters in DESI (the fraction of clusters in the galaxy that will have their spectrum measured). This should yield very interesting results in the future as Prof. Zu and I work to determine how this fraction may impact observational results using simulations. Additionally, I also made more progress on my DES project. I had to remeasure some of the simulated results, but that should be finished up in a day or two, so that paper remains close to submission. Additionally, I had quite a few telecons, including on Thursday, a late night meeting with my Ph.D. advisor and mentor, Prof. Chris Miller, followed by a later DES telecon, as well as my usual Zu Group meetings. Also, I’ll be presenting my research at the upcoming Zoom DES collaboration meeting telecon!

Unlike in the Northeast, where this past weekend was met with snow and cold weather, here in Shanghai it has remained warm. Much of the week it was still in the upper 70s/low 80s (though it rained a few days). This warmer (but not super hot) weather allowed me to go for 4 runs this week! I’m really glad that I’m able to run so frequently! During my runs and walks, I also got to take a lot of pictures of more beautiful flowers. Shanghai in the spring is absolutely lovely!

In addition to the productive research and running, this was another enjoyable week. On Monday, I got dinner with my friends Heather and Shimi. We went to one of the fancy local malls. Unlike in the US, in China most malls actually make most of their money from restaurants and the restaurants are really great! You can even see people (wearing masks) and hand rolling dumplings in the mall! As you can see, malls are both similar and different to what is in the US.

On Sunday, Moishe House hosted a games afternoon, which was a ton of fun! As per usual, I baked for the event and made a strawberry cake (strawberry season is actually almost over here, which is so weird since it usually hasn’t even begun by June in the US), which was a hit. I spent the afternoon playing Codenames with my friends and fellow Moishe House community members! It was a lot of fun to get out of the heat and humidity for a little bit and hang out with everyone else! I’m looking forward to the next game night! I’m also so thrilled that the community has remained vibrant throughout the covid-19 pandemic!

Additionally, I had to share some cute photos of furry friends! The Moishe House is fostering a community member’s dog and the cat that lives in my lane neighborhood came back!

Food in Shanghai

As I mentioned, on Monday, I got dinner with my friends Heather and Shimi! We went to a Chinese restaurant. One benefit of going with friends who speak Chinese is that we can go to non-vegetarian restaurants and they can help make sure the food is vegetarian for me!

We got lettuce rolls with peanut sauce, tofu, scallion noodles, fried sword beans, and vegetable dumplings! Everything was delicious. The sword beans are one of my favorites and super common here. However, I don’t remember ever seeing them in the US when I’d go to Chinese restaurants.

Additionally, on Friday, my friend Hannah Maia introduced me to chuan chuan, Chinese kebabs. We got a ton of different vegetable, tofu, and bao kebabs, which were fantastic!

I think my favorites were the tofu, mushroom, and cauliflower.

There is so much amazing and different food to try here in Shanghai! I hope I’m able to try as much as possible and introduce it to you all virtually.

Although this was a slower week, the more relaxed schedule allowed me to spend a lot of time getting work done and being productive, while still making time to see friends. I think the covid-19 pandemic has really made me more appreciative of these small dinners and group hangouts than I was before. I hope that you all feel the same once things return to normal in a few months.

I hope that this update about my life and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai leaves you feeling optimistic that things will improve and return to a new normal. This upcoming week should be another normal and productive research week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need to talk to someone about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you all for supporting this blog and for following my adventures and life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to keep many of you sheltered in place, I hope this blog highlights that while isolation is difficult, eventually things improve. In Shanghai, life is close to returning to a new normal. I do want to emphasize that the timeline here will not be applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how Shanghai is recovering from covid-19, how I’ve dealt with it, or life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As I’ve previously done, I want to begin this post by checking in with you. I hope that you, your family, and your friends are all staying safe and healthy. Regardless of whether you live in a state or country that has prematurely reopened, I hope that you are still following social distancing guidelines and are able to work from home. As April rolled into May and hopefully life around you began to bloom, I want to hear how sheltering in place has been going. I know, that it was much easier for me to stay indoors and not leave my apartment when it was colder and rainier. So, I’m sure that it may be more difficult to do stay at home now than it was a few weeks ago. Despite all that, I hope that, assuming you feel comfortable leaving your homes, you are able to go outside and enjoy the nicer weather, maybe for walks, runs, or hikes, while still staying away from others and wearing masks.

Life continues to maintain it’s new normal here in Shanghai. Some schools have already reopened. From what I understand, the reopening is staggered in an attempt to minimize the stress on the infrastructure. However, SJTU, the university where I work, still has not announced an official reopening date for students. On other notes, the temperature check policies have begun to relax here, but most everyone still wears masks. While I’ve discussed my views on the effectiveness of masks, I do wear them, even when it’s been very hot, which makes them more uncomfortable. The main reason it’s important to wear masks are 1). they prevent the spread of spittle between people, which is one of the main ways the virus can be transmitted and 2). solidarity and support that everyone needs to work together to slow the spread of the virus. So, even though the US leadership doesn’t seem to understand the importance of wearing masks (looking at you Mike Pence), please wear a mask when you go out. It doesn’t need to be an N95 mask. Cloth masks or hospital masks (what I wear now) do both tasks I previously mentioned.

In terms of the overall statistics here in Shanghai, the numbers have continued to improve, which I find very promising. I realized I’ve never divulged where I get my numbers, so to be completely transparent, my numbers come from SHINE, which is part of the Shanghai Daily, the largest English Language Newspaper in Shanghai (posted on WeChat). As of May 3rd, there are just 33 cases remaining in Shanghai (and 33 in Beijing). So, the recovery rate in Shanghai has increased up to 93.8%. For comparison, the reported recovery rate in China as a whole is 93.6%. While I know some of you are suspicious about the numbers being reported in China, I don’t think that the number of cases in China is any more misrepresented than it is in the US (i.e., not everyone who is sick actually went to the hospital or was correctly diagnosed early on). I spoke with my boss, Prof. Ying Zu, about this and he mentioned that the fatality rate in China is actually the median rate for East Asia. So, my guess is that the reason the numbers are lower (than in the US and Europe) has more to do with the quick, severe, and draconian response rather than falsified data. Additionally, practices like wearing masks are more commonly accepted here. That being said, I do think that (assuming people maintain social distancing and sheltering in place) for another month, things should improve. However, I will note that certain states and the current administration are playing a very dangerous game by attempting to reopen the economy before the curve is actually flattened.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a relatively normal and productive week. I had my regular Zu group telecon as well as a few other Zoom meetings. I spent most of my work working on my DESI project, looking at the spectroscopic completeness of clusters, and made some really nice headway and should have some interesting (at least to me) results soon! I also finished up the latest draft on my paper comparing different versions of the stellar mass halo mass relation, so hopefully that will be submitted soon! Also, since my friend Steve Schwartz asked, near the end of this post, I’m going to provide a deep dive into my research and attempt to explain the topics so you can all understand! :).

Here in Shanghai, the weather has transitioned from warm to very hot! On Sunday, the high was 95! The last few days have all been in the upper 80s. Thankfully it will cool off to the low 80s later this week. This is so much hotter than what I’ve been used to in Ann Arbor or Saratoga, especially for the beginning of May. Prior to the uncomfortably hot weather, I did go for 4 runs this week (with my new running shoes 🙂 )! My personal philosophy is that if it’s above the low 80s, then I won’t run outside (no need to hurt myself). So, I may have to find a local gym soon. Additionally, since it has been a mixture of hot and rainy the last few days, I didn’t take as many photos of Shanghai in bloom. Instead, I decided to showcase what Shanghai looks like at night!

Given the heat the last few days, it hasn’t been as crowded, but you can see that even at night, the Shanghai skyline is very majestic and Shanghai is always lit up!

While there were no birthday celebrations this week, I still had a lot of fun! On Thursday, my friend Heather organized a vegan cooking and dinner night (photos of the food in that section), which was a ton of fun! You can see an action shot of me making vegan mozerella cheese! I haven’t done a ton of group cooking, prior to moving to Shanghai, but it was so much fun exchanging recipes and experimenting in the kitchen! Following cooking, we enjoyed an amazing vegan feast and fantastic conversation! I look forward to trying more recipes soon!

I also had to share this photo of an adorable kitten that is living in my neighborhood! As you can see from the leash, thankfully this is not a stray kitten. Sadly, there are a lot of stray animals here in Shanghai.

Food in Shanghai

While this was another week where I didn’t go to any restaurants, as I mentioned, on Thurday, I had a fantastic vegan feast at my friends Heather and Shimi’s home. We made vegan mozzerella cheese, homemade seitan (which we saved for later), Pra Ram Tofu (tofu with a thai peanut sauce), Lebanese cauilflower (cauliflower with tahini sauce), kale pesto, and kale and mushroom salad! Additionally, my friend Anne-Sophie made mugwort and red bean paste glutinous rice balls (kind of like mochi)!

Everything we made was fantastic!! It was so much fun cooking together and I’m looking forward to doing it again! I think the Pra Ram Tofu was my favorite. I love a good peanut sauce! So even though I haven’t eaten out as much lately, I think we can all agree that you don’t really need to eat out when you can cook your own delicious food!

In addition, I turned my portion of the seitan into a delicious seitan and vegetable stir fry with peanut sauce and made tofu lettuce wraps and chocolate tahini brownies! So, I’ll have plenty of good eating for this upcoming week as well!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This weekend is the Limmud China festival. For those of you, like myself, who are unfamiliar, Limmud is a Jewish learning festival hosted in different cities/countries around the world. Generally, in China, Beijing and Shanghai alternate hosting Limmud. This year it’s a digital event done on Zoom. So, this week, all of the Jewish activities that I participated in this week were part of Limmud.

On Friday, we had a virtual zoom Shabbat service. Then on Saturday, Moishe House hosted an in person Havdalah (a ritual to mark the end of Shabbat). It was really nice being able to interact with both friends and community members stuck abroad while also seeing some of my friends who are here in Shanghai! Additionally, the chocolate tahini brownies I made for the Havdalah were a hit!

On Sunday (and on Monday), there were a variety of different sessions for Limmud. I attended sessions discussing the history of Jews who left Shanghai to go to Macao, a discussion on the similarities between Jewish and Chinese cultures, and a discussion about Shanghai’s Jewish history! While I might be spending too much time staring at my computer (who isn’t these days), I found a lot of these discussions to be very interesting. Hopefully next year the in person event will resume!

Astronomy Lesson

Before I get started with my Astronomy lesson, I wanted to let you all know that I just passed the 1 year anniversary of successfully defending my dissertation and becoming Dr. Jesse Golden-Marx! It’s been an eventful year: visiting Shanghai, moving from Ann Arbor, moving to Shanghai, becoming a postdoc at SJTU, and building a life in Shanghai. So, to commemorate this anniversary, I’m going to explain my research to you. The goal of this is to explain it so that everyone can understand it. So, if you have questions, or are confused about any jargon please ask! Of note, all the images I provide are from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and are galaxy clusters that I’ve used in my research.

In the broadest terms, my research focuses on galaxy clusters. Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound systems in the universe. On average these systems are 10^14 times more massive than the sun. Clusters have three main components: galaxies, which are made up of stars; dark matter; and hot, x-ray emitting gas. Dark matter is non-luminous matter that doesn’t emit light in any wavelength (we don’t know what kind of particle it is). However, dark matter does exert a gravitational force on the galaxies.

My research focuses on the connection between galaxies and dark matter. Specifically, I work in a subfield known as the galaxy-dark matter halo connection. Since dark matter can’t be seen, you may be wondering what a dark matter halo is. The halo is the underlying substructure needed for a galaxy to form. One analogy I like to use is that the halo is the concrete base of a swimming pool that surrounds and defines the shape of the pool, while the water is the galaxy. Moreover, my primary interest within the galaxy-halo connection is understanding the formation and evolution of the brightest central galaxy (BCG), the bright, massive galaxy that is located at the center of each of these images and is most strongly connected to the dark matter halo (since it’s at the center).

Within the galaxy-dark matter halo connection, much of my dissertation and current research focuses on the stellar mass – halo mass relation. This is a scaling relation that compares the amount of stellar mass contained within the central galaxy to the amount of dark matter contained within the cluster. In general, the ratio of stellar mass to halo mass is anywhere between 1/100 to 1/1000. So, there’s a lot more dark matter! We can observationally measure the stellar mass by measuring the amount of light (or brightness of the galaxy). However, measuring the amount of dark matter is difficult. One method of doing that is richness – mass scaling relations, where richness is the number of cluster members. Another that I use is the caustic techniques, which uses the motion of the galaxies to trace the gravitational potential well of the cluster.

Within my studies of the stellar mass – halo mass relation, my analysis incorporates the magnitude gap, which is the difference in brightness between the central galaxy and faint satellite galaxy, as a third parameter. To determine which are the satellites, it’s important to understand that all cluster member galaxies (in fully formed clusters) have a similar reddish color (as shown visually) because they form at a similar time and run out of gas to form stars at a similar time. Incorporating this cluster membership information within the stellar mass – halo mass relation allows me to study the hierarchical formation of central galaxies. This is a model where the biggest galaxies grow by eating (or merging) with the fainter galaxies. To study this connection, I use a mixture of Bayesian statistics, statistical modelling, and computer coding. I’ve studied this relationship within nearby, intermediate, and higher redshift galaxy clusters (using the Dark Energy Survey data).

In addition to my work on the stellar mass – halo mass relation, I’m also working on a project at SJTU to measure the luminosity function of galaxies in clusters. The luminosity function is simply a distribution function that models the number of galaxies within a cluster (of a given mass) with a given brightness. Simply put this measurement counts the number of bright galaxies within a given region (corrected for area). This relationship can also be used to inform how central galaxies form and evolve.

Additionally, I’m also working on a project within DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) that is looking at the spectroscopic completeness of galaxy cluster members. This just means determining what fractions of previously detected cluster members (all the red galaxies in the above images) will have spectra taken. A spectrum displays absorption and emission lines that tell us about the chemical composition of galaxies and stars and can be used to determine the distance to the galaxy. By having a spectrum of a galaxy, we can more accurately identify the cluster members.

That’s the science that I’m currently working on! I hope you find it interesting.

Overall, despite the oppressive heat, this was another enjoyable and productive week. Even though I’m sure many of you were staying home, I hope that you were also able to do some fun things this week.

I hope that this update about my life, Astronomy research, and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai interests you and provides you with hope that things will improve and reach a new normal. This upcoming week should be another fairly normal research week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation or my research, please let me know. If you need to talk to someone about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse