Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to wear masks when you go outside (even if you’re vaccinated), avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you staying safe and healthy! As the vaccine roll out continues, and some of you are now vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to follow social distancing protocols and are wearing masks. Even as things improve, it’s vital to continue to do so to show your community that you also care about their safety, not just your own. Additionally, for those of you with loved ones in Texas, I hope that they are recovering and have electricity, water, and gas again. Lastly, for those of you who celebrated Purim this week, even though it was without parties or gatherings, I hope that you were able to enjoy some hamantaschen!

Since this was a seemingly much calmer week politically, I’ll begin by updating you on the covid-19 situation in Shanghai and China. Before that, I do hope the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine helps to speed up the process of getting the US and the rest of the world vaccinated. Hopefully, better infrastructure for an efficient vaccine roll out will be put in place as well. In terms of cases, the situation in China has remained the same. There was no outbreak as a result of the Lunar New Year/Spring Festival holiday, which is great. In total, there are just 49 cases in Shanghai and the recovery rate is 96.9%. In Beijing, there are only 16 cases and the recovery rate is 97.6%. For China as a whole, there are just 513 active cases and the recovery rate is at 94.7%.

In terms of Astronomy, this was my first week back on the SJTU campus! For the spring semester, I’ll be going in 3x per week. While nothing has really changed on campus, it was nice to see my colleagues again and it did help me jump start some of the projects that had stagnated. For this week, I spent most of my time working on building a mock galaxy cluster catalog for my Luminosity Function analysis. This is a lot more challenging than it may sound (and it’s the first time I’ve ever done it). However, I’ve made fairly good progress so far. I’ve been able to generate both random luminosities, based on a modeled conditional luminosity function and random radial position, based on a scaled NFW distribution. For those non-Astronomers, essentially, I’ve used pre-existing and well defined relations to generate random data that looks like the real universe in terms of position and brightness. Additionally, with the semester back in session, next week, we are starting AstroCoffee back up, so that will be nice for me as well.

Since this was my first week back in the office, I didn’t get to go for quite as many runs (plus it’s been raining a lot). As a result, I only got to go for 2 runs this week. However, I did see some beautiful flowers that I wanted to share with you!

Before I share some of the highlights of my week, I wanted to share another part about my trip to Harbin, that I intentionally didn’t share 7 weeks ago. You may recall that while I was at the snow and ice festival, I shared a photo of a China Post office made out of snow (seen below). What I didn’t share was that I sent my brother and parents a postcard from Harbin! I’ve never sent mail from China to the US before, so I had no idea if it would arrive and if so, how long it would take. Well after 7 weeks, it finally arrived! It was a great surprise to wake up to and my family loved getting it! As you can see they put a lot of stamps on it (there are a few more on the back) :).

This week, I had a lot of fun and interesting activities. On Thursday, Hannah Maia, Clem, and I organized our monthly anti-racism discussion. This time, our theme was related to both Black History Month and Purim. So, we had a discussion about history, who gets to decide what history is and who gets to tell that story and how it should be interpreted. As part of the discussion, each participant shared one thing that they had learned during black history month. I learned that in 1981, Dr. Barbara A. Williams was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Astronomy (from the University of Maryland). Additionally, since many of the participants are educators, our discussion touched on how black history is and should be taught in schools. We discussed how this information should instead be integrated into the curriculum instead of just covered during one month. We ended the discussion by talking about the wave of anti-Asian American violence that is spreading across the US, which I find particularly troublesome, and how ideas such as the model minority myth and scapegoating from the Republicans for covid-19 are likely two of the reasons that these sort of hate crimes are on the rise in the US today.

The first highlight of my week was the Lantern Festival! The Lantern Festival was officially celebrated on Friday. This is a festival that marks the end of the traditional Chinese New Year holiday and is on the 15th day of the month. So, to celebrate, I went to the Yu Gardens (along with a huge crowd of mask wearing people) to see the different lights, decorations, and lanterns!

I even bought a little red lantern (seen above) for my apartment! The lantern festival was one of the things that I really wanted to experience last year. However, due to covid-19, it was cancelled, so I was really excited that I was able to go see all the amazing decorations, and colorful lanterns this year! As you can see, it really is a sight to behold! All the lights, and traditional lanterns were absolutely breathtaking! My favorites were the streets lined with lanterns, it felt like I was transported to a different time and place. 🙂

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As I mentioned, this part week was Purim! A Jewish holiday which celebrates Queen Esther’s triumph over the wicked Haman and his plot to persecute the Jews. As part of that, on Wednesday, Hannah Maia, my friend Dawn, and I made vegan hamantaschen! Thanks to Dawn’s help and amazing vegan knowledge, I was also able to make vegan butter for the first time (out of coconut oil), which was the key ingredient that I thought I would be missing in order to make vegan hamantaschen, since hamantaschen need a lot of butter.

We made poppyseed, pear (using our homemade jam), and chocolate! All of them were delicious and everyone we gave them to at the anti-racism discussion loved them!

My Purim celebrations didn’t end there. On Saturday night, my friend Ilan organized a Purim comedy show! While I don’t have any pictures, it was a night filled with many hilarious jokes (some Purim or Jewish themed). My favorite part of the show was the last act, where the performers did an updated take on the Purim story, set in modern times, in Shanghai! It was funny hearing how in this version Haman is in charge of issuing foreign visas, instead of being a vizier, and Mordecai saves Ahashveros from a plot that would ruin his reputation via social media, instead of saving his life! In all, it was a great night laughing with friends and a great way to celebrate!

Lastly, on Sunday, Kehilat Shanghai hosted their Purim Carnival for the Tov children! We had a board meeting afterwards, so I went to help out, and enjoy some delicious hamantaschen! It was really neat to see all the Chinese inspired flavors including lotus and black sesame!

Watching the kids play games, make masks, and eat hamantaschen reminded me of celebrating Purim as a child at Temple Sinai and the carnival reminded me of all the different carnival fairs at Lake Avenue Elementary School from when I was growing up! Even though the activity was for kids, it was really nice to join together with the community to celebrate!

Overall, this was a very productive, full, and fun week! This upcoming week should definitely be a little quieter, though I’m sure I’ll have some fun activities and photos to share with all of you!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos from the Lantern Festival and Purim Celebrations! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

Also, here are the answers to the trivia questions!

Trivia

Fictional, Cartoon, and animated, Zodiac Animals

1). Ox
The main character of this children’s story, which is an allegory for the Spanish Civil War, is a bull who loves peace and loves to sniff the flowers.

–Ferdinand

2). Tiger
Though not shown in the recent movie, this DC Comics character has a friend named “Talkin Tawny,” who is a talking Tiger.

–Shazam (or Captain Marvel)

3). Rabbit
Two of the most famous literary character created by this British author are Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny.

–Beatrix Potter

4). Dragon
In this Hayao Miyazaki anime masterpiece, one of the main characters, Haku, is actually a river spirit in the form of a Dragon.

–Spirited Away

5). Snake
In the Harry Potter series, what is the name of Voldemort’s giant snake?

–Nagini

6). Monkey
This legendary manga and anime series was inspired by the Chinese epic, Journey to the West, starring the Monkey King.

–Dragon Ball

7). Horse
In the childhood classic, Toy Story, what is the name of Woody’s horse?

–Bullseye

8). Dog
Bandit is the small dog who accompanies this title character, his father, and his best friend Haji on their “New” and “Real” adventures.

–Jonny Quest

9). Pig
In Animal Farm, this is the name of the pig who leads the animal revolution and later establishes a dictatorship.

–Napoleon

10). Rat
Master Splinter is the mutated rat who trains these 4 brothers in martial arts.

–Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello)

The Golden Calf and other Jewish symbols and imagery

1). The story of the golden calf appears in this book of the Bible.

–-Exodus

2). The golden calf is made when Moses climbs what mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.

–Mount Sinai

3). Only members of this tribe, which later became known as the priestly class, did not partake in sacrifices to the golden calf.

–Levites (Levi)

4). After the golden calf incident, Moses returns with the 10 commandments. How many of the 10 commandments specifically refer to things that are done to other people.

–6 (Honor thy father and mother, though shalt not murder, though shalt not commit adultry, though shalt not steal, though shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, though shalt not covet).

5). On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, what horn is sounded to ring in the New Year?

–Shofar

6). Which of the twelve tribes of Israel is associated with the symbol of the lion?

–Judah

7). The mezuzah, which is traditionally hung on the doorpost of one’s home, contains which Hebrew prayer on a scroll inside of it.

–Sh’ma

8). This other Jewish symbol, which nowadays can be found on keychains, necklaces, and wall ornaments, features a hand and the evil eye, and is said to bring good luck.

–Hamsa

9). At Purim, we honor Esther’s triumph over this wicked man, by making noise each time his name is said and eating deserts shaped like his traditional tri-cornered hat.

–Haman

10). In Jewish mythology, in the most widely recognized story of the golem (which involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel), the golem was built to protect the Jews of what city?

–Prague

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest blog post continues to find all of you staying safe and healthy. If any of you (or your family and friends) are in Texas, I hope that you (and they) are safe during this troubling power outage. Hopefully, the power grid will be repaired and power will be restored throughout the state soon. Moreover, for those of you who are experiencing cold weather around the world, I hope that you are finding ways to stay positive and do fun things to minimize any seasonal depression.

As with recent posts, I’ll begin by commenting on the political situation in the US. First, I sincerely hope that the power grid in Texas can be repaired soon. It’s very sad to hear about people who are suffering from hypothermia and even dying as a result of the power outage combined with the fact that many of the residents don’t own proper cold weather clothing. It also saddens me to see so much politicization and political animosity (nearly all stemming from the Republicans) during this time. It’s disheartening to hear the Texas GOP leadership blame the green new deal and green energy (wind mills) for this outage, when in fact much of the outage resulted from natural gas pipelines freezing. That leadership used this as an opportunity to bash the Democrats green energy initiatives only further emphasizes their lack of caring. Additionally, the repulsive actions of Ted Cruz, fleeing with his family to Cancun, must be highlighted as further evidence of the moral vacuum that exists within the Republican party. However, there are bright spots that have me hopeful. Actions taken by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (from NY) and Beto O’Rourke to raise money and provide assistance to people in Texas (as well as actions taken by other local leaders, athletes, and celebrities) highlight how people should respond. Hopefully, people will recognize the real traits of leadership and vote for those kinds of leaders in the future.

In terms of covid-19, I’m happy to hear that cases appear to be decreasing in the US. Hopefully, the vaccine roll out will continue more smoothly in the future, as well. That being said, based on my experience in China, it’s really important to continue to follow social distancing practices, wear masks, and wash your hands at this time. Outbreaks can still happen, so even if you’ve been vaccinated, it’s important to continue to do your part so that everyone can be safe. In terms of cases, there are currently 87 cases in Shanghai (16 local) with a recovery rate of 94.7%. In Beijing, there are just 25 cases, and the recovery rate is 96.7%. For China as a whole, there are only 806 cases, and the recover rate is 94.4%. The majority of current cases are either in Hong Kong or in Hebei (northern China).

In terms of Astronomy, since this was the week of the Lunar New Year Holiday/Spring Festival, I decided to take a few days off from doing work and give myself some time to relax, refresh, and recharge. I still did a little bit of work on building my mock galaxy catalog and on my high-redshift intra-cluster light research, but hopefully this first week back on the SJTU campus and in the office will allow me to make more research progress.

By taking some time off, I was able to go for 6 runs this week! This weekend it’s been in the 70s, so I went for a long 6.5 mile run on Sunday morning! In addition to my normal runs around Xuhui and Xujiahui Park, on Saturday, I went for a run along the Bund (Pudong side) with Heather! I hadn’t been to that side of the bund before, so it was really cool to see some of the buildings (like the Pearl Tower) up close! Below are some photos from my run on the Bund!

There are really nice running and walking paths along the bund (on both sides), so running there is definitely something I’d like to do again!

In addition to the cool sites along the Bund, I also saw some fun things on my other walks/runs around Shanghai! Some of my favorites included more Chinese New Years decorations, cats, Gal Gadot’s latest ad campaign (all over the metro) for Boss in China, and a really awesome Dragon Ball Z jacket!

In addition to my runs, I did have some other fun activities with friends this week. On Tuesday, my friend David and I hosted another Kehilat Shanghai/Moishe House Trivia night! My questions are at the bottom, so let me know what you think! We tried to have all the questions related to the Chinese New Year theme, so this included, Zodiac Animals, The Golden Calf and other Jewish iconography, Idols, and New! We had over 30 people join us, our best turnout to date! Overall, it was a really fun night!

Also, on Thursday, I got together with Clem, Hannah Maia, and a few other friends for a dumpling making night! Since I made dumplings a few weeks ago, I was able to do it a lot more efficiently and was even able to learn some new techniques for making prettier dumplings (thanks to Hannah Maia’s help)! I think I ended up making ~ 50 dumplings! Like last time, we started with already made dumpling wrappers, which made the process easy and fun for everyone!

As you can see, I helped make the vegetarian tofu dumplings! After we boiled them, we had a feast of delicious dumplings! It was a great opportunity to relax and hang out with friends!

Overall, this was a very relaxed week, which allowed me to recharge my batteries for a productive semester of Astronomy research! This upcoming week, I’ll have plenty to share with you, including Purim celebrations and the highlights from our next anti-racism discussion (on black history month, Purim, and the recent attacks on Asian-Americans in the US).

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and seeing the photos from dumpling making and from around Shanghai! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

Trivia

Fictional, Cartoon, and animated, Zodiac Animals

1). Ox
The main character of this children’s story, which is an allegory for the Spanish Civil War, is a bull who loves peace and loves to sniff the flowers.

2). Tiger
Though not shown in the recent movie, this DC Comics character has a friend named “Talkin Tawny,” who is a talking Tiger.

3). Rabbit
Two of the most famous literary character created by this British author are Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny.

4). Dragon
In this Hayao Miyazaki anime masterpiece, one of the main characters, Haku, is actually a river spirit in the form of a Dragon.

5). Snake
In the Harry Potter series, what is the name of Voldemort’s giant snake?

6). Monkey
This legendary manga and anime series was inspired by the Chinese epic, Journey to the West, starring the Monkey King.

7). Horse
In the childhood classic, Toy Story, what is the name of Woody’s horse?

8). Dog
Bandit is the small dog who accompanies this title character, his father, and his best friend Haji on their “New” and “Real” adventures.

9). Pig
In Animal Farm, this is the name of the pig who leads the animal revolution and later establishes a dictatorship.

10). Rat
Master Splinter is the mutated rat who trains these 4 brothers in martial arts.

The Golden Calf and other Jewish symbols and imagery

1). The story of the golden calf appears in this book of the Bible.

2). The golden calf is made when Moses climbs what mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.

3). Only members of this tribe, which later became known as the priestly class, did not partake in sacrifices to the golden calf.

4). After the golden calf incident, Moses returns with the 10 commandments. How many of the 10 commandments specifically refer to things that are done to other people.

5). On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, what horn is sounded to ring in the New Year?

6). Which of the twelve tribes of Israel is associated with the symbol of the lion?

7). The mezuzah, which is traditionally hung on the doorpost of one’s home, contains which Hebrew prayer on a scroll inside of it.

8). This other Jewish symbol, which nowadays can be found on keychains, necklaces, and wall ornaments, features a hand and the evil eye, and is said to bring good luck.

9). At Purim, we honor Esther’s triumph over this wicked man, by making noise each time his name is said and eating deserts shaped like his traditional tri-cornered hat.

10). In Jewish mythology, in the most widely recognized story of the golem (which involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel), the golem was built to protect the Jews of what city?

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my adventures!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update finds all of you, your families, and your friends safe and healthy. For those of you who celebrated the Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, I hope that you and your families had a lovely celebration and enjoyed lots of dumplings! For those of you in places where it’s either cold or there is a lot of snow, I hope that you have been able to do some socially distanced activities that have gotten you out of your homes or taken the time to do something fun in them!

Before I begin talking about the Lunar New Year, I do want to comment on the recent political happenings. While the impeachment hearings occurred while I was asleep, I did follow them by reading many news articles (mostly on CNN). First, the Democrats presented a strong case that anyone with a shred of morality and impartiality would have accepted as grounds for impeachment. Second, I think it’s high time that all the Republicans stop coddling the fantasy world that they have allowed Trump to live in for the past four years. His own defense was a joke and it’s reprehensible that any senator believed it, yet alone complemented it (looking at you Lindsey Graham). While I’m glad that some moderate Republicans recognized that Trump was guilty, I remain disheartened by the deep polarization that exists within the US and especially within the Senate and House. Trump should have been convicted. Moreover, that McConnell acknowledged that Trump was responsible for the domestic terrorism on January 6th, yet did not vote to convict him only shows how broken and morally vacant the Republican party is. This sets a terrible precedent going forward and will likely lead to further danger in the future. While I hope that under the Biden administration the nation can heal from the wounds inflicted by the Trump administration, I remain fearful that the polarization, which existed well before 2016 will continue to persist going forward.

In terms of covid-19, the situation in China has remained much the same. Thanks to some strict policies put in place to restrict and monitor travel during the Spring Festival, there has, so far, not been a spike in covid-19 cases. However, I’m still being safe and wearing a mask when I go outside (even when I’m running). In terms of case totals, there are currently 119 cases in Shanghai (20 locally transmitted) and the recovery rate is at 93.4%. Beijing currently has 40 cases and a recovery rate of 95.3%. China as a whole has 1,453 active cases and a recovery rate of 93.8%. So, if any of you think that a travel ban/restriction or another lockdown is a bad thing, just remember that China only got this way because of those decisive actions.

Despite this week being the Lunar New Year holiday, which extends to next week, I still did some Astronomy work (though I did give my self a bit of a break). I’ve been mostly spending time figuring out how to generate my own mock galaxy catalog (actually made progress on that)! Additionally, I’ve spent a fair amount of time working on measuring the intra-cluster light out to high redshifts, and am starting to have some promising results! So, hopefully that project will also start to move forward more quickly as well! Additionally, on Friday morning, I gave a presentation at the weekly DESI research seminar (Asia + West coast friendly) summarizing the DESI secondary selection process.

With the Lunar New Year holiday and working from home, I was able to go for 4 runs this week! It has been very warm the last few days (60s), so I went for some long 5+ mile runs! One thing I’ve noticed throughout Shanghai is that flowers are starting to appear again! Below you can see some of the highlights from around Shanghai this week, including many beautiful flowers!

Thursday night/Friday was the Lunar New Year! This year is the Year of the Ox, so many of my friends/colleagues are referring to it as the Niu year, since Niu in Chinese means cattle! As a result, I saw a ton of really cool illustrations/cartoons/cards wishing people a Happy Niu/New Year on WeChat! Below are my favorites, including some really cool Astronomy related ones!

In terms of my own Chinese New Year’s plans, first, I did receive a traditional red packet (though done over WeChat). For those unfamiliar, red packets, are envelopes with money given on the Lunar New Year. My research supervisor Ying, gave everyone a red packet in the research group, though the amount is from a random draw. This time I got 65 rmb, which is about $10!

Second, on Thursday night, one of my friends from Moishe House/Kehilat Shanghai hosted a New Year’s party! Since last year I spent the Lunar New Year (and then the next few weeks, as a result of covid-19) by myself, it was really nice to gather with many of my ex-pat friends from the Jewish community! We had a lovely potluck dinner (I made some delicious tempeh!) and it was great getting all of us together to celebrate. Even though we didn’t have a traditional Chinese meal, we did have dumplings! However, the only photo I took was this adorable photo of Pina!

In addition, to the celebration on Thursday, on Saturday, I went for a walk around Shanghai (with a mask on) to see some of the decorations and displays that were up for Lunar New Year’s in People’s Square, the centrally located park in Shanghai! You can see tons of red lanterns (those are everywhere), many cow/ox related stickers, and even the red signs on my door that SJTU gave me to bring me luck for the New Year!

Overall, the first part of my Chinese New Year holiday (the state holiday goes until the 17th, and the University will reopen on the 22nd) has been very nice and relaxing!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

For this week’s Kehilat Shanghai adult education presentation, I gave a talk on my research! Having talked to so many people in the community and having many of them ask me questions about topics ranging from black holes to exoplanets, it was really nice to share my research and expertise with some of the members of the community! I spent most of the talk explaining what the different components of galaxy clusters are (galaxies, dark matter, and gas), then describing how galaxies and clusters grow (hierarchically) and evolve (through mergers with smaller galaxies). Lastly, I explained the research that I’ve been working on (mostly the stellar mass – halo mass relation) over the last few years and shared some of the highlights of the papers that I’ve written!

The only downside was that the projector we were using didn’t have the power cord with it, so for the first half of my talk, we all had to look at my laptop. Given all the questions that I fielded, I think that everyone really enjoyed my talk! So, I definitely plan to give another Astronomy presentation to the Kehilat and Moishe House communities in the near future!

Overall, this was both a relaxing and enjoyable week. This upcoming week, I’ll do some work, while also continuing to enjoy the Australian Open (Vamos Rafa!), and enjoying my vacation. I also will have some fun activities with friends to share with all of you!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and seeing all the photos of the Lunar New Year decorations! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my adventures!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest post continues to find you, your friends, and your family staying safe and healthy. Regardless of whether you’ve been vaccinated or not, I hope that you continue to look out for everyone’s safety and follow social distancing practices. For those of you in the Northeast (particularly near NYC), I hope that you weren’t buried under too much snow this past week. Also, I know that many of you are either just starting or will be starting your spring semesters soon. Regardless of whether you are choosing to teach virtually or in person, I hope that you have a good semester and that you are able to actively engage with your students in a meaningful way. Moreover, I hope that as you all hit the heart of winter, as I mentioned last week, that you are finding activities to keep yourself mentally and physically active.

I haven’t discussed politics nearly as much since President Biden’s inauguration. Part of that is because there have been few crazy headlines that I see each day, which for me, and likely for all of you, is comforting. However, I do want to comment on some of the recent happenings in Washington D.C. I’m very happy that President Biden and the Democrats chose to move forward on the 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus bill, even without bipartisan support (it’s clear many Republicans only care about big business). Since I’m not an economist, I don’t have deep thoughts on this, but it does seem to be a clear recognition that despite the surges in the stock market (remember, as Kai Ryssdal constantly states, “the stock market is not the economy”), that many people are hurting as a result of the massive job losses that covid-19 has caused. So, I believe that getting more people and small businesses money will be beneficial for everyone in the long run.

Additionally, I do feel it’s necessary to discuss the absolutely abhorrent behavior by certain members of the Republican party, in particular one congresswoman from Georgia (who I will not even dignify by naming). While it is positive that certain members like Mitch McConnell have condemned her hate speech, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy theories, these actions come far too late. The fact that so few of the Republican Congressmen/women and Senators were willing to condemn that kind of rhetoric is further appalling. It’s very scary that so many of these politicans are so frightened of upsetting the racist Trump base, that they refuse to do what is right (or maybe they no longer recognize what is right). Clearly, this is the bed that the Republican party has made for themselves. Despite the optimism that I feel about the Biden presidency, it’s this kind of behavior that keeps me frightened about the political situation and the stability of the US going forward.

In terms of covid-19, the situation in China appears to be back under control. Many cities have enacted strict policies restricting visitors for Chinese New Year (or requiring covid-19 tests and quarantines). Moreover, the outbreaks of locally transmitted cases (all seem to have stemmed from imported frozen food) have decreased over the past few weeks. Currently, in Shanghai, there are 128 active cases (22 local) with a recovery rate of 92.2%. In Beijing, there are 51 cases, and the recovery rate is 94.26%. For China as a whole, there are 1,844 active cases and the recovery rate is 93.4%.

Overall, this was a fairly productive week. I spent most of the week working on a variety of my projects. I’ve been spending time finishing most of the revisions on my Dark Energy Survey Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation paper, hoping to wrap that up this month. I’ve also spent a bit of time figuring out how to build my own mock galaxy catalog (still a lot to do on that end) for my Luminosity Function analysis. Additionally, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to measure the Intra-cluster light, the faint/diffuse light that surrounds bright galaxies as part of my DES-ACT high-redshift analysis. Lastly, I wanted to let you all know that my Secondary Observing proposal, to create a spectroscopically complete sample of BCGs in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey was accepted and will start to be observed during the initial stages of DESI! It’s the first proposal that I’ve lead and written, so I’m excited to get to work on that with collaborators both here in Shanghai and abroad!

As I noted last week, one benefits of working from home is that it’s allowed me to go for five runs again this week! Plus, it’s been quite warm. This weekend, temperatures reached into the 70s! So, what was a very short and mild winter in Shanghai may be over. Below you can see some of the cool Chinese New Years decorations and other things that I’ve seen around Shanghai this week!

Additionally, much to my surprise, SJTU, the university where I work, continues to send me more and more snacks as part of their efforts to help me and others celebrate Chinese New Year! This time, I received a box full of all kinds of dried fruits, nuts, tea, and dried mushrooms! So, I’ll have plenty of snacks to tide me over for the next couple of weeks!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This weekend, all my fun activities were spent with the Moishe House Community. On Friday Night, Moishe House hosted a Chinese New Year themed Shabbat! My favorite part of this was that we got to make jiaozi! For those of you who know even less Chinese than I do (though I am happy to say that I’ve kept up learning every day for the past 4 months), jiaozi are Chinese dumplings. While we didn’t make the wrappers, we did fill them ourselves by hand. I helped fill the vegetarian (scallion and egg) and vegan (tofu, vermicelli, carrot, scallion) dumplings, which were really tasty!

For my first time doing it, I had a lot of fun, and did a pretty good job! If you’ve never filled dumplings, the process is relatively simple. You start by taking the wrappers and placing a spoon full of filling in the center. Then you wet the edges and fold it in half. Next, you tightly seal the wrapper. Lastly, you make different folded patterns on the edges. These were then boiled, but they can also be steamed or stir-fried. I look forward to doing it again!

While it may seem weird to celebrate Shabbat by enjoying traditional Chinese food, I really enjoy how both the Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House communities embrace the aspects of being in China (and their Chinese members) at their different events, both culturally and culinarily. 🙂

Additionally, on Sunday, I spent the afternoon hanging out with my friends at Moishe House during their monthly bagel brunch! Even being in China, it’s still really comforting to enjoy a bagel with friends. 🙂 Throughout the course of the weekend, I had plenty of discussions with my friends about topics ranging from different vegan recipes and egg substitutes, to TV shows that some of us all watch (this time Prodigal Son and His Dark Materials), to more academic topics like Economics and Astronomy!

One of my other favorite parts of the weekend was that I got to play with some of my favorite pets! Pina is adorable as always and I got to see Daniel’s kitten Osiris (4 months old), who’s much bigger than the last time I saw him!

Overall, this was both a productive and enjoyable week. With the Chinese New Year Holiday coming up next week (Friday the 12th), I’m hoping to have a couple of very productive days of working from home. However, I’m sure I’ll have some fun activities to share with you all next week. For anyone celebrating the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival, I hope that you and your family have a lovely celebration.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week, seeing the photos from jiaozi making, and seeing the pictures of Pina and Osiris. If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse