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.
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Life in Shanghai
I hope that this latest post continues to find you, your friends, and your family staying safe and healthy. Regardless of whether you’ve been vaccinated or not, I hope that you continue to look out for everyone’s safety and follow social distancing practices. For those of you in the Northeast (particularly near NYC), I hope that you weren’t buried under too much snow this past week. Also, I know that many of you are either just starting or will be starting your spring semesters soon. Regardless of whether you are choosing to teach virtually or in person, I hope that you have a good semester and that you are able to actively engage with your students in a meaningful way. Moreover, I hope that as you all hit the heart of winter, as I mentioned last week, that you are finding activities to keep yourself mentally and physically active.
I haven’t discussed politics nearly as much since President Biden’s inauguration. Part of that is because there have been few crazy headlines that I see each day, which for me, and likely for all of you, is comforting. However, I do want to comment on some of the recent happenings in Washington D.C. I’m very happy that President Biden and the Democrats chose to move forward on the 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus bill, even without bipartisan support (it’s clear many Republicans only care about big business). Since I’m not an economist, I don’t have deep thoughts on this, but it does seem to be a clear recognition that despite the surges in the stock market (remember, as Kai Ryssdal constantly states, “the stock market is not the economy”), that many people are hurting as a result of the massive job losses that covid-19 has caused. So, I believe that getting more people and small businesses money will be beneficial for everyone in the long run.
Additionally, I do feel it’s necessary to discuss the absolutely abhorrent behavior by certain members of the Republican party, in particular one congresswoman from Georgia (who I will not even dignify by naming). While it is positive that certain members like Mitch McConnell have condemned her hate speech, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy theories, these actions come far too late. The fact that so few of the Republican Congressmen/women and Senators were willing to condemn that kind of rhetoric is further appalling. It’s very scary that so many of these politicans are so frightened of upsetting the racist Trump base, that they refuse to do what is right (or maybe they no longer recognize what is right). Clearly, this is the bed that the Republican party has made for themselves. Despite the optimism that I feel about the Biden presidency, it’s this kind of behavior that keeps me frightened about the political situation and the stability of the US going forward.
In terms of covid-19, the situation in China appears to be back under control. Many cities have enacted strict policies restricting visitors for Chinese New Year (or requiring covid-19 tests and quarantines). Moreover, the outbreaks of locally transmitted cases (all seem to have stemmed from imported frozen food) have decreased over the past few weeks. Currently, in Shanghai, there are 128 active cases (22 local) with a recovery rate of 92.2%. In Beijing, there are 51 cases, and the recovery rate is 94.26%. For China as a whole, there are 1,844 active cases and the recovery rate is 93.4%.
Overall, this was a fairly productive week. I spent most of the week working on a variety of my projects. I’ve been spending time finishing most of the revisions on my Dark Energy Survey Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation paper, hoping to wrap that up this month. I’ve also spent a bit of time figuring out how to build my own mock galaxy catalog (still a lot to do on that end) for my Luminosity Function analysis. Additionally, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to measure the Intra-cluster light, the faint/diffuse light that surrounds bright galaxies as part of my DES-ACT high-redshift analysis. Lastly, I wanted to let you all know that my Secondary Observing proposal, to create a spectroscopically complete sample of BCGs in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey was accepted and will start to be observed during the initial stages of DESI! It’s the first proposal that I’ve lead and written, so I’m excited to get to work on that with collaborators both here in Shanghai and abroad!
As I noted last week, one benefits of working from home is that it’s allowed me to go for five runs again this week! Plus, it’s been quite warm. This weekend, temperatures reached into the 70s! So, what was a very short and mild winter in Shanghai may be over. Below you can see some of the cool Chinese New Years decorations and other things that I’ve seen around Shanghai this week!
Additionally, much to my surprise, SJTU, the university where I work, continues to send me more and more snacks as part of their efforts to help me and others celebrate Chinese New Year! This time, I received a box full of all kinds of dried fruits, nuts, tea, and dried mushrooms! So, I’ll have plenty of snacks to tide me over for the next couple of weeks!
Jewish Life in Shanghai
This weekend, all my fun activities were spent with the Moishe House Community. On Friday Night, Moishe House hosted a Chinese New Year themed Shabbat! My favorite part of this was that we got to make jiaozi! For those of you who know even less Chinese than I do (though I am happy to say that I’ve kept up learning every day for the past 4 months), jiaozi are Chinese dumplings. While we didn’t make the wrappers, we did fill them ourselves by hand. I helped fill the vegetarian (scallion and egg) and vegan (tofu, vermicelli, carrot, scallion) dumplings, which were really tasty!
For my first time doing it, I had a lot of fun, and did a pretty good job! If you’ve never filled dumplings, the process is relatively simple. You start by taking the wrappers and placing a spoon full of filling in the center. Then you wet the edges and fold it in half. Next, you tightly seal the wrapper. Lastly, you make different folded patterns on the edges. These were then boiled, but they can also be steamed or stir-fried. I look forward to doing it again!
While it may seem weird to celebrate Shabbat by enjoying traditional Chinese food, I really enjoy how both the Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House communities embrace the aspects of being in China (and their Chinese members) at their different events, both culturally and culinarily. 🙂
Additionally, on Sunday, I spent the afternoon hanging out with my friends at Moishe House during their monthly bagel brunch! Even being in China, it’s still really comforting to enjoy a bagel with friends. 🙂 Throughout the course of the weekend, I had plenty of discussions with my friends about topics ranging from different vegan recipes and egg substitutes, to TV shows that some of us all watch (this time Prodigal Son and His Dark Materials), to more academic topics like Economics and Astronomy!
One of my other favorite parts of the weekend was that I got to play with some of my favorite pets! Pina is adorable as always and I got to see Daniel’s kitten Osiris (4 months old), who’s much bigger than the last time I saw him!
Overall, this was both a productive and enjoyable week. With the Chinese New Year Holiday coming up next week (Friday the 12th), I’m hoping to have a couple of very productive days of working from home. However, I’m sure I’ll have some fun activities to share with you all next week. For anyone celebrating the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival, I hope that you and your family have a lovely celebration.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week, seeing the photos from jiaozi making, and seeing the pictures of Pina and Osiris. If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!
In peace,
Jesse
Dear Jesse,
This was another enjoyable post with so many lovely pictures. I am impressed by the jiaozi you made together. And thank you for explaining how you made them, too. It is great to know that you are continuing your daily study of Chinese. And you seem to be making excellent progress on your revisions for your DES Stellar Mass Halo Mass paper. Congratulations too on the success with writing a proposal and getting it accepted. It seems like SJTU has been a great fit academically. And how kind that you have received so many snacks, too.
Finally, it is a treat to see Osiris growing up and Pina as cute as ever! How wonderful to have 70 degree weather. Here it is very cold and snowy! I made vegan challah with your recipe, and I think it turned out well for a first attempt. I am not eligible yet for a vaccine, so I continue social distancing and wearing two masks now. I also have a face shield to put on when I go into stores. I started classes, and I really like the students and the energy. But yesterday tragically one of the students in my class whom I have taught for the past four semesters unexpectedly passed away. I am very sad and know it will be hard to teach the class without her. I plan to dedicate our class exhibit in her memory.
I hope you have a good week ahead. Will you celebrate Valentine’s Day in China? I have put together treat bags for many of my friends’ children I am fond of. Wish I could send one to you! And I am giving a talk online for the British Empire Research group on Thursday on Zoom in the coming of the Penny Post.
Have a good week and know how much Dad, Emmet, and I miss you. Love you,
Mom
Hi Mom! Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed learning about how jiaozi are made! SJTU has been a great fit. Hopefully I’ll be able to turn more of the research progress into tangible papers soon.
I’m glad you enjoyed seeing Pina and Osiris! I hope the winter hasn’t been too harsh for you. I’m glad to hear that the challah came out well! I’m also glad to hear that you’re continuing to wear your mask and shield.
I’m so sorry to hear about your students passing. I’m sure this will be very difficult for you and your students to deal with. It is very nice that you plan to honor her memory by dedicating the exhibit to her.
I don’t think I’ll be doing anything for valentines day. I do have some tentative plans for Chinese New Year though. I hope that your talk on the Penny post goes well! I love and miss you all.
Hi Jesse,
Congratulations on your DESI proposal! Do you know, will you get priority access to the data, or will it be released as part of the large data releases? Either way, that’s still great for your science. Bill Forman raised an interesting question to Taweewat at last week’s CfA talk on the frequency of bluer BCGs, so that might be something to look at (though I can’t remember if your sample self selects for red BCGs). Also, do you know when the observations will happen? That’s awesome that you could go running! I really enjoyed seeing all of the decorations! Do you have any plans for Chinese New Year? The jiaozi looks amazing! Did you guys make/serve any dipping sauces with them? Also, how did you cook them? I’m partial to steamed dumplings. I’m so glad you were able to have fun with your friends at Moishe house this weekend! Both events sound great and I love seeing pictures of Pina and Osiris. They are both really cute! I hope you have another productive week and continue to stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Thanks Emmet! I’m not sure who gets priority right away (I think we do)? I’ll get back to you on that. Looking at bluer BCGs could be interesting, though one difficulty is that many cluster finders assume a red BCG (redMaPPer does, but I don’t think the Yang catalog does–there’s a DESI version). So, that’s definitely something that would be interesting to look at. The observations are part of the SV/Y1 (though realistically, we will likely need to apply for more, since once the observing strategy is more complete, we’ll be able to adjust our completeness estimates), so it should be in 2021.
I’m glad you’re enjoying seeing all the decorations. I like how so many of the buildings have the lanterns and signs. I do have some plans with friends for Chinese New Year parties! I’m glad you liked the jiaozi! We can definitely do that when you’re here. We boiled them. For a dipping sauce, I used soy sauce, vinegar, and some spicy sauce. I liked steamed the best as well though. I’m glad you liked seeing Pina and Osiris! Hope you also have a healthy and productive week!
Thanks for your blog, Jesse. Dark energy? Is this viewed (sic) as solid as dark matter? Is dark energy being used to explain … what? the acceleration of the galaxies?
The GOP looks to have lost its way completely. Greene was elected and was not censured by her Republican “colleagues” for her racist and Jew hating screeds but Cheney was castigated by her state party for calling out Trump as an inciter of the riot that ransacked the Capitol. Having lost its way does not mean that they are finished: my fear is that they will become a new fascist populist party that dismisses truth and evidence in favor of delighting a group of supporters who feel they were at one time at the top of the heap but now are forgotten and disenfranchised. And the irony is that those White supremacists were never anywhere near the heap, never mind the top. They were just encouraged to step on, trample and graft from those with even less privilege and power. Personally, I am at a loss to imagine how to really resolve this: half of me wants to dismiss them as beyond the pale – folk that Marx referred to as the lumpen proletariat, people who would break strikes and side with the powerful against the people – and half of me thinks we must engage with them to show that while they have not been disenfranchised and forgotten they need to side with the truly wretched and not with their would be “masters”.
Friday begins the New Year? It is also the second day of the new month of Adar and Adar is viewed as a month of joy and happiness and fun.. because it is also the month when Purim occurs.
Dumplings: I have this idea in the back of my mind that the skills used in making dumplings are considered important skills in terms of marriageability… I think I understood that from watching a Chinese American movie made many years ago. Wish I could remember its name (I think it is Chinese for “everything” (a bit like “cholent” or “tzimmes” in Jewish cooking.
Stay well. Stay safe. Expecting another Npr’easter in NYC today and one was forecast for Saratoga too (the same one, but in the last few hours they seem to have reduced the warning for us here in 12866 (I left NYC last night to avoid the storm and I do not like night driving on the Taconic).
Thanks Bernard! Dark Energy is not solid dark matter, but you are on the right track about it accelerating galaxies. Dark energy is the repulsive force of the universe. Gravity is the attracting force. Dark energy is what causes the universe to be currently expanding.
I completely agree with you about the behaviour of Republicans towards Cheney as opposed to Greene. I agree with you that I also fear that they are moving very much toward a fascist/white supremacist party. I totally agree with you about the false reality that those people live in. That many continue to not recognize how the system has favorable benefited white people is very troubling. I agree with you about not knowing what to do. My own fear is that many of these people refuse to be engaged in a civil manner and that it just ends up being people yelling.
That’s a nice coincidence between the Chinese New Year and Purim. 🙂 They are both lunar calendars, so I wonder how frequently that occurs. I think you are right about dumpling skills (and cooking skills) being traditional skills needed for marriageability in China.
I hope that you didn’t end up with too much more snow in either Saratoga or NYC. Glad you missed the last storm. Hope you have a safe and healthy week.
Great to hear about the DESI proposal! Well done. I do enjoy anything stuffed in a dough-like substance and steamed, baked or fried. Empanadas, polish pierogi, chinese jiaozi, japanese gyoza, italian ravioli….
Thanks Chris!! If you’re interested in getting involved, let me know!
I agree with you about enjoying any stuffed dough! I haven’t tried gyoza, yet, but hopefully once things recover I’ll be able to go visit Japan!
Congrats on the observing proposal Jesse! I hope you enjoyed the dumplings and that you have another good week!
Thanks Ryan!! The dumplings were great! Hope you also have another safe and healthy week!
Jiaozi Making! Your words about it reminded me of the days when my mom would make them. She made the wrappers by hand, stuffed around 100+ with ground pork, scallions and carrot by crimping each one and then cooked them in boiling water. She had to make sure that they didn’t boil to long so as to keep things moving in our not so big pot. Judy and I are going to celebrate Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day this weekend by making jiaozi stuffed vegetables. Will perhaps get some Chinese desserts to top off our weekend celebration. Happy New Year!!! What a disappointing Super Bowl; wanted Patrick and KC to win. Lowest viewership since 2007. Keren
Thanks Uncle Keren! I’m glad my description of Jiaozi making brought back memories of your Mom making them! I’m sure they must have been delicious. I’m glad to hear that you and Aunt Judy will be celebrating by making some as well! Hope you both have a Happy Lunar New Year!
I completely agree with you about the Super Bowl. I was rooting for the Chiefs, and it didn’t help that the game was so mediocre. Though the experience of watching it at breakfast is also so different than what I’m used to.