Hi Everyone. Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you are staying safe, happy, and healthy. For those of you who work in academia, I hope that you have had an easy and stress-free end of the spring semester.

The Covid-19 Lockdown

I know that many of you remain concerned about the covid-19 lockdown of Shanghai. Before diving into that, I want to thank all of you who have reached out to me either via e-mail, responding to my previous blog post, or checked in with my parents. I really appreciate knowing that you are thinking about me. In my last entry, I went through the timeline of the covid-19 outbreak in Shanghai, which began in mid-March. So, if you haven’t read that entry, please do. Here, I’ll update you on the situation starting in mid-April, right around the beginning of Passover.

The last thing that I mentioned was that Shanghai had designated three types of neighborhoods, based on the number and recency of cases. That designation system has, for the most part remained intact. For the last two weeks of April, things were actually okay (not normal, but not terrible). My neighborhood hadn’t had any cases since April 1st, so we were a precautionary area and allowed to have deliveries and to leave. Other than doing 2 covid tests on the 22nd and 26th (that were city mandated), life appeared to be returning to normal at least in my neighborhood. Thankfully, again I was negative at both tests. The only change to the testing procedure is that they now require us to do an at home antigen test prior to the PCR test. If we test positive in the antigen test, we are supposed to be given a PCR test separate from everyone else. Additionally, the tests have shifted to being done within our neighborhood (instead of at designated testing sites) and are generally both quick and orderly (with results usually within 8-12 hours).

At the same time, the case numbers finally started to decrease and have continued to do so even now. Case numbers were divided up based on whether the case was identified in strict lockdown (either in a neighborhood that was completely closed off or in the quarantine centers) or in precautionary neighborhoods, like mine. Surprisingly, by the end of April, the number of cases in the precautionary areas actually reached 0 for a few days (and thankfully has stayed close to that number, with a few cases popping up day to day).

During this time (end of April), I even left my neighborhood twice. Both times to exchange some goods with my friends Hannah Maia and Sydney who live ~ 2 blocks away. While I probably could have gone for longer walks (I have friends who would go for 2+ hour walks), I wasn’t comfortable walking around the city because I didn’t get the sense that even if we were allowed to leave that we were supposed to be outside of our apartments (there were reports of police officers asking people to go home).

As you can see, when I walked around the part of Xuhui where I live, it was empty. While the area where I live is not as crowded as the downtown area, these are areas where I run, and it’s never this empty during the day (only when I’m walking to my 6:15 am F45 class have I ever seen these streets empty).

On April 30th, after almost a month of no cases, there was a reported case in my neighborhood. Thankfully not in my building. As a result Buildings 4-6 (I am in 9) were locked down for a week and all residents had to be tested every day. However, nothing really changed for me. As a result of this 1 case, I had to be tested twice on May 3rd and May 5th. Thankfully, my results came back negative yet again.

As you can see, they even started to disinfect some of the apartments (in the building where there was a case) and the trash/recycling in the compound.

Around the 8th was when things really started to tighten up and become even more draconian. Before discussing that, I want to reiterate, that by this point, the number of cases was dramatically lower than the peak. Though there were still a few thousand cases every day, over 99% of those cases were in areas that were locked down or in central quarantine. Moreover, there were more people sent home having had two negative tests within 24 hours in the quarantine facilities than there were new cases. So, it seemed like the outbreak had finally reached a turning point and was looking like it was nearing an end.

Instead, on May 8th, the city announced a policy of a “week of silence;” a period of time in which deliveries were asked to be slowed or halted and during which nobody would be allowed to leave their compounds. The only exceptions were to leave China or to go to the doctor (both required permission from the neighborhood committee). While I had been getting some deliveries (I’ll discuss food in a bit), my compound never halted deliveries, so this wasn’t a big issue for me.

At the same time, a somewhat unclear and much more frightening policy was announced claiming that if there was 1 single case in a building, then everyone in the building would be taken to the quarantine centers. By building, I’m talking about apartment buildings, not single family homes. While this policy was likely designed for lane house apartments (I lived in a lane house my first year), where most residents share kitchens and bathrooms (I did not) and are thus close contacts, there were also reports of this being implemented in apartment buildings where people don’t share bathrooms and kitchens (though in some cases only the entire floor or those within 1-2 floors were asked to leave). Regardless these new policies made the entire situation stressful. Even though I knew I wasn’t taking any risks, I couldn’t be sure of what my neighbors were doing. Many times, when I’ve gone to take out the trash or pick up a delivery, I’ve seen old men outside smoking or chatting, or even getting their hair cut without wearing masks.

The situation became much more stressful for me, because some of my friends were impacted by these policies. One of my friends tested positive for covid-19 and was sent to the quarantine facility. From what he told me, it sounded absolutely miserable. He’s thankfully at home now, though his wife and baby son, are still in a hotel. Hopefully they’ll all be reunited at home soon. Moreover, two of my friends were in an apartment where they were told they would be taken to the quarantine centers, despite never testing positive. They, along with other neighbors refused to leave, and have thankfully been able to stay safe in their apartment. So, despite the drastic reduction in cases, especially in the precautionary areas, it still remains a very tense and stressful situation.

Thankfully, during this time, my neighborhood has not had any additional covid-19 cases. However, we did have two more covid-19 tests on the 11th and 12th. I was again, thankfully negative. As of now, we still can’t leave our compound, but we are allowed to walk around, take out trash, and pick up deliveries.

To take somewhat of a step back, I spent a lot of time in my previous post discussing the food situation. On that front, things have gotten a little bit better as some stores have reopened allowing us to get deliveries. Additionally, JD.com has been doing deliveries as well, so I’ve been able to get juice, dried fruit, nuts, and cat food that way. However, most of my food is still coming from packages from the government or via neighborhood group orders. Generally, we’ve gotten a food box each week to 10 days. Below are some of the free boxes. Sometimes they’re big and full of produce, other times they’re small with ingredients to make a local dish. Some of the highlights were oranges, eggplants, bok choy, yuba (dried tofu — it’s great), and some cleaning supplies!

To supplement all of this free food (which I remain grateful for), we’ve also done group buys of vegetables and flour. The main highlights for me were all the greens. I love eating salad, but have had to cut back on that since it’s hard to get enough leafy greens.

Additionally, one of the local import stores has also reopened and is doing delivery using eleme, a delivery app. Through this, I’ve been able to get more canned beans, chickpeas, cereal, gatorade, juice, and chocolate. While many of these are luxuries, I really appreciate that I’m still able to get some of the foods that I want.

So, as you can see, even though this process has been incredibly difficult, I am by no means running out of food (neither are Charlie and Scottie). While there are reports, particularly in the poorer areas of Shanghai, of residents starving, that has not been the case for me.

Now that I’ve updated you on the situation in Shanghai, I want to emphasize how lucky and fortunate I’ve been. In total, I’ve had to take just 6 PCR tests in the last month and probably ~ 10-12 at home antigen tests. Thankfully every one has been negative. I haven’t had to confront being asked to leave my apartment or cats, I have enough to eat, and I am generally doing okay. However, the same is not true for all of my friends, and this remains a very frustrating and stressful situation. Unfortunately, I still have no sense when this will end. There are reports that the goal is to eliminate community spread (outside the closed off areas) in the next few weeks. However, it’s unclear what this will mean (in terms of reopening). Hopefully the policies will ease and Shanghai will be able to start reopening. While it’ll likely be late June/July before things return to normal, I look forward to when I can go for walks and see my friends outside.

While the situation in Shanghai remains stressful, I also want to update you on the situation in Beijing. Since Emmet’s update 2 weeks ago, Beijing has continued to have an outbreak of covid-19, though significantly smaller than what Shanghai is experiencing. They’ve had between 30-50 cases each day. While this doesn’t seem like a lot, Beijing, being the capital, takes this incredibly seriously. Tsinghua, where Emmet is a postdoc has closed its campus and residents have been required to get covid tests every 2 days to go to any public places (including grocery stores). Additionally, all residents this weekend have to get tested on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. While I’m grateful that Emmet hasn’t been locked down like I have been and has been able to more easily get food (he has a lot of food stored away in case they do get locked down), I hope that the situation in Beijing also improves soon so that we can visit one another and so that Emmet can be under less stress as well.

Before jumping back to discussing the more normal aspects of my life, I wanted to comment on the continued invasion of Ukraine. I remain incredibly impressed by the bravery of the Ukrainian people. However, it’s very scary to see how this is playing out, particularly in the posturing of further unprovoked escalations by Russia. I hope that this unjust invasion will end soon and the Ukrainian people are able to recover.

I also wanted to comment briefly on a few things back in the US. First, I wanted to check in with my family and friends in Buffalo, NY (my mother grew up in Buffalo and my Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and family friends still live there). I was alarmed to hear about the racially motivated mass murders at a Tops grocery store and saddened to hear that 10 people were killed. It remains clear that white nationalism/racism is the biggest threat to the safety of America and I hope that this problem can finally be addressed. Additionally, I wanted to comment on the Supreme Court’s apparent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. I was horrified to see that America appears to be taking such a dramatic step backwards. It’s particularly troubling given that the majority of people support a woman’s right to have an abortion. It remains increasingly problematic and unjust that our government (the Republican party) seems hell bent on restricting women’s rights (and those of minorities). Even with a different president, at times, it feels incredibly disheartening to be an American.

Astronomy in Shanghai

Now that you understand the current covid-19 situation, I wanted to update you on my work. Unfortunately, SJTU remains entirely locked down. My supervisor, Ying, has been stuck on campus for over 2 months and nobody is allowed to leave campus or pass goods between the gate. I really have no sense of when the campus will reopen, but find it unlikely that I’ll be returning to campus any time before the summer. However, despite being locked down, I’m still doing a lot of work and making progress on my research.

First, I wanted to let you all know that for Project Outskirts, my analysis of the evolution of the intracluster light, the faint light that surrounds the central galaxy in a cluster, we just initiated the DES Internal Review process! For those of you who don’t remember, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration, requires all papers have a collaboration review prior to publication. This is done in two stages, first an internal review, then a collaboration wide review. While the process will likely take a few months, I’m excited to get more feedback on this work and to hopefully have it submitted for publication by the fall.

I’ve also made some very nice headway on Project Population, my study of the luminosity function. We’re actually looking at the impact of the intracluster light on the luminosity function, dividing the analysis into two radial regimes (0-300kpc & 300-1000kpc). We’ve also looked at the differences in the luminosity function for populations of different colors, both bluer (younger) and those that are redder (older or dust obscured) than the galaxies on the red sequence (cluster members). So far, we’re seeing some interesting trends when we do this division. We’re also redoing some of our analysis to measure the impact of the magnitude gap on the luminosity function to determine whether we see differences for the red and blue populations as well. I’m optimistic that some of these results will lead to a few interesting papers from this work and that I’ll start getting to write up these results soon!

Additionally, I’ve also been working on Project Proxy, my halo mass estimation project. Unfortunately, I’m still trying to figure out what’s causing some of the differences between my analysis and Ying’s. However, I’ve identified some differences and hope that upon further analysis I can remove some of the degeneracies. Additionally, I’ve finally started doing some work on my DESI analysis of massive galaxies. I can now successfully run the required code, so hopefully Song (my collaborator at Tsinghua on that project) and I can determine what sample we want to analyze first.

In addition to all of my research, I also participated in two online conferences. The first of which was a fascinating meeting on galaxy clusters hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute, entitled Galaxy Clusters 2022: Challenging our Cosmological Perspectives. While I only gave a poster (on my research on the luminosity function), I listened to some really interesting talks and had a few nice conversations. It was also really nice to catch up with Prof. Ian dell’Antonio, who was both mine and Emmet’s undergraduate thesis advisor! The following week, I also participated in the PoSTER (Poster Symposium Targeting Early-career Researchers) on galaxy evolution. I presented the same work and got to have some more nice discussions about my work. This conference had a few sessions that were in Asia/Australia friendly times, which was great! It was really nice to not have to stay up super late to present.

While conference are starting to convert back to in person or hybrid models, I wanted to note how much I’ve appreciated having virtual conferences. With China’s borders still closed, it will remain exceedingly difficult to go to any conferences outside of the country. So, I’ve really appreciated that even though I haven’t been able to meet new people and make friends in person, I’ve had the opportunity to share my research with many people. As the covid-19 recovery continues here and around the world, I hope that some conferences will continue to be virtual.

Additionally, though not related to my work, I hope that all of you saw the fantastic image of Sagittarius A*, the super massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This is the 2nd image of a black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration and is another really amazing image! It’s amazing to visually confirm what many Astronomers have long theorized about, with regards to what is at the center of our galaxy!

Life in Shanghai

Since this is yet another month where I’ve been stuck in my apartment, you’re probably wondering how I’m staying sane. Thankfully, I’ve been able to develop a good routine for the weekdays. I get up around 7 (Scottie and Charlie are usually very hungry and wake me up by then, sometimes much earlier). Then at 8:30, I do a virtual F45 workout! I’m so grateful to all of the trainers for leading these. It really helps to do a workout to start my day and makes me more productive. After this, I eat breakfast, then do work until ~ 2pm, when I have lunch. I then do work until ~ 7pm, then take a break, fix dinner, and watch some TV. Additionally on Mondays and Thursdays, I’m taking a Mandarin class for faculty/staff that’s organized by SJTU (the same one I took in person last spring), which has been good in helping me learn a bit more Mandarin. While my daily routine is monotonous, and it can be difficult to do work for long periods of time, I have plenty of things to do to take breaks. Mostly it’s playing with Scottie and Charlie (my cats), but other times it’s reading comics or playing Scrabble on Facebook. However, I’ve found that the routine and workouts have really helped me maintain some level of normalcy during this decidedly not normal time.

As I mentioned, my primary distractions (even when I am trying to work) are Scottie and Charlie! As you can see, they’re absolutely adorable! They’re both fantastic and loving cats. As you can see, they’re both lap cats. Scottie and Charlie are always taking turns sitting on my lap. They don’t like it when my laptop is there. 🙂

Another highlight was playing with the boxes that some of the free government provided food and group buys came in!

They also love to “play” with me while I’m doing my F45 classes in the morning! Sometimes Scottie will jump on my back while I’m doing planks or pushups and Charlie will crawl up next to me while I’m doing crunches or stretching or ask to play fetch with a crinkle ball!

Scottie’s also decided that if he can’t sit on my lap, he’s happy to sit on my back! Charlie hasn’t done that yet, though he loves to sit behind me on the couch!

They also love to keep me company while I’m doing work!

Most of the time, they’re just fun and adorable!

But most importantly, they love each other!

In addition to my plethora of photos of Charlie and Scottie, I also saw the neighborhood cats a few times. Thankfully people are still feeding them.

The other highlight of this past month was than on April 24th, I turned 31! This was certainly a different birthday than any other that I’ve experienced. Last year, I was able to celebrate with my friends in person. Unfortunately, that was obviously not in the cards for me this year, which was rather disappointing, since I had been hoping (before the lockdown) to try to do something with Emmet (in person) sometime around our birthday. However, I still got all of my friends (including Emmet) together for a birthday Zoom hang out! While not as fun as being together, it was really nice to see everyone and catch up! Since I still wanted to mark the day, I made myself a strawberry cake (using strawberries from a group buy) and vegan chocolate ice cream!

Later in the day, I also had other fun birthday chats as well with my parents and Emmet, as well as with my cousin Margaret and her family, and my Aunt Pam. Thank you to everyone who reached out and helped to mark the day. Despite not being as fun as last year, it was really nice to do something special! Hopefully, once this lockdown ends, I’ll be able to have some belated celebrations with Emmet in Beijing and with my friends here in Shanghai.

Food in Shanghai

While I haven’t done any food deliveries in the past month, I did want to share with you some of the culinary highlights from food I’ve been making. Since I’m staying at home all the time, I’m cooking a bit more than usual, but also with ingredients I haven’t used before.

First, it wouldn’t feel right to not at least acknowledge the matzo pizzas from Passover. I remain grateful that Chabad was able to deliver matzo to us to mark the holiday.

Following Passover, I did a bit more cooking and baking. Some of the highlights were a delicious noodle soup using the fresh noodles I was given and the vegetarian meatballs I bought. I’ve also been making tons of stir fried eggplant, which I’ve been enjoying for lunch. Lastly, I also made two very delicious zucchini breads using my flour and government gifted zucchini.

The main baking highlight of this past month was this past week when I made bread for the first time! We were given yeast and since I have over 10kg of flour, I thought I’d try! I followed the King Arthur flour recipe for hearth bread. It worked out great!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As I mentioned in last month’s post, Kehilat Shanghai pivoted to virtual events. Each week, we have a Zoom Shabbat. I’ve lead many of these, including one two weeks ago where Emmet and other members of Kehillat Beijing joined! While it’s not the same as gathering together, it’s been really nice to see everyone and to check in with how they are doing.

Currently, the plan is to keep doing these virtual gatherings each week until we can return to in person events. Given all the stress with the current situation, I greatly appreciate the calming presence of Shabbat.

Additionally, I attended a fascinating Zoom discussion organized by the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative about the history of Jewish families in Shanghai, predominately the Sassoons and Kadoories. One of the speakers was Jonathan Kaufman, the author of The Last King’s of Shanghai. As soon as things reopen, I’m going to try to buy that book at the Foreign Language Bookstore. While I’ve learned a lot about the history of Jews in Shanghai, it remains a fascinating and interesting subject and one I always enjoy learning more about.

Lastly, we had our first Zoom Trivia night, which was a rousing success! We had about 30 people (6 teams) join us! I hosted, putting together 2 fun rounds (shared at the end). We tried to have fun rounds that were humorous and used puns about the lockdown. Overall, it was a much needed stress reliever for all the attendees. Plus, it was really nice to see everyone and to be laughing about answers!

What I’m Reading and Watching

Unsurprisingly, without the ability to go anywhere, I’ve been watching a bunch of different TV shows and movies as well as reading a lot of comics, manga, and books! Additionally, even though the Utah Jazz lost, I’ve also been watching some of the NBA playoffs and look forward to watching the French Open (Vamos Rafa!) in a few weeks! Here are some of the highlights of what I’ve been watching and reading.

At long last, I finally was able to see The Batman! While I unfortunately wasn’t able to see it in theaters, I watched in on HBO Max (where you can still stream it) on April 23rd as an early birthday present. And boy, was I not disappointed! It was a fantastic movie! As many of you know Emmet and I are both comic book fans and Batman and the greater Batman universe has always been one of our favorites. The Batman brought a new and distinct take on the character. I loved the way Matt Reeves, the director, treated Gotham as a character. Robert Pattinson’s Batman/Bruce Wayne was excellent as well and for the first time we got a sense of psychologically what would drive someone to be Batman. There were other standout performances by Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and an unrecognizable Colin Farrel as the Penguin! I’m already excited for the sequel and definitely plan on watching it again!

I also finished the last season of Lucifer on Netflix! This was a show based on the comic written by Mike Carey, which is about the adventures of Lucifer after leaving hell. Though the show is only loosely inspired by the source material, Lucifer has been one of my favorite shows and I really enjoyed how the show wrapped up its final season!

In terms of reading, I finished Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology! If you aren’t familiar with Norse Mythology, I highly recommend Gaiman’s retelling. The short stories that make up the book were quite enjoyable and interesting! Additionally, I also finished the manga series Kuroko’s Basketball, a manga about Seirin High School’s men’s basketball team. Unlike in the US, in Japan, comics cross multiple genres including sports! As both a basketball and manga fan, this was a fun series that I highly recommend.

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you so much for all of your interest in my life. If you have any questions about anything I’ve written, particularly about the lockdown, please don’t hesitate to reach out either in the comments or via e-mail. As I said, in the meantime, Scottie, Charlie, and I are all doing okay. If anything dramatic (like an end to the lockdown) occurs before my next post, I’ll make sure to do a brief update. I hope that all of you have a safe, happy, healthy, and productive month.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia Questions

Streaks

1). John Dingell, a Democratic Representative from this state was the longest serving member of either the house or senate, serving for 59 years and 21 days.

2). This shining monarch, ruled for 72 years and 110 days, making him the longest serving (historically verified) monarch in history.

3). While 1 day on earth, the time it takes the earth to spin 360 degrees is 23 hrs, 56 mins, and 4 seconds, this planet has the longest lasting “day” of 243.16 Earth days.

4). Ken Jennings holds the record for most consecutive wins on Jeopardy. How many games in a row did he win?

5). This tennis legend holds the record for most consecutive match wins, with 74 match wins won in 1984, including wins at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

6). Last month, Kate Jayden, of Derbyshire UK, set the record of completing these endurance events in consecutive days, with 100.

7). This spinoff, originally starring Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson is the longest running primetime live action American television series, with 23 seasons.

8). Premiering on January 26th, 1988 at the Majestic theater, this musical is the longest running Broadway Musical at over 33 years.

9). This genre-redefining song, released in 2019 spent a record 19 weeks as the Billboard #1 Hit.

10). Pakistani athlete, Jahangir Khan, holds what may be one of the most unbreakable records in sports, winning 555 straight matches between 1981 to 1986, competing in this racquet sport.

Connections Round

1). žHideo Nomo became the first Japanese athlete to leave the Nippon Professional Baseball league and sign a contract with Major League baseball in 1995, when he signed with this team. 

2). This character’s nickname at Hogwarts was Moony?

3). This company is best known for selling a unique fruit cocktail.

4). Nicknamed The Queen of Tejana music, this poster is famous for songs including Como La Flor?

5). This planetarium in Chicago was the first planetarium built in the USA.

6). Name this birthplace of California, the first site that was visited and settled by Europeans on the West Coast by the Spanish in 1542.

7). This iconic game company known for games such as Risk, Bop it, Sorry, and Monopoly?

8). This science fiction film character, who first appeared in 1979, was portrayed by Sigourney Weaver.

9). This actor/actress had starring roles in movies including Wonder Woman and Forrest Gump.

10). What is the connection?

Streaks: 1). Michigan 2). Louis XIV 3). Venus 4). 74 5). Martina Navratilova 6). Marathon 7). Law & Order SVU 8). Phantom of the Opera 9). Old Town Road by Lil Was X (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus) 10). Squash

Connections 1). Los Angeles Dodgers 2). Remus Lupin 3). Ocean Spray 4). Selena 5). The Adler Planetarium 6). San Diego 7). Parker Brothers 8). Ellen Ripley 9). Robin Wright 10). Famous Fictional Thieves