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 continues to plague the US, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside and are social distancing, I hope that my blog highlights what the world will look like after a recovery from covid-19 begins, which can only happen by following the practices listed above. Once things improve (which is not now), I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable. In Shanghai, life has returned mostly to normal.
If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.
Life in Shanghai
I hope that this latest entry finds all of you, your families, and your friends staying safe and healthy. I know that for many of you the winter has already been hard since you are no longer able to gather outside for socially distanced visits. Despite that, I hope you are all taking some time to do things that you enjoy (that are safe). Moreover, as the holiday season continues, please follow social distancing guidelines, do not gather in large groups, wear masks, and wash your hands. I know that some of you are tired of these restrictions, but if we want the vaccines to effectively work, we need to act smartly to first slow the spread of the virus.
I don’t want to comment too much on the situation in the US, but I remain continually troubled and fearful of the current political divide that exists in the US. It’s really dangerous that the Republican Party effectively announced to the world that it no longer believes in democracy (though their stance on voter suppression, especially minority votes, has long suggested that). While I’m glad that the Supreme Court has continued to toss out Trump’s frivolous law suits, the one raised by Texas and cosigned by over 100 Republican House of Representative members further highlights how broken the current political system is. If we can no longer accept fair elections, then the US is no longer the bastion of democracy.
Additionally, I remain incredibly concerned about covid-19 in the US. There are almost 16 million cases in the US and near 300,000 deaths. The level of complacency I continually see on Facebook and hear about from my family and friends is frightening. I can’t stress this enough, but the vaccine will not immediately improve the situation. It will take many months for enough people to be vaccinated for any kind of immunity to be built up, so it is paramount that you all continue to follow safe practices. Moreover, I’ll again ask that you not gather for holiday celebrations. While I know many of you didn’t for Thanksgiving, please follow these same precautions around Christmas and New Years.
In stark contrast, the situation in Shanghai and China as a whole remains under control. There was a small outbreak in Chengdu, but thanks to strict lockdowns and contact tracing, thousands of people were tested and the outbreak was contained. In Shanghai, there 82 cases (all but 4 are imported cases). There are just 4 in Beijing. The number only rises in Shanghai because people (who are quarantined upon arrival) test positive. The recovery rate in Shanghai is 93.6% and the recovery rate for China is 93.2%. So, again the situation in the US was avoidable and strict policies must be adhered to to turn the situation around.
Now, for an Astronomy update. This was a relatively productive week. I spent a lot of my time working on my Luminosity Function analysis as well as my Halo Mass (amount of dark matter in a galaxy cluster) proxy analysis paper. We’re still working on understanding the background measurement for the Luminosity Function, but we’re exploring a lot of different scenarios (and will start looking at simulated mock universes as well). I also began taking measurements of the intra-cluster light (ICL) profiles for my DES-ACT analysis, and have begun looking at the redshift evolution in the ICL. So, despite all the planning for the Channukkah party (more on that later), this was still a productive week.
As a result of the party planning as well as some really bad pollution over the weekend, I only got to go for 1 run. Hopefully that will be rectified this week! I still saw a bunch of cool things that I thought I would share!
Additionally, though not a fun activity, I renewed my passport on Friday! I was making some tentative travel plans and found out that you can’t travel (by plane/train) in China if your passport expires in less than 6 months (mine expires at the end of April). So, hopefully in ~2 weeks, I’ll get my new passport and be all set for some winter adventures with my friends! Thankfully, it’s a lot faster doing it here than it is in the USA.
While most of this post will focus on my Channukkah celebrations, I did one other fun thing. On Saturday, the Unravel storytelling group put on an exhibition of photographed portraits of some of their featured story tellers. Each portrait was accompanied with a 1-2 minute piece of their story. The exhibit was really cool and a great way to continue to engage with the stories. Plus, at the event two of the people whose photos were used told their stories. So, it was a fun way to take a break on Saturday!
Jewish Life in Shanghai
First, Happy Channukkah to all of those who are celebrating! I hope that you’ve enjoyed lighting the candles on your menorahs as well as some latkes or sufganiyot! On Friday, I, along with my friend and fellow board member, Ha, organized the 4th annual Kehilat Shanghai Shabbatakkah Channukkah Party! This year, we partnered with the restaurant Tacolicious (where we do trivia — the owner is Jewish and a member of our community) for a fantastic party! Ha and I spent a ton of time preparing for the event and we were thrilled with the turnout! We decorated the restaurant with great decorations (from Taobao), which went great with the restaurants day of the dead aesthetic! 🙂 We had Channukkah music playing throughout the night (even the Friday DJ played Channukkah music!). We also had goodie bags of dreidels and gelt (real chocolate) for the kids!
We encouraged everyone to bring their menorahs and had a wonderful table of menorahs set up for everyone to enjoy the festive lights with!
However, the highlight of the evening was the amazing latkes and sufganiyot made by Chef Thijs (who’s Dutch) at Tacolicious! It was his first time making them and he did an amazing job! Everyone loved them and I enjoyed so many of them (along with a few tacos) throughout the evening!
I had a fantastic time celebrating with many of my friends (Hannah Maia, Heather, Shimi, Kate, Ilan, …) and fellow members of the Jewish community. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about being on the board and leading the high holiday services is that I feel like I’ve really become a vital part of the Jewish community and gotten to know and become friends with so many wonderful people within this community! I’m extremely grateful for this community and how it’s helped Shanghai feel like home!
Overall, It was so wonderful to have the Jewish community gather together to celebrate! Everyone had a fantastic time (from the kids to the adults). It felt really great to hear so much positive feedback from the community about the event. In total, we had about 110 people come, which was amazing! More importantly, everyone had plenty of latkes, sufganiyot, and gelt to enjoy! So, my first time organizing a party was clearly a success!
Now, just in case you think I didn’t think I celebrated on my own, here are photos from the first and third nights!
My weekend was further filled with Jewish activities on Sunday. At Tov, there was a really interesting adult education session led by one of the community members about his grandparents journey of being refugees following WWI and WWII. He traced his families journey from Galicia (in Poland) to being refugees in Sweeden following WWII. Afterwards, some of the other community members discussed their families stories of emigrating from Europe or being refugees following WWII.
Moreover, Kehilat Shanghai followed up there Channukkah celebrations at Tov with a cute Channukkah carnival (dreidel, menorah making, cookie decorating)! I even made a menorah out of mahjong tiles! I thought it’d be a nice memento of my time in China!
The Channukkah celebrations were wonderful this weekend! I know many of you were not able to celebrate or gather in the ways that you usually do. This makes me reflect on how grateful and thankful I am both for the Jewish community of Shanghai, but also to be in one of the few places where we were able to safely gather and celebrate together.
This was a fantastic week, filled with tons of Channukkah celebrations, delicious food, and even some research progress. This upcoming week, I’ll be back to the grind as I have 3 late night (11pm) DESI meetings about the secondary observing proposals (yes, we never did finish that). However, I also have some fun plans to look forward to next weekend as well! I hope that all of you also enjoy the rest of Channukkah!
I hope that you enjoyed seeing my Channukkah celebrations! If there’s anything you’re curious about with regards to my life in Shanghai, please let me know.
In peace,
Jesse
P.S. Here are the trivia answers. Let me know how you did!
TRIVIA
Category 1: Judaism and Food
- During Passover, Matzah is eaten instead of Bread, in order to be Kosher for Passover, matzah must be made in less than how many minutes?
- 18 minutes
- During Channukkah, fried foods are eaten to remind us of the miracle of the oil lasting 8 days. Some of the traditional foods include latkes and these jelly filled doughnuts?
- Sufganiyot
- During Purim, hamantaschen are traditionally eaten as we recall Queen Esther’s triumph over the wicked Haman. Traditional flavors include raspberry, apricot, chocolate, and this ingredient, more commonly associated with bagels?
- Poppyseed
- Each week for Shabbat, Challah is enjoyed. However, during this holiday, instead of the traditional long braided challah, the challahs are round, often including raisins.
- Rosh Hashanah
- The Passover Seder plate features charoset, matzah, and maror. Maror refers to something bitter. Traditionally, this vegetable is eaten, either sliced or grated.
- Horseradish
- The Yom Kippur fast is a primary observance of the holiday. Traditionally, how many hours does the fast last?
- 25 hours
- Rosh Hashanah celebrates the sweet new year. Often people enjoy apples dipped in honey and these sweet crescent shaped deserts filled with raspberry jam, nuts, raisins, and sometimes chocolate.
- Rugelach
- This traditional marbled bread desert can come in either chocolate or cinnamon flavors.
- Babka
- Nothing may be more traditional to see at any synagogue potluck than this dish that can be made either sweet or savory often featuring potatoes and carrots or noodles.
- Kugel
- As part of this holiday, celebrated 50 days after Passover and commemorating the giving of the Torah, people celebrate by indulging in dairy foods such as cheesecake and blintzes.
- Shavuot
Category 2: Things People are or were Thankful For
- In the United States, many democrats are currently thankful for the heroic efforts to engage and register voters in Georgia led by this former gubernatorial candidate.
- Stacy Abrams
- In Argentina, football fans remain thankful to this former player and coach whose miraculous “hand of god” led to Argentina’s 2nd world cup victory in 1986.
- Diego Maradona (RIP)
- In 13th century Japan, citizens were grateful for this aptly named wind storm that saved the Japanese from two separate Mongol fleets led by Kublai Khan.
- Kamikaze
- During the American Revolutionary War, many were thankful for a victory in this small town in upstate New York, which turned the tide of the revolution.
- Saratoga
- In 1969, American were grateful to have won the space race when these two Astronauts became the first men to land on the moon.
- Neil Armstrong
- Buzz Aldrin
- Europe was thankful in 1815 when Napoleon was defeated and exiled for the second time, this time to this small island off the coast of Africa.
- St. Helena
- In British folklore, the people of this town were grateful for the heroic thievery of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.
- Nottingham
- Many people are currently thankful for the two promising covid-19 vaccines that are being developed by these three companies.
- Moderna
- Pfizer
- AstraZeneca-Oxford
- The Ancient Hebrews were grateful for the military victory of Judah and the Maccabees over this group of people.
- Assyrians
- During World War II, soldiers were grateful for the heroic actions taken by many local fisherman and boaters to help rescue allied soldiers during this battle.
- Dunkirk
Another great blog, Jesse. Those latkes and sufganiyot look amazing. Showing my ignorance here, but are potatoes a staple in China? What were they made of if not potatoes (they can be made of many root vegetables but those look very potato-ey.
The party at Tacolicious looks fabulous. So many people and so many celebrating chanukah together. Reminds me that many, many years ago, I used to organize a chanukah party in Saratoga for the members of the Orthodox congregation (it was held in my home) but we bought sufganiyot and latkes – although I made all kinds of vegetarian dishes for the party.
Passports: Do you need a passport for all internal travel in China? If you do , is that because you are not a citizen or does everyone who travels (outside their district or canton (is that the term?) ?
A thought of politics: strikes me that those politicians who are claiming that Trump won should either present their evidence or be charged with sedition. There were violent protests last night (I read) in support of Trump and his claim that he is president …
Chag chanukah, same’ach.
Hi Bernard! Thanks! The latkes and sufganiyot were delicious! Potatoes, although not common in all types of Chinese food, are easily available in China. Generally, there the gold/yellow potatoes, not the red ones, though. Glad you enjoyed seeing the photos from the party!
In terms of passports, you’re understanding is mostly correct. I think that the reason I need a passport for internal travel is that it’s the only ID that they officially recognize. Chinese citizens have separate ID cards (similar to a drivers license). So, they don’t need a passport.
I totally agree with the charges of sedition. People need to understand that these actions of treason have consequences.
Hope you enjoy the last few nights of Channukkah!
Hi Jesse,
Happy Channukkah!!!! I’m so glad that you’ve been able to celebrate. I’m definitely a little envious that you’re able to celebrate with your friends. Your photos made me miss the Channukkah parties that Shelby used to host. Temple Sinai did a zoom service/celebration, but it’s not quite the same. Those sufganiyot and latkes look amazing! I love the aesthetic of Tacolicious and all of your Channukkah decorations. I’m so glad the party was a success and that you had so many attendees. I’m also glad to hear that the festivities didn’t just end there. Channukkah is 8 crazy nights after all. The mahjong tile menorah is really cool, too! I’m glad to hear that despite the party planning and passport renewal, that you still had a productive week. Did you ever come to a solution about the background measurement? Are you looking at ICL evolution in terms of any other high-z cluster properties (e.g., red sequence growth)? That might be an interesting companion analysis. I hope that your next week isn’t too tiring with all of the late night meetings and that the air quality improves. I hope you have another safe and productive week. Stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Hi Emmet! Thanks! Sorry you didn’t get to do much celebrating. Hopefully that’ll change next year! The latkes and sufganiyot were fantastic, some of the best I’ve had in a long time! I’m glad you enjoyed seeing all the payoff from my work putting together the party. I really liked the aesthetic, which kind of emphasizes the way the KS community exists, that we can squeeze Judaism into any space and make it work!
Sadly, we are still working on the background. That’s why we’re moving to mock simulations. I hadn’t thought of looking at ICL growth compared to red sequence growth. That could be interesting to do (though I’m unsure how redMaPPer is impacted at that redshift). Thankfully the air quality has already improved! Hope that you have a safe and healthy week!
Dear Jesse,
Of all your excellent posts, today’s is the most colorful. The Chanukah party in the Mexican restaurant really made for lively photographs, a mix of menorahs and gelt next to “Day of the Dead” memorabilia. Congrats on planning what seems to have been a terrific holiday celebration for all the members of the Jewish community in Shanghai, children and adults.
It was great fun to read the answers to your trivia questions. I gather there is an Ashkenazi slant to them because I have that lineage and was able to get them all right except the first on the amount of time to make matzah. But now I know, thanks to you. I got 7 of 10 right in the other category. Thanks for doing this in your posts. It was fun, and these days, we all need a little fun in the US.
Cases are rising, people are still going out without masks, and I fear that people will be celebrating for Christmas and Chanukah just as they did for Thanksgiving. We are not, of course. Whereas in the spring we did not know people who were sick, now many people in our area whom we know are coming down with Covid, and it is frightening.
Not much here to share. I am done with the semester and now doing some research on an early Victorian illustrator of birds named Jemima Blackburn, who influenced Beatrix Potter. And I am finalizing my class for next semester. I figured out a safe way to give my holiday jams by putting them in paper bags and leaving them in postboxes–contactless delivery. I wish I could send you some, too.
Please include some cats in your next post. Keep up the good work on your research. And I hope the passport office comes through quickly, so you can have those amazing holiday adventures. I also hope the pollution lessens, so you can have a few runs this week.
Much love and Happy Chanukah–we all need the light!
Mom
Thanks Mom! I’m really glad with how the party turned out! I’m glad you did so well on the trivia questions! There was an Ashkenazi slant to them. I’ll definitely post my questions the next time I write some.
I’m glad that you, Dad, and Emmet continue to stay smart and not go to out. You’re being smart, which not everyone we know is.
That’s so nice of you to send jam to all your students! I’m glad to hear that your semester went well! I hope your research also goes well.
I hope the passport comes through quickly as well (I’ll stay optimistic). The pollution is also fine now, so I’ll be back to running on Tuesday! I’ll let you know if I see any cats, but I can’t guarantee that. Hope you enjoy the rest of Channukkah!
Hey Jesse,
I hope you had a nice Chanukkah! It sounds like you had a great week modulo the pollution.
Agh, I did not do great on trivia (:
Silly of me about Neil Lance (:
Still, pretty fun!
Also, I have an interview offer from NTNU in Taipei! That’s happening in 9 days so luckily I have some time to prepare after this round of applications due on the 15th.
Did you apply to any jobs this year?
I hope you have another great week!
Hi Ryan! Thanks! It was a great week! And the pollution is now fine, so that’s good.
Sorry you didn’t do great at the trivia, maybe next time you’ll do better!
Congratulations on the interview at NTNU in Taipei!! Is that with Mateusz’s former postdoc, Karen? If you take the job, I’ll definitely come visit! I didn’t have any interviews (which was weird), but Emmet had a bunch. I’m sure he’d be happy to give you some advice. I decided not to apply for anything this year. I really haven’t accomplished enough and there’s a bunch more research I want to get done here first.
Hope you also have a great week and good luck on the interview!