My Thoughts on the Shooting in Atlanta and Asian/Asian-American violence in the US

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

I hope that this latest update finds all of you safe and healthy. Moreover, as the restrictions on who is eligible to get vaccinated loosen, and more of you get vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to stay safe and follow social distancing protocols as well. Lastly, I hope that you are all taking some advantage of the warmer weather and getting outside a bit more.

Given that just last week, I discussed some of my feelings about the recent racism and violence towards Asians and Asian-Americans living in the US, I feel obligated to begin this entry by sharing some of my thoughts on the shootings in Atlanta. First, I feel terrible for all of my family, friends, and colleagues who are grappling with how to deal with this growing rise of violence towards Asians and Asian-Americans and want to offer my support to them as an ally and a friend. With this recent shooting in particular, so much of what I’ve seen has been depressing. There was the racist police captain who claimed that the shooter was “having a bad day.” It’s ridiculous that every time a white person decides to go out and murder people that law enforcement or certain news outlets will defend the murderer and describe that person as just having a bad day. This kind of narrative intentionally humanizes the murderer and strips those killed of their humanity. It’s far more important to recognize the 8 people killed and the loss that their deaths bring to their families, friends, and communities. Secondly, I have seen a number of people claim that these murders were not racially motivated because some news outlets claimed that the murderer said that they were not and that he chose to shoot up 3 massage parlors because he was dealing with a sex addiction. As some of my friends here in Shanghai have pointed out, attempting to claim that these attacks were not racially motivated invalidates the pain and suffering felt by members of the Asian/Asian-American communities and is particularly cruel at this time. Moreover, it also neglects the long history that the US and western world has with sexualizing Asian women, which intrinsically removes the idea that this shooting was not racially motivated.

While I don’t think there is a simple solution, I encourage all of you to reach out to your friends, family members, or colleagues who have been impacted by these recent events. Try to be a supportive ally and a better human being. If you can, make donations to organizations that are supporting stopping this kind of hate in the US. Lastly, HATE IS A VIRUS and it must be treated as such. It’s up to all of us to call out racism when we see it. It doesn’t matter if you think the person who says something isn’t racist. If someone says something that is racist, you need to confront them, because the level of passive racism that exists today is just as dangerous as the overt racism.

Additionally, even though the model minority myth was likely not the cause of this recent attack, I want to briefly touch on it. The model minority myth is the idea that certain minorities have been able to rise up and succeed in America by hard work alone. This myth has been applied to Jews in America and most recently, to members of the Asian/Asian-American community. However, as some of my friends have described to me, this myth removes the diversity that exists within the Asian community and neglects the fact that many Asian/Asian-American immigrants are working minimum wage jobs, are illegal immigrants, or living below the poverty line. By highlighting any one group as the model minority, society has also set up a situation where minorities fight against one another, instead of recognizing the systemic injustices and racism that has been built into the system.

To attempt to wrap this up, the level of hate and animosity that exists within the US is becoming so dangerous for all minorities in the US. While much of this disgusting behavior was normalized by the previous president, it’s clear that this kind of racism has long existed within the US and it’s really important to not normalize this kind of hatred and racism. Whether you’re and Asian-American, Black, Jewish, Muslim, Latinx, LGBTQ+ or a member of another under-represented minority, it’s important that we all look out for one another and confront racism when we see it. We shouldn’t feel safe and comfortable until everyone around us is able to live safe and comfortable lives.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on this. I hope that you reflect on what I’ve said and like I’m doing, work to make the world a better place for everyone.

To transition to covid-19, the situation in China has remained much the same. Shanghai will be starting up another round of vaccinations in the coming weeks (hopefully that’s when I’ll get vaccinated) as well. In terms of cases, there are just 40 cases in Shanghai and the recovery rate is at 97.46%. In Beijing, there are only 3 cases and the recovery rate is 98.85%. For China as a whole, there are just 505 cases (300+ in Hong Kong) with a recovery rate of 94.77%. So, as I’ve emphasized before, the restrictions that China put in place really did drastically reduce and halt the spread of covid-19.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a very productive week. I spent most of my week working on my mock Luminosity Function. Thanks to that time, I was able to generate a mock for the first time!! Even though we didn’t do anything really sophisticated for this mock, I’m really happy with this accomplishment because this has long been something that I was aware that other researchers did, but not something I fully comprehended how to do. So, thanks to Ying for making me learn how to generate one! This upcoming week, I’ll be using that mock to put together some tests that we were running for comparison with our observational results.

Additionally, last week, I mentioned that I thought they were building a telescope on the roof and it turns out they are! There is now a 0.4m telescope on top of the New Sciences Building #5! It’ll be opened in May, so I look forward to trying to use it later this summer (though no promises about seeing much in Shanghai)!

This week, the weather was a mixture of rainy for the first half, with some nicer weather on the weekends, so I only got to go for 2 runs. However, on Sunday, I did take a ton of photos of some beautiful flowers!

In terms of fun activities, this week was a little bit quieter. On Tuesday, my friend David and I hosted another trivia night! We had another great turn out. It’s been really fun to watch it grow and to build a great group of regular attendees! For this week, we had categories including Famous Women in History, Music, PASSing and OVERtime, the Passover Seder, and a Connections round! I’ll post the questions I wrote at the end of this entry.

Additionally, on Saturday, I was invited to the 50th birthday party of one of my friends on the Kehilat Shanghai board! It was 70s themed, so thanks to some advice from my Mom, I was able to get a good sense of what to wear. Given my long hair and beard, I leaned heavily into the hippy aesthetic! Unfortunately, I don’t have too many photos from the party yet, so I’ll plan to share some more when I get them!

Overall, I had a lot of fun getting to celebrate and sing some Beatles Karaoke!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Sunday, I attended the latest Kehilat Shanghai Adult Education discussion. This time, we focused our discussion on the upcoming Israeli Elections. It’s the fourth election in the last 2 years and each time Netanyahu has failed to form/maintain a coalition. It was really fascinating (and somewhat depressing) to learn about the Israeli political system. Thanks to the discussion I know have a much better understanding of the way the political system in Israel works. While I wish that we had more than 2 parties in the US, I’m somewhat grateful that our system isn’t quite as chaotic as the Israeli system.

Additionally, we’re starting to get ready for Passover! Chabad finally got matzah into Shanghai (it was delayed in customs), so I’ll be picking some up on Tuesday. Next week, I’m co-leading the Kehilat Shanghai community Seder, which should be a lot of fun! I look forward to sharing the highlights of this experience with you.

This was a very productive and work filled week, with some fun activities interspersed. This upcoming week should be similar, so I’m hoping to get a lot done before Passover! For those of you who are celebrating, I hope that you all have a meaningful and enjoyable Passover. While I know that many of you are saddened by not being able to celebrate in large groups, I hope that you enjoy your Zoom Seders and that that allows you to still connect with you family and friends. Also, please note that I will be posting the next entry on Monday (not Sunday) because the Kehilat Shanghai Seder will end late on Sunday night.

I hope that you reflect on what I wrote about the shootings in Atlanta and enjoyed the pictures of the flowers from this week as well!

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Passover

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

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

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

A). The simple son B). The wicked son C). The greedy son D). The wise son

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

5). What is the first of the 10 plagues

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

7). A Hillel sandwich consists of what ingredients?

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

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

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

A). On this night, why do we eat only leavened bread B). On this night, why do we eat only bitter herbs C). On this night, why do we dip herbs twice D). On this night, why do we lean

March 14, 2021

Family Shabbat and Minari Screening!

Life in Shanghai

Hi Everyone! I hope that you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy. As the vaccine roll out continues in the US, and the situation appears to be improving, I hope that you all stay cautious and continue to follow social distancing guidelines and are wearing masks. Moreover, as the winter appears to be turning into spring (it’s already Spring in Shanghai), I hope that you have been able to go outside a bit more, even if it’s just for walks or runs.

I won’t be spending too much time on politics in this post. However, I am happy that the covid-19 relief bill was passed. I hope that this bill provides financial relief and assistance to the people and small businesses that have been suffering over the past year. Additionally, for those of you who are New York residents, you may have noticed that I have been avoiding mentioning the Andrew Cuomo situation. I have done so mostly because I haven’t been reading all of the articles on the situation. That being said, the behavior towards women is disgusting and he and all other public officials (including the former president) should be held to a higher standard when it comes to how they treat people.

As those of you in the US reached 1 year of covid-19 life, I was very excited to hear that President Biden believes that all Americans will be able to have access to the covid-19 vaccine as of May 1st. I hope that this will allow all of you to be vaccinated soon. On the vaccine front for me, I do have an update. SJTU (by way of the Shanghai goverment) is doing a second round of vaccines. This time, I was able to sign up and let the university know that I want to be vaccinated. I don’t know yet when I will be vaccinated, but I believe it should be in the next month or so, which is promising. When I have information or experiences to share, I’ll definitely update you all on that.

In terms of statistics, I’m glad to see that in the US, the number of people being vaccinated is greatly outpacing the number of new infections. In China, the situation has remained stable and entirely under control. In total, in Shanghai, there are currently 41 cases, 2 of which are local (though not new) and the recovery rate is at 97.38%. In Beijing, there are just 6 cases and the recovery rate is at 98.57%. For China as a whole, there are only 533 active cases (316 of those are in Hong Kong) and the recovery rate for the country is at 94.74%. So, it’s important to continue to stay vigilant and wear a mask regardless of what your state policy is and whether you have been vaccinated.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week. I resubmitted my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation to the two internal reviewers, so hopefully this will lead to a collaboration wide review later this month/beginning of next month. Additionally, I made significant progress on my mock galaxy catalog and nailed down both the positions and brightnesses that need to be generated for each galaxy. The only thing left to do is to figure out how to turn the simulation box into a light cone (i.e., make it more like an observable universe). So, that’s the goal for this week. Additionally, I spent a bit of time going back to some of the DESI research that I had done on the completeness of Brightest Central Galaxies being targeted and observed as part of DESI to determine whether any of the proposed brightness cuts resulted in a significant number of BCGs not being observed. So, overall, I was able to get a lot done this week!

Additionally, it looks like the University is putting some sort of dome on top of our building? So, maybe we’re getting a small observatory, like what we had on top of Barus & Holley at Brown and on top of Angel Hall at Michigan?

Even though I was able to get so much work done, I still made time to go for 4 runs this week! It’s warming up here now (upper 50s – low 60s), so most days I’m just running in shorts (or short tights) and a shirt! Here are some of the things I saw on my runs and walks around Shanghai this week! There are so many flowers in bloom, which makes it really nice to be outside!

In terms of social activities, this was another quieter week, which really allowed me to get a lot of work done. However, I did want to share some highlights as well.

On Saturday, one of my friends organized a film screening of the Golden Globes winning film, Minari, to raise money to support organizations that support stopping the rising tide of violence against Asian Americans that has been happening throughout the US this past year. Minari was a really interesting movie and presents a perspective of the difficulties that many immigrants (particularly those who are not coming over to work in STEM fields) face living in the US. It’s currently available on Amazon Prime, so I recommend watching it if you have that platform. After the movie, there was an interesting discussion touching on topics including aspects of what was portrayed in the film, what it’s like to grow up as an Asian American in the US today, and also the role that Christianity plays in Korean American society (a key part of the film). Below you can see some cool stickers I bought to support the cause.

I also want to comment on the recent attacks of Asian Americans in the US. First, if anyone that you know refers to covid-19 as an name insulting people who are Chinese or Asian, and insinuating that they are responsible for covid-19, you need to call them out for being racist. This behavior was normalized by the racist Trump administration and is not okay and normalizes the othering of Asian Americans that has long persisted in the US. Secondly, It’s very troubling that these attacks have mostly been carried out against the elderly, who are already more vulnerable. Whether it’s just awareness, donating, or protesting, I hope that all of you recognize the importance of putting a stop to hate speech. Whether it’s racist attacks on Asian Americans, police violence and systemic racism against Blacks in the US, or anti-Semitism this kind of hateful rhetoric and thought must be called out, especially when used casually (for example by NBA player Meyers Leonard last week) because this kind of behavior must not be normalized. The only way for us as a society to improve is if we all strive to be understanding and better human beings.

Food in Shanghai

A few weeks ago, one of the organizers of the Vegans in Shanghai WeChat group started a take-out restaurant for lunch on the Weekdays. So, on Friday, I decided to give it a try!

I enjoyed a noodle bowl with buckwheat noodles, tempeh, and vegetables, as well as a side order of tofu, and a side of roasted vegetables! It was a really good lunch and it’s nice to know that when I don’t want to cook there are some more options for me to get healthy vegan food in Shanghai!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, I joined with other members of the Kehilat Shanghai community for a lovely Family Shabbat! I’ve been going to these since the end of last summer and even though I’m one of the few people who comes without having a small child in tow, I’ve become friends with many of the parents and really feel like part of the community. 🙂 These kind of Shabbat dinners always bring back fond memories of dinners with my cousin Margaret and her family from when I was living in Ann Arbor.

This was a lovely Shabbat dinner with discussions ranging from the upcoming Kehilat Passover Seder and future Kehilat events, to covid-19 vaccines and favorite science fiction books. We also had some delicious food. There was a fantastic homemade challah and I also brought some delicious vegan carrot cake sandwich cookies! They were a big hit and one my the community members told me that her son woke up the next morning telling her about how much he enjoyed them! 🙂

Overall, this was a very productive and work filled week, with some fun activities interspersed. This upcoming week should be similar, so hopefully I’ll make more research progress! Additionally, if any of you are interested in the Saratoga Jewish Community Arts discussion that I’ll be taking part in on Sunday at 7pm (EST), which is Monday at 7am (China time), see the e-mail I sent out in the middle of last week.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and seeing more of Shanghai in bloom! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

March 7, 2021

A Quiet Week in Shanghai

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you, your family, and your friends safe and healthy. For those of you who are vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to follow social distancing guidelines so that the majority who are not yet vaccinated are able to stay safe as well. Also, for those of you where the weather is now inching closer to spring, I hope that the warmer weather is allowing you to spend a little more time outside of your house doing socially distanced walks and runs.

To begin this post, I want to reflect on recent happenings in the US. First, I must comment on the utter stupidity of the governor of Texas choosing to repeal the mask mandate. As someone living in China, where masks were required months after the number of cases slowed to a halt and masks are still required on subways and buses (over one year after), the decision to repeal a mask mandate will likely only cause a secondary surge in cases as more states prematurely end these regulations. Maybe it’s because masks are such an everyday part of my life (I always have one when I leave my apartment), but I still have trouble understanding why so many people continue to whine about having to wear one. I think it’s utterly ridiculous that the US has no ability/desire to have a national mask policy.

Additionally, I also want to comment on the depressing level of partisanship and polarization in Washington. It’s ridiculous that despite the 10s of millions of Americans who are hurting, without jobs or working greatly reduced hours, and therefore in need of financial help that the Republicans refuse to budge on President Biden’s rescue plan. Moreover, the hypocrisy of rich senators (both democrats and republicans) who refuse to acknowledge that the federal minimum wage must be substantially raised is increasingly frustrating. Although some claim that it will hurt small business owners, I think that it’s more important that people who work full time be able to live above the poverty line.

In terms of covid-19 cases. I’m glad to see that the number of cases in the US is still slowing (though it appears to have plateaued). Hopefully people will be happy receiving any of the different vaccines and the recovery will speed up in the US and around the world. In China, the vaccine roll out is still slow. There was a report that they hope to have 40% of the population vaccinated by the summer (though it is worth noting that China has a population 4x greater than that of the USA). In terms of actual cases, the situation remains under control in China. In Shanghai, there are only 36 cases and the recovery rate is 97.62%. In Beijing, there are only 8 remaining cases and the recovery rate is 98.37%. For China as a whole there are just 449 cases and the recovery rate is 94.81%. Of note, over half of the cases are in Hong Kong. So, it is emphasizing that the numbers have continued to stay low because of mask mandates. So, regardless of what the policy is, please continue to wear masks and follow social distancing practices.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a very productive week, which was great! I spent most of my time hammering down how to get my mock galaxy catalog generated. It took a long time and was trickier than it seemed at first, but I was finally able get all the nuances figured out and generate a population of galaxies following a previously measured Conditional Luminosity Function (what I’m working to measure) and then determining the positions for these galaxies based on a scaled NFW profile (the density distribution of objects within a dark matter halo). Sadly, the end product is just a catalog of brightness and position, but it was great to be able to generate all this data on my own for the first time. Now that I have this skill set, I should be able to do this in the future as well! All that’s left is to scale it up for the entire cluster population. Additionally, I spent the rest of my time working on my DES Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation project. I finally finished all of the remaining edits from the internal referee report. So, I’ll just be giving the paper a final read through at the beginning of the week and then resubmitting the manuscript. Fingers crossed that this goes quickly.

Here in Shanghai, we’ve been having somewhat of a rainy spring. It’s still relatively warm, in the mid 50s most days, but it has been raining a lot over the last few weeks. Despite the rain, I still went for 3 runs this week! I even managed to take some pictures of the flowers and landscape around the SJTU Minhang campus. Additionally, I saw some cool Chinese New Year decorations that were still up as well!

Overall, this was a much quieter week than the past few weeks. Which, while not as exciting as all the fun stuff I did last week, it was really beneficial because the quieter week really allowed me the opportunity to get all the work that I needed done on my DES paper and on my mock cluster catalog.

One other fun thing that I wanted to share with you is that on Sunday, at the Kehilat Shanghai Passover planning board meeting, at the local WeWork, I met the cat that apparently lives on the third floor! He was very cute and friendly! 🙂

Food in Shanghai

The social highlight of my week was on Thursday when I celebrated my friend (and fellow anti-racism leader) Clem’s birthday! We had a fantastic Italian dinner! I don’t think I’ve had real Italian food (that I haven’t made) since I’ve been in Shanghai! So, it was really nice to dig in to some delicious pesto pizza with broccolini, spinach and ricotta ravioli, eggplant and mozzarella salad, and fantastic bread!

So, for all of you wondering, yes there is really great and authentic Italian food in Shanghai!

Overall, this was a very productive and work filled week, which after the excitement of Purim and the Lantern Festival was much needed. 🙂 This upcoming week should be another productive work week as I finish my DES draft and generate the full mock catalog. However, I’ll definitely have some more sights and stories from Shanghai to share!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

February 28, 2021

Purim and the Lantern Festival!

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

February 21, 2021

Dumplings, Round 2, and Running along the Bund!

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.

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!