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 throughout the US, 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 after a recovery from covid-19 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.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry finds all of you and your family and friends safe and healthy. Following the inauguration of President Biden and Vice-President Harris, I hope that many of you feel hope and also somewhat less stressed due to having mature and responsible leadership. Additionally, with now having an administration that recognizes the seriousness of covid-19, I hope that all of you will continue to take it seriously and stay safe.

To begin this entry, I want to talk about the inauguration. Though I didn’t stay up to watch it, I did watch many of the speeches from the event. Personally, I found President Biden’s speech to be calming and reassuring (something that has been sorely lacking the past four years). I was most impressed by Amanda Gorman’s incredible poem (definitely watch it if you haven’t). My primary takeaway was hope. While I recognize that there is a lot that America as a country and a people need to fix, I feel that having an administration that is willing to acknowledge these problems (racial inequality, social justice, economic inequality, police violence) and not fan the flames of white supremacy will help move our country in the right direction. I hope that many of you feel some belief that with the Biden-Harris administration able to safely and peacefully assume leadership that we are on a path towards a better tomorrow.

I also want to reflect on how the inauguration was reacted to in China. Most of my friends here are very liberal, so many of us were celebrating the inauguration by sharing photos on Facebook and WeChat. However, I also spoke with my colleagues about it (a lot of them went to grad school in the US). Many were happy that America seems to have stable leadership again and expressed optimism that many the US-China tensions will lessen and maybe the trade war will end. Even my Chinese dentist said that she was happy with the new administration. However, there is a clear sense that America can no longer treat China as lesser (as evidenced by the results of the trade war). Moreover, reading news articles here, it is clear that China is happier with the new administration partially because of the volatility and scapegoating of the Trump administration. If you are unaware, many members of the Trump administration were banned from both entering China and having business relations in China on the day of President Biden’s inauguration.

To switch gears back to covid-19, this was a mildly concerning week. There continue to be new cases of covid-19 in Hebei (up north) near Beijing. These cases are believed to have come from contaminated frozen food products shipped in from abroad. Much of that region remains on lockdown (the snow and ice festivals in Harbin were closed) and people are being advised not to travel for Chinese New Year. Moreover, there have even been 9 local cases of covid-19 in Shanghai, though the origin remains unclear. Thankfully these cases aren’t in the neighborhood that I live in, but this has forced the city to become very vigilant and many cities (including Shanghai) are requiring quarantines and a covid-19 test before entering the city. While this is worrisome, the neighborhoods where the infected people live have been locked down and the residents have been tested as a result of extensive contact tracing. While this may seem extreme, it is comforting how seriously the city is taking covid-19. In terms of statistics, Shanghai currently has 111 cases with a recovery rate of 92.8%. Beijing has 51 cases with a recovery rate of 94.5% and China as a whole has a recovery rate of 92.4%. It’s important to note that even when the virus under control, because vaccines are not yet widespread, it’s still possible for outbreaks to pop up. So, please remain vigilant and follow social distancing practices. Also, in response to this, I’ll be wearing a mask when I go out (and gloves) as well as carrying hand sanitizer. Additionally, many large events have been postponed, though smaller gatherings are okay.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week. I’ve spent most of my week working on making my edits and starting some of the additional analysis (based on referee suggestions) for my Dark Energy Survey Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation Evolution paper. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get most of the analysis done this week. Additionally, I’ve spent a lot of time working on the mock Luminosity function and I’ve now successfully measured the different versions of the Luminosity Function, though we’re still interpreting the results. So, even though the university is on break, there is a lot of really interesting Astronomy that I’m working on!

This was another warm week! I got to go for two runs with my new sneakers (it’s really hard to get size 12.5 shoes here)! I’m excited to break them in more this upcoming week. 🙂 Here’s some of what I’ve seen around the city. You can start to see the Chinese New Year’s decorations popping up around town!

This was a very fun and social week for me.

On Monday, Hannah Maia, Clem, and I organized another anti-racism discussion to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We had a fantastic discussion focusing on topics related to Dr. King’s legacy, whether the current social justice movements need a unifying figure, as well as our thoughts and reactions regarding the recent domestic terrorism in D.C., and our hopes for the new Biden-Harris administration. Mostly, it was wonderful to gather and discuss some of these topics in an open environment with friends.

As part of the event, we all selected some of Dr. King’s many quotes that we found powerful. Prior to this, I wasn’t aware how much Dr. King spoke about topics related to science and socialism. However, that only made me respect and value his opinion more. So, I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes with you.

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House hosted another fantastic Trivia night! I wrote three rounds of questions (shared at the end)! We had 30 people come, our best turnout yet! Overall, it was a great night of fun questions, though my Astronomy questions may have been a bit too hard!

The highlight of this week was on Sunday, when Hannah Maia, Cathie (who went to Harbin with us), and I gathered to make tons of jam! We made four batches! Two batches of dongbei pear jam (from northern China) and two batches of strawberry (from Shanghai — likely a greenhouse)! This was Cathie’s first time making jam, so it was a lot of fun to introduce her to the wonderful world of jam making!

As you can see, we had some delicious looking fruit! Interestingly, the high quality strawberries are individually packaged, quite different from what we get in the US!

We then turned this delicious fruit into some fantastic jam!

After making all this amazing jam (and making a little bit of a mess in my kitchen), we filled 58 jars with delicious homemade jam! We’re all planning to give some of it away as Chinese New Year’s presents! Hence, why the entry is called Chinese New Year Jam and why we made so much! 🙂 Don’t worry though, I’ll still have plenty for my PB&J sandwiches!

As you can see, we had a fantastic afternoon and made some delicious jam! Making so much jam at once brought back such fond memories of helping my Mom make jam during the summer growing up (I always loved eating from the jam pot). I’m so grateful that she taught me how to make jam and that I’m able to make it with my friends here!

Food in Shanghai

For Monday’s MLK Day discussion, we had some delicious food. I had fantastic cauliflower, miso roasted eggplant, and brussel sprouts!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, I joined members of the Kehilat Shanghai community for a lovely family Shabbat! Even though I don’t have a family here in Shanghai, I always enjoy the opportunity to join with the families here to celebrate Shabbat. It’s really allowed me to get to know so many wonderful members of the community better. I’m always thankful for the opportunity to participate and be included within this part of the community!

On Sunday, Kehilat Shanghai organized a guided tour of the newly renovated Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum. This is the third time I’ve visited the museum. However, this time we had a guided English tour, which helped me better understand the narrative of how the museum was setup. The museum tells the story of how Jews came to Shanghai, both prior to WWII and during WWII. The museum also focuses on the experience of Jews who lived in Hongkou, the ghetto where Jews (and other stateless refugees) were forced to live during the Japanese occupation. The museum focuses a lot on the relationship between Jews and the Shanghai citizens as well as the personal stories and narratives of the many Jews who lived in Shanghai. Here you can see some of the visual highlights of my visit.

One of the most powerful portions of the museum is the wall of names of all of the Jewish Refugees who came through Shanghai. While I don’t believe that any of my close relatives came to Shanghai to flee the Nazis, I did find others with the last name Marx, and Posmantir, similar to my grandmother’s last name Posmanteur.

If any of you have relatives who escaped persecution by fleeing to Shanghai, let me know and I’m happy to look for their name for you.

I really enjoyed getting to spend time in the museum. The renovations are amazing and the narrative of the Jewish story is clearly displayed throughout the museum. I look forward to returning and spending more time with some of the exhibits to learn more about the Jewish history of Shanghai!

Overall, this was a very full week filled with fun activities with friends as well as some real world events. This upcoming week will be a little quieter; however, I’m sure there will be some fun stories to share with you all next time!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week as well as seeing my Jam making and exploring the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum! If there’s anything you would like to know about my life in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,
Jesse

TRIVIA

Introductory Astronomy

1). At the Center of the MW is Sagitarius A*, which is a what?

2). These two dwarf galaxies, seen in the Southern Hemisphere, are the Milky Way’s nearest neighbors

3). In ~ 4 billion years, the Milky Way will merge with this other massive nearby galaxy?

4). When the sun dies in ~ 5 billion years, it will explode as a Planetary nebulae. However, the core will remain as this type of star?

5). To the nearest 1 billion years, how old is the Universe?

6). In the MW, the hottest type of stars are what color?

7). How long does it take light to travel from the sun to the earth?

8). Which phase of the moon is in between a waxing and waning gibbous?

9). Which Astronomer used the earliest telescopes to discover that Jupiter has moons?

10). What is most of the Universe made up of?
A. Dark Matter
B. Dark Energy
C. Normal (Baryonic) Matter

City Statistics

Choose the city that describes the prompt.

1). Which was the last city to host either the summer or Winter Olympics?
A – Beijing
B – Tokyo
C – Sochi
D – Rio de Janeiro

2). Which city has the largest metropolitan area population?
A – Tokyo
B – Shanghai
C – Mexico City
D – Delhi

3). Which city has the highest elevation?
A- Denver
B- Mexico City
C- Addis Ababa
D- Nairobi

4). Which city has the most top 200 Universities?
A – London
B- Paris
C – Berlin
D – New York

5). Which Capital City is farthest North?
A – Helsinki
B – Oslo
C – Moscow
D – Talinn

6). Which city has the tallest building?
A – Dubai
B- Shanghai
C- Taipei
D- New York City

7). Which city has the most skyscrapers?
A- Shenzhen
B- New York City
C- Hong Kong
D- Shanghai

8). Which city has the highest percentage of public green space?
A- Moscow
B- Singapore
C-Sydney
D-Vienna

9). Which city has the most Michelin starred restaurants?
A- Tokyo
B- Kyoto
C- Osaka
D- Paris

10). Which US city has the most professional major league (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) sports teams?
A). Salt Lake City
B). Buffalo
C). Kansas City
D). Tampa Bay

Statues and Sculptures

1). Much to the disappointment of Trump, there are only 4 presidents on Mount Rushmore, name them.

2). While not Michaelangelo’s most famous biblically inspired sculpture, this sculpture, located in the Church of San Pietro in Rome depicts this biblical figure with horns of light emanating from his head.

3). Located in Xi’an, the Terracotta warriors were sculptures depicting the armies of Xin She Huang. Who was he?

4). Though now in Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty was originally supposed to be in this location?

5). Standing tall in Brazil, Christ the Redeemer is located in what city?

6). Located in Fuxing park (in Shanghai), is a statue of these two communist thinkers?

7). In Burbank, California, there is now a statue of this superhero?

8). Located in Copenhagen is a bronze statue of this fictional character created by Hans Christian Andersen?

9). Recently, in Japan, headlines were made when a moveable full size version of a robot/machine from what anime franchise was displayed?

10). Although best known for his sculpture the Thinker, one of August Rodin’s other well known sculptures, which incorporates the thinker, depicts the opening scene of Dante’s Inferno. Name this sculpture.