Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai. I hope that you are all doing well and staying safe and healthy. For those of you working in academia, I hope that the end of the semester is going well and that you can enjoy your holiday breaks. As I’ve said each of the past three years, it’s always a little strange that our winter break here doesn’t start for another month. I hope that those of you living in areas where it’s cold aren’t dealing with too much snow yet. Also, I want to wish everyone a Happy Channukkah, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy Kwanza as well as a Happy New Year! I hope that you are able to celebrate with family and friends safely.

Before diving into my life, I want to update you all about the situation in China. I know many of you have expressed your concern for my brother and me, either reaching out to me or to my parents, and I greatly appreciate hearing from you. Don’t hesitate to send an e-mail or respond to this blog post. Prior to December 7th, pretty much everything was the same as it previously had been. In fact, restrictions had actually tightened, with testing being required every 48 hours to enter stores and public locations and new arrivals to Shanghai (and other cities) from other provinces being required to wait 5 days before going to public places. As such I still was tested 11 times in this past month (though none since 12/7). On December 7th, the COIVD ZERO policies were officially ended in favor of more relaxed and humane COVID-19 policies. Before discussing those, I do want to discuss some what caused this abrupt change.

Over the weekend of November 26th, there were mass protests of Chinese citizens (very few to any foreigners who were not journalists) protesting the harsh conditions of the COVID-19 lockdowns, including the blockading and locking of buildings where people were close contacts. This scenario resulted in the deaths of 10 people in Wulumuqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. Essentially, these innocent people died because as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the local/neighborhood governments had thought it wise to physically prevent people from leaving their homes. The idea of physically locking people in is not unique to Xinjiang and even happened in my own compound during the summer lockdown in Shanghai, though neighbors complained about padlocking the door being unsafe and it was removed. Moreover, as a result of these deaths, there was a massive protest/vigil on Wulumuqi Street in Shanghai (for those of you unfamiliar with Shanghai, there are a number of streets named after cities in other provinces throughout downtown Shanghai). I live about a 10 minute walk from where these protests were and have spent a lot of time walking around this street as I have friends who used to live there and there are many import stores and fruit stores in this area that I frequent. These protests in Shanghai, which also included protests against the government, spread to other cities including Beijing and Chengdu and to University campuses. These protests are particularly brave because unlike in the US, Chinese citizens do not have the right to protest. While there do seem to be positive results from these protests, it remains unclear whether all of the protesters are safe.

Prior to the dismantling of the COVID ZERO infrastructure, there were signs of things changing. Public transportation and outdoor parks were announced to no longer require a PCR test check. Shanghai removed its requirement that people from neighboring provinces spend 5 days in Shanghai before going to any public locations. However, everything changed when on December 7th, the government announced that you would no longer need a PCR test to go anywhere, including traveling to other provinces. Moreover, China even shut down it’s tracking app which said whether you’ld been to a province with a medium or high risk area in the last week. At first, I like many others, was thrilled with this. I think some of this excitement is reflected in Emmet’s excellent post from last week. I was excited because I thought I would be able to get to visit Emmet soon, since much of the roadblocks implemented appeared to have been taken away.

However, as I know that many of you have seen, the abolishing of COVID-ZERO has resulted in what many of us expected, a huge wave of COVID cases throughout China. Since PCR tests are no longer required to go anywhere, except a hospital, almost all people have stopped taking frequent PCR tests (and many of the convenient testing locations in Shanghai have shut down), which has allowed the virus to spread as some people are acting as if the abolishing of COVID Zero means that COVID is gone. Additionally, many schools have gone entirely online for the remainder of the year (including SJTU). Moreover, any COVID-related statistics that are reported now are basically meaningless since many who test positive only do so through the at home tests and are just quarantining at home. So far, a few of my friends have tested positive, which greatly differs from what it was before, even during the height of the lockdowns over the spring/summer. It’s frustrating because I think while many of us were annoyed by the frequent need to test, at least for me, the main fear was being taken to a quarantine center. So, part of me wishes that instead, they had just announced that they were allowing for home quarantine and would stop people from being taken to quarantine centers, but still requiring testing. As a result of the wave of cases, the few times I’ve gone out, the streets have been empty. Many people are staying at home and hoarding supplies, in particular, any sort of medicine like ibuprofen or tylenol. Thankfully, some of my friends were able to give me a bottle of ibuprofen (and I still have a bunch of the at home tests from when Shanghai was locked down).

So, currently, Shanghai and Beijing are in these weird states of not being locked down, but people actively choosing to lock themselves down. As such, it’s the weird conundrum of what to do. For people like myself who have never experienced a real wave of Covid, it’s a new and rather unpleasant experience. While China does seem to recognize a 4th dose of its vaccine is needed (and will hopefully be made available to everyone soon), it remains unclear to me why China has been unwilling to allow the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines into the country for everyone to get. I’m currently okay, though it’s frustrating that now, every time I get a cold (as I did this week), there is a fear of COVID-19 I hope that the situation improves over the next 1-2 months so that I’m able to go up to Beijing and visit Emmet.

Astronomy in Shanghai

This was another very busy month for me! As was the case last month, much of my time was spent either applying for new postdoctoral positions or doing research. In total, I’ve now applied for 33 positions (the vast majority of which are for a 2nd postdoc). So far, all but 2 of them have been in the US or Canada. I should start to hear things in January or February and as soon as I know where I’ll be going I will let you all know! However, I will note that the applications do become a bit easier over time because I have much more experience with the statements and cover letters. Additionally, I owe a big thanks to Emmet for reading all of my cover letters! I greatly appreciate his continued help throughout this process!

The rest of my time was spent working on Project Population, my Luminosity Function analysis. We now have a finished version of the manuscript, which is in great shape thanks to a lot of back and forth revisions by my supervisor, Ying! Unfortunately, the Yang cluster catalog that we use in this analysis was recently updated and I have to rerun some of our analysis to account for these new modifications. I’m optimistic that these revisions should only take ~ 1 week to run and that we should still get the paper submitted by the beginning of January! I’m hopeful that by my next post, I’ll have an arXiv link to share with all of you!

Additionally, I finally finished all of my minor revisions (just needed time, since nothing was major) on my paper on the intracluster light that was submitted to MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society), so that paper should be resubmitted for publication in a week or two as well!

Unfortunately, with the rise in COVID cases (and even a few weeks beforehand), I’m once again working exclusively from home. Given all the cases now, I certainly do not mind spending more time with Scottie and Charlie (as you’ll see later), but I do miss getting to see my colleagues as it was nice to see them in person after almost 8 months of not seeing most of them. I hope that I can go to SJTU’s campus (and get a t-shirt at the bookstore) at some point this academic year.

Life in Shanghai

With the sudden influx of COVID-19 concerns, it’s certainly made the holiday season feel not very festive. With all of the job applications and research on top, I haven’t done quite as many fun activities this month (and don’t expect that to change all that much in the coming months). Prior to last week, I was going to F45 or going running daily. However, even though F45 is open and the trainers are doing a great job cleaning all the equipment, with cases spreading so quickly, I’m choosing to stay home for the time being.

That said, there were still a few cool things I saw that I wanted to share. As you can see, even though China doesn’t celebrate Christmas (it’s just a commercial holiday), malls, like those in the US, have decorations and trees set up. Though I’m not sure what future apocalypse the orange tree is from! And you can also see the closest I’m likely to get to snow anytime soon (a window display with fake snow).

I also went to IAPM (the mall with the Christmas tree display) to go to the Apple Store and saw some cool anime statues at PopMart and a few other places! I will note that for this time of year the mall was completely empty.

Scottie and Charlie

With me spending all my time at home, Scottie and Charlie are really enjoying getting to spend a lot of time with me (and the added snack opportunities that that yields)! Though they don’t always let me do work (especially when it’s dinner time), they are both great companions. Given how isolating the current situation is, it’s very comforting to have Scottie and Charlie to keep me company!

As always, they’re most adorable when cuddled on top of one another! Sometimes that includes being on top of me!

Additionally, Charlie and Scottie continue to be “Back Cats”! Charlie, especially loves to jump and walk around/sit on my back! Sometimes they do this while I’m working at my desk or sitting on the couch, but other times they jump up while I’m cooking! Additionally, Scottie continues to enjoy cuddling up with me and licking my beard, especially when I’m sweaty! So, it’s always a fun time at home!

Scottie and Charlie are also super cute by themselves! So, I’m never at a loss for some daily/hourly cuteness! You can even see Scottie working on his pullups!

Food in Shanghai

One of the main highlights of this month was this weekend when Vegans of Beijing organized a Yunnan Cooking class on Zoom! Emmet has gone to these each month and always shares photos and the recipes, but it was great fun getting to join the class and follow along with the chef instructor. Having not been to Yunnan (and not knowing if I’ll make it there at this point), it’s always a wonderful opportunity to experience different Chinese cultures through there foods. Moreover, it’s so amazing to see all the different ways ingredients like mushrooms can be used!

We made three dishes. The first was fried kidney beans! This was a bit difficult since I didn’t want to deep fry them, but I ended up burning some of mine that I pan fried (the last plate is Chef Zhou’s own preparation).

The next dish was a fantastic and spicy mushrooms and chilis! We used king oyster mushrooms, white mushrooms, and shiitake, as well as red and green chilis! Having a cold, it certainly cleared out my sinuses! The first dish is the example from Chef Zhou!

The last dish was a noodle soup with pickled cabbage baked tofu! This noodle soup was really comforting on a cold day! The first picture is the version from Chef Zhou!

While my dishes aren’t quite as amazing to look at as those of our chef instructor, Chef Zhou, I really enjoyed the class! I’m excited to make the mushroom and chilis again and the noodle soup! I hope that future cooking classes also have a Zoom option!

In addition to the fantastic cooking class, I also made a few other great dishes. You can see the Seitan I made for the week of Thanksgiving, Lentil soup, baklava cookies, a tofu, cauliflower, and chili stir fry, kidney bean and sweet potato burgers, and West African peanut soup! Now that it’s much cooler here (in the 30s), it’s certainly soup weather!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

Prior to the ending of COVID ZERO in China, we had two small and lovely Kehilat Shanghai Shabbat services! While I’d love to say we’ll have more in the coming months, I’m not sure when we’ll be able to gather in person. For the last few weeks, I’ve been joining Emmet for the Kehillat Beijing Shabbat services that he’s been leading, which are really lovely. I hope to be able to join in person this spring! We also were able to have a Trivia night before things took a turn for the worse as well (questions at the end).

With Channukkah starting tonight, it still remains unclear whether Kehilat Shanghai will have it’s annual Channukkah party, but I think as many of you recognize, it’s hard to get in a festive mood with the current COVID-19 climate in China. One nice thing that did happen was that Bec (one of the amazing Kehilat Community members) organized a fantastic Channukkah charity drive to raise money for children around China to have needed surgeries (they raised RMB 10,000) by selling these adorable Channukkah boxes with candles, a dreidel, gelt, and cookies all put together by the kids and teens (and their parents) in the KS Community! I also got an adorable Channukkah card from my Mom (sent via Baopals), which was a lovely and welcome surprise!

For all of you celebrating, I hope that you’re able to enjoy lighting your menorahs and if possible some latkes, applesauce, and sufganiyot with friends and family.

What I’m Watching and Reading

With all the work I’ve been doing, I didn’t have a ton of time to finish any shows this month. I did finish the first half of the latest season of Titans on HBO Max, the tv show the superhero team of Nightwing, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Superboy, and Robin! As a comic book fan, I’ve greatly enjoy this latest season and look forward to the rest! In terms of reading, I finished the 2nd novel by Andy Weir, Artemis! Artemis tells the story of Jazz Bashira a smuggler working on Artemis the world’s first lunar colony. While this is somewhat of a departure from The Martian, I really enjoyed this book! I found the characters to be very interesting and I loved the world building done to describe and build Artemis so it felt like a real and fully thought out location! If you enjoy Science Fiction or a good heist novel, definitely check it out!

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for so much for reading my blog and for your interest in my life and experiences in Shanghai. It’s very nice to hear from my parents that so many of you are thinking about Emmet and me. It’s also always really nice to get messages letting me know that people back home are thinking of me. I hope that you found this update informative and that I’ve provided you a sense of what it’s currently like in Shanghai! If you have any questions about anything I’ve written don’t hesitate to reach out either in the comments or via e-mail. I hope that all of you have a safe, happy, healthy, end of 2022! I hope that you have a Happy Channukkah, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Kwanza, and a Happy New Year! I look forward to updating you all with how things progress in 2023!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Crazy 8’s
1). The Beatles Song Eight Days a Week appeared on this Album released in December 1964

2). Perhaps the only Channukkah animated movie, Eight Crazy Nights and was predominately the brain child of this comedian?

3). In what year was Pluto demoted to a Dwarf planet status, leaving us with only 8 planets in the Solar System?

4). The Hateful Eight is a 2015 western mystery thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell written and directed by this man?

5). Henry the VIII was famous because of his many wives. In total, he had 6, name them?

6). Eight Men Out is both a film and a book that is a dramatization of this Major League Baseball Scandel

7). Though Octopuses have 8 tentacles, only this number are actually arms? (The others are legs)

8). In geometry, this type of object has 8 faces?

9). UFC is famous for it’s octagonal shaped ring, which first appeared in what year?

10). This country won the 8th World Cup in 1966 and hasn’t won since.

Answers: 1). Beatles for Sale 2). Adam Sandler 3). 2006 4). Quentin Tarantino 5). Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr 6). The Black Sox Scandal 7). 6 8). Octahedron 9). 1993 10). England

Channukkah
1). Across all 8 nights of Channukkah, how many candles do you light?

2). Channukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees who were led by this man
Bonus point, What does this Maccabee?

3). The Book of Maccabees, which describes the Maccabean revolt is not actually part of the Jewish liturgy and is instead part of this collection of texts book together by the Catholic Church

4). The Maccabean revolt was an attempt by the Maccabees to recover this place?

5). The Letters (Nun, Gimmel, Hey, Shin) can be written into a phrase Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means what?

6). In Titus Flavius Josephus’s Jewish History, Jewish Antiquties XII, Josephus describes the Channukkah celebration, but instead refers to it as what (a now common English phrase associated with the holiday).

7). Though many of us refer to the Channukkah candelabra as a menorah, that term is actually incorrect. The Channukkah menorah is instead a Channukia. What is the difference?

8). Following the Military victory of the Maccabees, Simon (brother of the original leader) set up this short lived (103 year) dynasty that was then followed by the Herodian dynasty

9). Instead of presents, traditionally, this is given to children during the festival?

10). The Maccabean revolt, was against this ruler of the Seleucid Empire?

Answers 1). 44 2). Judah, Hammer 3). The Apocrypha 4). The 2nd Temple of Jerusalem 5). A Great Miracle Happened There 6). The Festival of Lights 7). 7 vs 9 total candles 8). The Hasmonean Dynasty 9). Gelt 10). Antiochus

Miracles (Emmet’s round)

1). žThis football “miracle” occurred on January 8, 2000, when a forward passed was called a lateral, crushing the heart of Buffalo Bills fans everywhere and allowing the Tennessee Titans to advance in the playoffs.

2). žHe is the lead singer of the Detroit based R&B band The Miracles that is best known for songs like “Love Machine”

3). žThe Season 3 finale of this American sitcom, which is titled “Miracles”, features both Ted & Barney winding up in the hospital after getting into separate car accidents

4). žWhile most people think the “Miracle on Ice” win by the USA over the USSR in Hockey occurred in the Gold Medal Game at the 1980 Olympics, it actually occurred in the semifinals.  The USA had to beat this Nordic nation to win gold.

5). Mister Miracle is part of this superhero society created by Jack Kirby as part of DC Comics

6). This Jewish reggae singer/rapper put his own spin on Channukkah with the song “Miracle”

7). This movie, interestingly released as “The Big Heart” in the UK, is set in NYC and focuses on the effect of a department store Santa who claims to be the real Santa

8). Miracle Mile in this city (in the US) is the home to the Petersen Automotive Museum, Craft Contemporary Museum, George C. Page Museum, and the La Brea Tar Pits pavilions among others

9). This Sarah McLachlan song was originally featured on the Charlotte’s Web soundtrack

ž10). žThe Miracle Worker is the movie adaptation of this woman’s (1) autobiography (although this other woman (2) is the leading character).  Name both women. 

Answers: 1). The Music City Miracle 2). Smokey Robinson 3). How I Met Your Mother 4). Finland 5). The 4th World/The New Gods 6). Matisyahu 7). The Miracle on 34th Street 8). Los Angeles 9). Ordinary Miracle 10). Helen Keller/Anne Sullivan

Fried Foods
1). During Channukkah, these are the two popular fried items that people enjoy!

2). This fried dish was introduced to Japanese cuisine by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century as a meatless option during holy fasting days.

3). This fried item was brought to New Orleans by French Canadien settlers in the 18th century and is famously served with chicory coffee at Cafe du Monde.

4). These fried items from India are made using besan or chickpea flour and can feature a variety of items from potatoes and eggplant to cabbage and spinach

5). Tostones are a twice friend dish made from this starchy vegetable popular in Latin American and Caribbean Cuisine

6). This fried Vietnamese desert has a name which translates to orange cake, but there’s actually no orange flavor. These are sweets made from glutinous rice flour filled with mung bean paste and rolled in sesame seeds made to resemble an orange.

7). The chimichanga, this deep fried Tex-Mex staple originated in Arizona and is a deep fried version of what other dish?

8). This southern cornmeal based fried item, also known as red horse bread in South Carolina, is a traditional accompaniment to fried fish.

9). This dish of fried rice balls originated in Italy in the 10th century and is traditionally eaten at the December feast of Saint Lucia. They can be filled with meat, cheese, eggplant, or mushrooms.

10). Name this national dish of Lebanon, that consists of fried meat and bulgur balls.

Answers 1). Latkes and Sufganiyot 2). Vegetable Tempura 3). Beignets 4). Pakora 5). Green Plantain 6). Banh Cam 7). Burrito 8). Hushpuppies 9). Arrancini 10). Kibbeh

Connections

1). The First winner of this sports championship trophy, awarded annually was the Montreal Hockey Club.

2). Loofahs, made from a gourd in the cucumber family, are used as a natural alternative to these cleaning tools?

3). Name this program that is Google’s version of Microsoft Excel?

4). This American family entertainment center and pizza chain was founded in 1977 by Atari’s co-founder Nolan Bushnell?

5). The American actor and stand-up comedian, Scott Thompson is known professionally as this?

6). This is the main unit of sterling, the world’s oldest currency still in use (it has been continuous since its inception) as the currency of the UK?

7). This show was a spinoff of Buff the Vampire Slayer starring David Boreanaz as the titular character?

8). This American rock brand, who influenced underground, experimental, and alternative music, originally featured Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Angus MacLise. Hit songs include Heroin, Pale Blue Eyes, and Rock and Roll.

9). Name this 2005 film about divorce mediators starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson?

10). What is the Connection?

Answers: 1). The Stanley Cup 2). Sponges, 3). Google Sheets 4). Chuck E. Cheese 5). Carrot Top 6). Pound 7). Angel 8). Velvet Underground 9). Wedding Crashers 10). Types of Cake