Hi Everyone! Welcome to the first Astronomer in Shanghai entry of 2022! I hope that all of you had an enjoyable, safe, and healthy end to 2021. As we embark on a new year, I hope that 2022 is filled with health, safety, happiness, and some fun memories for all of you. That said, with the Omicron variant surging around the world (even here in China), I hope that this entry finds all of you staying safe and healthy. If you haven’t already, please get your latest covid-19 booster shot as well.
It’s been a long time since I discussed the covid-19 situation in China in depth. Mostly, this was because other than minor outbreaks (~10s of cases), nothing has really happened. Unfortunately, for the last month, that has no longer been the case. Despite the incredibly restrictive border policies (as Emmet described in great detail in his early blog posts), the Omicron variant has entered China. Recently, Xi’an, home to the Terra Cotta warriors, suffered a massive outbreak, with hundreds of cases, resulting in the city being shut down and it’s residents being quarantined. Thankfully those strict efforts have resulted with Xi’an beginning to recover. Just recently, Tianjin, a city near Beijing also had an outbreak of the Omicron variant. Moreover, with the combination of the Lunar New Year holiday (where much of the population travels) coming up and the Olympics, China is very much on edge and trying to clamp down and prevent the spread of covid-19. Shanghai even just had its first reported case of the Omicron variant. So, I too will need to continue wearing a mask when I go outside, being vigilant, and washing my hands. With that said, even though the reaction is severe, it does give me comfort that the government has continued it’s efforts to halt the spread of covid-19 so quickly.
Astronomy in Shanghai
This past month has been very productive for me. Right after I shared my last blog post, I was able to re-submit my DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation to the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) for publication. I’m still waiting to hear from the referee, but am hopeful that this paper will be accepted for publication soon. Additionally, I finally had a breakthrough on Project Population, my work studying the Luminosity Function. As you may recall, I’ve been working on building an accurate mock catalog that we can use to test some of our analysis. Well, at long last, I finally figured out and removed all the bugs in the mock! While most of this was simple mistakes, it’s great to have a mock that I can now use going forward. Moreover, I’m excited to turn this project away from the mock and return to our observational data as Ying and I start to study the galaxy population within the SDSS redMaPPer clusters (a sample I’m very well acquainted with)! We are also mapping out future avenues of inquiry for later studies as well. Additionally, I’ve continued to work on Project Outskirts, my intra-cluster light (ICL) project and have some interesting results relating to how the color of the ICL changes over time and radius. For those of you confused about what I mean by color, color is a way of estimating the stellar population of a galaxy and delineating old and young stars. Young stars are blue and old ones are red. Blue stars are hot (like a blue flame on your stove) and red are cooler.
Though not directly related to my research, I’m sure that many of you saw that the new James Webb Space Telescope launched successfully! I was very excited to watch the launch and even more pleased that everything with JWST has gone smoothly so far. For a long time (much of my graduate career) it seemed as though JWST would never launch. Although I don’t have any immediate plans to use the data from JWST (mostly because much of my research relies on large surveys), I am particularly excited for the discoveries that JWST will tell us about the earliest galaxies in the Universe. If you’re interested in learning more about JWST, check out this great interview with Prof. Caitlin Casey of UT Austin on the Marketplace: Make me Smart podcast.
Life in Shanghai
This past month was predominately spent doing research, so I’m glad I was finally able to make some more tangible progress on certain projects. For most of the month, my main sources of relaxation were either going running or going to F45 to workout. So, I have been able to keep exercising while getting work done. Despite all the work, I still had some fun things that I wanted to share with you!
Perhaps the most fun thing that I did was this past weekend, when I visited the Temple of Light on the North Bund! The Temple of Light is a digital art exhibit where art was projected onto the surfaces of the room (the walls, floors, and ceiling), allowing for a fully immersive experience. While my photos don’t really provide the full sense of the exhibit, it was a really incredible to watch. There were two shows shown during my tour. The first felt somewhat like a combination of all of my favorite computer screen savors from my childhood as you can see!
The second half of the exhibit was entitled Ukiyo-e visions! As a fan of the Japanese Ukiyo-e artwork, it was really cool to see some of my favorite (and most recognizable examples of Ukiyo-e) images projected in a virtual environment!
It was a really amazing experience! In the Ukiyo-e exhibit, I loved the way they overlayed screens to create depth within the environment! Plus, the music they played during the show really added tons of ambiance to the experience!
Since I was on the North Bund, I had to take a few photos of the surrounding area, including the always iconic Shanghai skyline (featuring the Shanghai tower)! I also loved seeing the red panda painted on the tree! It was so adorable!
In addition to a fun afternoon spent on the Bund, I did a lot of other fun activities with the Kehilat Shanghai community this month. Some of the highlights included a lovely Community Shabbat on Christmas Eve, hosted by my friends John and Alex, and a fun Trivia night (my questions at the end). Sadly, I forgot to take photos at those, but it was fun seeing many of my friends this past month.
I also wanted to share with you some cute photos of many of the cats that I’ve seen around Shanghai, including an adorable photo of Maguey, my friends Kate and Ilan’s cat, who is so well behaved that Kate can carry him around!
Additionally, there were a lot of really cool things that I saw and wanted to share! I love that there are so many interesting things to see whenever I go for walks around Shanghai!
Lastly, I wanted to share some cool anime statues I saw at a toy store this past month!
Lunar New Year Celebrations
As some of you may now, the Lunar New Year is coming up (celebrated January 31st)! Since the semester ended before that, we had our department Lunar New Year/end of semester party! Although most of it was in Mandarin (I could recognize words, but not really follow much), it was still a lot of fun! Some of the students sang and did dances, but most importantly, it was a time for the department to come together and play games! I even got to play a game where we had to draw a picture and have one of the other people guess what it was. Thanks to some help from some of the students (I couldn’t read the word I was supposed to draw), I was able to have a lot of fun, too! I even got an SJTU notebook for participating. There were also some interesting games like jumping to get balls out of a box on your back and doing planks while reading Astronomy papers as well as some classics like darts and a ring toss!
I’ve also started to see some of the traditional red lanterns (including at the gates of SJTU, which are open for access for the first time in months!) around the city! However, since it is the Year of the Tiger, my favorite decorations have been thetiger statues, my favorite of which I saw at a nearby mall!
Additionally, like previous years, I got boxes of Lunar New Year’s gifts from SJTU (almost all food). Thankfully most of the food are things I can enjoy (cookies, dried fruit/nuts, candy, and dried mushrooms). I also got some traditional gifts like a Peking Duck and a leg of meat. As a vegan, this was rather unappetizing to open (thankfully they were wrapped in bags). However, I was able to give those to some of my friends so that they can enjoy it (and I can get it out of my apartment). I also got new decorations to put on my door for the Lunar New Year. I’ll share photos of those once I have them set up!
Food in Shanghai
This past month, most of my culinary adventures involved trying new fun vegan recipes, mostly soups. However, this past weekend, one of my friends celebrated her birthday by having a Dim Sum Brunch! Thanks to help from my friend Hannah Maia and the waitstaff, I was able to figure out what I could enjoy!
I enjoyed a crispy turnover filled with radish, a Chinese green (unsure what the vegetable’s name was), a Z-rou (a Chinese vegan meat product) in a vegetable broth, delicious crystal dumplings, and a buddhist’s delight noodle soup! The dumplings were definitely my favorite!
I hope that you all enjoyed seeing the highlights of my past month, especially the Temple of Light and my Lunar New Year celebrations! For any of you who are celebrating, I hope that you have a lovely Lunar New Year Celebration. This upcoming month, I’ll have some more Lunar New Year celebrations to share with you as well as any updates about what it’s like to have China host the Olympics — If anything changes in Shanghai. I’m sure Emmet will have more to say about that. I’ll also be able to take a little bit of a break (since the semester is over) so I will try to spend more time with my friends! I hope that the start of 2022 is happy, safe, and healthy for all of you!
In peace,
Jesse
Trivia
2021 Year in Review
1). On this day in January, President Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
2). On March 6th, these two religious leaders met in Najaf, Iraq. The first time two people in these positions have ever met.
3). On April 11th, this man won the 2021 Masters, making him the first Japanese (national) man to win a golf major
4). On April 19th, this American rock lyricist, known for songs including Bat out of Hell and Total Eclipse of the Heart passed away.
5). On May 14th, the Chinese National Space Administration landed this rover on the Utopia Planitia on Mars.
6). On June 13th, Benjamin Netanyahu is finally voted out of office in Israel and replaced by this man?
7). On July 23rd, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo began when this athlete lit the Olympic Flame.
8). On October 6th, the World Health Organization endorsed the first vaccine against this mosquito born virus.
9). On November 11th, this 7th and last state President of South Africa and Nobel laureate passed away. He was president of South Africa when the country dismantled apartheid.
10). On December 25th, this newest space telescope that was launched by NASA! Bonus Point — Who was this telescope named after (i.e., what was this person’s job)
1). January 20th 2). Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani 3). Hideki Matsuyama 4). Jim Steinman 5). Zhurong 6). Naftali Bennett 7). Naomi Osaka 8). Malaria 9). F.W. de Klerk 10). JWST — James Webb was the 2nd administrator of NASA from 1961-1968.
