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.

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Life in Shanghai

Thank you all so much for understanding why I wasn’t able to post last week. I wanted to begin by letting you know that my computer has been fixed, thanks to AppleCare! So, hopefully going forward, there won’t be any more unforeseen delays. I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you staying safe and healthy. For those of you who celebrated Passover with Seders last weekend, I hope that you had a meaningful and enjoyable holiday! I did and I’m excited to share my experiences with you in this entry! Also, regardless of whether you’ve been vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to stay socially distanced. It frightens me to see how relaxed some of the restrictions in the US have become, so I hope that you all continue to take the covid-19 situation seriously.

In my last post, I focused on the recent shootings in Atlanta and the rise in Asian and Anti-Asian American racism in the US. I really appreciate that so many of you took the time to read and reflect on what I had to say. While I still fully support everything I wrote, I realized that I didn’t really make clear what portion of this insight was impacted by my experiences living in Shanghai. While living in the US, both in childhood and through college and graduate school, I had family and friends who are Asian/Asian-American. However, my time in Shanghai has provided me with an opportunity to both learn more about and gain a much better appreciation of Chinese culture (and to some extant some other Asian cultures as well). Whether it’s the visiting the breathtaking Buddha statues inside the different Buddhist temples, the traditional and modern works of art I’ve seen in different museums, watching different decorations appear around Shanghai and thus gaining an understanding of the different holidays beyond just the Lunar New Year, watching people do tai-chi or dancing in the park while I go running, or enjoying the different types of delicious food, living in Shanghai has instilled within me a much deeper level of appreciation than I had prior. I also didn’t discuss how these attacks are being reported in China. I didn’t do that because I honestly don’t know. While I know that all of my expat friends are fully cognizant of what is happening and some of my work colleagues are aware, since I can’t yet read Chinese, it’s difficult for me to learn what is reported. I get most of my news from expat aggregators with articles in English, so there’s definitely a slant to what I’m able to learn from the news. That being said, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had many discussions about this. I’ve met so many interesting, warm, and wonderful people living in Shanghai and much of my understanding and response to this tragic hate crime was based on conversations (either in person or on WeChat) with my Asian/Asian-American friends. It was based on advice given to me from them that I came to best understand what I can do to be a better friend and ally (the information I shared with you) and for that, I’m very grateful.

To transition back to covid-19. Since it’s been a few weeks since my last update, here are the revised numbers. Unfortunately, there’s been a minor outbreak in Yunnan (western China), so travel to parts of that part of the country have been restricted. Thankfully nothing is happening here in Shanghai, though we still need our QR codes and masks. In total, there are 50 current cases in Shanghai with a recovery rate of 96.99%. In Beijing, there are only 4 cases with a recovery rate of 98.76%. For China as a whole, there are only 421 active cases and the recovery rate is at 94.87%. So, if you’re excited by these numbers, remember that they only happened because people took covid-19 precautions seriously and still do.

In terms of Astronomy, these two weeks were mildly productive. Not having my computer for ~5 days prevented me from getting much done in the interim. Thankfully I frequently back up my computer, so I didn’t lose any research. Over the last two weeks, I’ve been getting my Luminosity Function code up and running on the SJTU servers in order to analyze the mock Universe that I generated. The mock is pretty gigantic, so I’m currently trying to figure out how to best optimize and run the analysis in parallel, which is pretty neat and kind of tricky. Hopefully, I’ll get this solved soon since there’s a bunch of tests I plan to run on the mock catalogs I generated.

Outside of Astronomy, the weather’s been really nice in Shanghai, so I’ve gotten to go for a ton of runs! In the last two weeks, I’ve gone for 8 runs, which makes me really happy! On top of that, there are so many beautiful flowers and cherry blossoms to see around Shanghai, which makes my runs all that more enjoyable!

Outside of Passover, which I’ll discuss next, I didn’t do too many fun activities (other than my runs), since I wanted to make up for some of the time I lost due to my computer being repaired. One thing I wanted to mention was that last Thursday, I attended the most recent Unravel Story Telling Event! I’ve mentioned these before, these are kind of like an in person version of This American Life that I really enjoy attending! This time, the theme was A Whole New World. There were some very moving stories of people having life changing experiences as well as stories about looking at aspects of their lives from different perspectives. The highlight was my friend Clem sharing a story. Clem is an captivating storyteller, so it’s always a highlight getting to listen to him!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

The primary highlights of the last two weeks were the Passover Seders that I attended. For the first night of Passover, I was invited to a Seder hosted by my friends John and Alex (both new to Shanghai in the past year)!

As you can see, John and Alex hosted a lovely Seder. One highlight for me was getting to use the new Mishkan Haggadah (the reform movements new haggadah). I hadn’t seen them before and I really enjoyed the modern and updated readings and reflections on the Passover Seder. I was also really grateful that John and Alex made me my own personal serving of Vegetarian Matzo Ball soup! While I made my own soup to eat during the week, I was convinced that neither Seder I attended would have Vegetarian Matzo ball soup, so this was a pleasant surprise. Additionally, (though not pictured) Alex even made a vegan desert with vegan marshmallows! Overall, this was a fun first night Seder and a really lovely experience getting to celebrate with many new friends.

For the second night of Passover, Kehilat Shanghai hosted a community Seder. Josh (the president of Kehilat Shanghai) and I co-lead the Seder for 158 people!

If you recall, last year, I led the Kehilat Shanghai Seder for ~ 45 people. This year, without the covid-19 restrictions, we had a gigantic group, which was fantastic! While it was stressful and exhausting getting everything organized and set up (though I didn’t have to manage that, I was just helping the other board members), leading the Seder was a lot of fun! While it was weird leading from a lectern instead of from a table, I think that overall, the Seder went very well. Josh and I incorporated some fun activities, including the youngest children singing the Four Questions and the teenagers doing a play for the story of Passover. While most of the evening was fun, the entire Passover Seder isn’t just a fun retelling of the Exodus from Egypt. During the solemn memorial that is the 10 plagues, given the makeup of our community, I also decided to honor the memory of the victims of the Atlanta shooting by marking the plague of racism (particularly that against Asians and Asian-Americans) that’s been plaguing the US, a sentiment which was broadly appreciated by many members of our Kehilat community.

Overall, this was a wonderful evening. I received so many compliments from people who were so happy to be able to celebrate together and who had really enjoyed the Seder! It’s experiences like these that make me feel rewarded for all the time that I invest in the Kehilat community!

One other Seder that I wanted to mention is my family’s Zoom Seder. For the second year in a row, I was able to join my family for their Seder (early in the morning). When I moved to Shanghai, I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Passover with them, which made me sad, since I really enjoy the Seder that my Dad leads every year. So, even though Zoom Seders may not be as fun as in person Seders, to me, it’s been a really lovely way for me to connect and celebrate the holiday with my family!

This was a productive Passover week. This upcoming week will be largely work focused, though I’m sure there will be some fun things to share with you (and hopefully more flowers). For all of you who celebrated Passover, I hope that you had a meaningful Passover and wonderful Seders. For those of you who are celebrating Easter, I hope that you are also able to celebrate safely (and socially distanced).

I hope that you enjoy seeing all the photos I shared with you from my Seders and that you all continue to stay safe and healthy!

In peace,
Jesse

Trivia

PASSing & OVERtime

1). The immaculate reception was a touchdown thrown by Terry Bradshaw that bounced off safety Jack Tatum’s hands as well as those of running back John Fuqua, but was miraculously “caught” by fullback Franco Harris who ran it in for the winning touchdown for this NFL team?

–Pittsburgh Steelers

2). In the NBA, the primary role of the point guard is to facilitate the offense, which usually results in this player having many assists. No point guard was more prolific than this NBA legend, who leads NBA history with 3,000 more assists than any other player. Many of his assists were passes to his longtime teammate, who was nicknamed the Mailman.

–John Stockton

3). Which of the four major professional sports leagues has a Sudden death overtime?

— NHL

4). Starting in 2020, during extra innings in baseball, a runner starts on which base at the beginning of each inning?

— Second Base

5). In both of the Super Bowls that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants, this Giants quarterback was responsible for throwing miraculous passes that led his team to late game scores.

— Eli Manning

6). This NBA legend is now one of the most thoughtful writers about race and race relations in America is best known for his signature shot, the sky hook. However, he is also the center, with the most career assists.

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

7). Like in basketball, passing is a fundamental part of hockey. Similarly, passes to set up goals are recorded as assists. Name this GREAT ONE who has over 700 more assists than any other player?

— Wayne Gretzky

8). Though tennis doesn’t have a traditional overtime, the result of each set must win by 2 points or go into a tie-breaker. However, at some tournaments, the final set does not feature a tie-break. As a result, the longest tennis match in history was a 5th set victory by John Isner over Nicolas Mahut 70-68 at what Grand Slam Tournament.

— Wimbledon

9). This type of acrobatic kick can be used to either pass or score a goal in soccer/ football. In this action, the player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair.

— Bicycle Kick

10). This prolific NFL quarterback, who also is known for his funny commercials, threw for the most yards in NFL history in a single season, 1 yard more than the recently retired Drew Brees.

— Peyton Manning

Passover

1). In the Passover Seder how many cups of ceremonial wine are drunk before the dinner.

— 2

2). For the karpas blessings, you eat greens dipped in what?

— Salt Water

3). Which is not one of the Four Sons:

žA). The simple son žB). The wicked son žC). The greedy son žD). The wise son

4). When the pharaoh ordered that all male Israelite children be killed, what did Moses’s mother do to save him?

— She put him in a basket in the Nile

5). What is the first of the 10 plagues

— Blood (Dam)

6). Which two store cities were mentioned as Pharaoh having forced the Israelites to build?

— Pithom and Raamses

7). A Hillel sandwich consists of what ingredients?

— Matzah, Maror, Charoset (sometimes)

8). A cup of wine for this prophet is kept at the center of the Seder plate

— Elijah

9). How much was chad gad yah purchased for?

— Two Zuzim

10). Which of these is not one of the four questions:

žA). On this night, why do we eat only leavened bread žB). On this night, why do we eat only bitter herbs žC). On this night, why do we dip herbs twice žD). On this night, why do we lean