Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for supporting my blog and for your interest in my adventures (both culinary and life) living in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to keep many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope this blog highlights that once the world begins to recover, things will improve, and you should treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.
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Life in Shanghai
I hope that this update continues to find you, your family, and your friends all staying safe and healthy. I’m sure that as the temperatures have warmed up, many of you are finding it more difficult to continue to stay at home. I encourage all of you to remain vigilant. Please continue to wear masks when you go outside and to social distance. Based on what I’ve heard from those of you who’ve written in, it comforts me to hear that many of you are taking a cautious approach. Hopefully things will slowly improve over the next two months (assuming people continue to wear masks and social distance).
As the outbreak and recovery(?) has continued in both the US and Europe, I hope that you are all doing your best to maintain a positive attitude even in these difficult times. While my experience here in Shanghai has been remarkably different from your own, I understand and empathize with the difficulties and fears that many of you are facing. The best advice that I can offer you is to try to find small enjoyments (either virtually or with your loved ones) to do each week. I know that for me, when things were at the worst here, I treasured getting coffee with friends, going for runs or walks, or chatting with friends and family on FaceTime back in the US. I hope you are able to do some of these same activities.
In Shanghai, things have mostly returned to normal. The schools and prevalence of masks are the primary differences. Most secondary and elementary schools are starting to bring students back to school (it runs through July). However, SJTU (and other universities) are still closed. My research supervisor, Prof. Ying Zu, has started to go in to the office a few times per week, so likely over the next couple weeks, I’ll start to return to the office on a limited basis. The primary reason I don’t want to go in/am recommended not to go in frequently is because I have to take public transportation for an hour to get to work.
The statistics have continued to maintain/improve. We are now in the period of very small number statistics. There are only 8 remaining active cases in Shanghai and just 3 in Beijing. The recovery rate in Shanghai is up to 97.7% and in China the rate is up to 94.4%. Given that China is ~ 6 months out from the outbreak of covid-10, these numbers are very encouraging and highlight how successful social distancing, quarantining, and stay at home orders can be. There have been a very small number of new cases each week; however, all of those are imported cases. So, I think a lot of the fear of a second outbreak is related to when China will reopen its borders.
After an exhausting week of my DES conference, this was a much needed quieter research week. I spent most of my time working on my measurements of the Luminosity Function and am very close to having the desired results for the 2nd of two plots I’m hoping to reproduce! I also spent time working to revise my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation. Additionally, we also had another successful week of AstroCoffee presentations as well as my normal Zu Group meetings.
As I’ve mentioned, one of the things I’ve enjoyed during the covid-19 pandemic is the opportunity to talk to my friends and family more! On Monday morning (Sunday night in the US), my Mom organized a Zoom family reunion for members of her side of the family. It was great catching up and seeing many family members I hadn’t seen in years!
Like most weeks, I did a lot of running! I went for 4 runs this week. Thankfully, it was suprisingly cool on a few days (in the 60s/70s, which felt so amazing after days in the 90s), so, I had to take advantage of the cooler weather and go for some long runs!
While I didn’t get any great pictures of the flowers here in Shanghai this week, I did see a lot of other cool buildings,statues, and advertisements!
My personal favorites this week were the cat statues and the statue of the panda! As many of you know, I love pandas!
While this may not be as exciting to you, I ordered (successfully) from Taobao for the first time! Taobao is basically the Chinese Amazon. Although I have used the English version (which doesn’t have everything) frequently, successfully navigating the Chinese App (with some help from Shimi), which has no English was a big success! I ordered some delicious tempeh, which I turned into fajitas!
My other social interactions were food or Jewish related, so I’ll be posting the pictures and descriptions there!
Food in Shanghai
I had some fantastic and delicious meals this week! On Tuesday, I got dinner and ice cream with my friend Heather! We went to one of my favorite Chinese vegetarian restaurants! It’s been a while since I’ve gone to this restaurant and I really enjoyed getting to peruse the menu (on a tablet) and have so many options!
Heather and I had a got sword beans (which are amazing and a must try when in China!), spicy tofu, gluten (similar to seitan) with bamboo and mushrooms, and spring vegetables (okra, carrots, and baby corn!). My two favorites were the sword beans and the gluten! We also got gelato. I got coconut and strawberry with chocolate chips!
On Sunday, Heather and Shimi hosted a fantastic and delicious vegan potluck! There was so much amazing food. Thanks to Shimi for many of the mouthwatering photos (i.e., he took the artistic ones)! I think you’ll all be licking your lips after seeing the amazing spread! Heather made a jackfruit and mushroom bbq sandwich, I made tempeh fajitas, and we had delicious chinese style eggplant, pesto pasta, as well as salsas, tahini sauce, and peanut sauce! Heather also made homemade vegan coconut-peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream! If not for the stimulating conversations, all of this fantastic food would have put me into a food coma!
As you can tell, the food was undoubtedly fantastic! I want to thank Heather and Shimi for hosting such a fun afternoon! It was so great gathering together in a largish group and having conversations ranging from politics, academia, the current situation in the US, to international shipping, and economics! It’s events like these, getting together with new and old friends, that have helped mark how Shanghai has recovered from covid-19! Additionally, I’m so grateful to Heather and Shimi for being such supporting, inviting, and loving friends! I can’t emphasize enough how much more I’ve grown to enjoy my life here in Shanghai thanks to the two of you!
In addition to the amazing food you saw above, I did a ton of other cooking this weekend. I made Potato Kugel (for Moishe House’s Shavuout Shabbat), Buffalo chickpea burgers, roasted carrots and chickpeas, as well as Israeli salad. So, clearly this will be another week of great eating!
Jewish Life in Shanghai
On Friday, Moishe House hosted a Shavout Shabbat! Shavuot is a harvest holiday, which for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, people eat lots of dairy. Since I try to keep a mostly vegan diet, this concept is a little tricky. So I decided to make the Jewish staple, a potato kugel. This was my first attempt at a kugel and thankfully it was a hit!
I can’t talk about Moishe House without sharing a photo of Lucky, the dog the residents are fostering. She’s adorable and friendly, and makes going to Moishe House even more fun!
Another part of Shavuot is that many people spend 24 hours studying. As part of this, Moishe House international did a 24 hour Zoom learning session. I joined for the session led by my friend Hannah Maia. She gave a very interesting and informative talk on the history of Jews in Shanghai, which really helped to contextualize a lot of the history that I’ve previously learned on the walking tours with Historic Shanghai.
This was a very enjoyable week, filled with an assortment of fantastic meals and even better conversations. I’m so fortunate to have met so many interesting people through Moishe House, Kehilat Shanghai, and friends like Heather and Shimi. I’ve now been in Shanghai for 8 months, and it’s really nice that my social circle is expanding! While I’m sure some of you are jealous that I can see people in person, I hope that you all realize just how much you’ll enjoy it when you can. Prior to the lockdown, I know I didn’t enjoy these experiences as much as I do now!
I hope that this update about my culinary adventures, life, and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai gives you optimism that things will improve wherever you are and also makes you hungry! This upcoming week should be fairly normal. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.
In peace,
Jesse
Hi Jesse, I’m so glad you were able to be social and see people this week! I really enjoyed the zoom family reunion, though I’m a bit jealous of your ability to have actual get together SZ and dinners! The vegan BBQ looks like quite a feast! I’m so glad it was a ton of fun. Your dinner with Heather at the vegan restaurant looks amazing, too! It also sounds like you had a fun Shavuot, too! That was a very cute picture of Lucky! Congrats on using taobao! I’m glad your research is coming along nicely, too. I really like all the statues and advertisements you take pictures of. They all look so fun and whimsical! I really liked the butterflies, cats, and the panda! I’m glad life is returning to normal and people are staying healthy! Have a great and productive week and stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Hi Emmet! I’m sure you’ll be able to see friends soon (hopefully before you leave Boston). The food was all fantastic! I’m glad you like the statues and advertisements. Maybe it’s just the transition from being in Ann Arbor to Shanghai, but I’m still amazed by all the cool, unique, and fun things I see! I hope that you also have a safe and healthy week!
Hi, Jesse.
This is a very enjoyable post! I am touched that you gave a shout out to our family reunion and included the Zoom photo. It was really fun to get so many of the relatives on my side together to catch up and to play a game.
You certainly had a very social week full of good food and friendships. Like Emmet, I love the cat and butterfly statues. Lucky is an adorable and friendly-looking dog, too. And it is always good to learn that you are making progress on your research and that soon you will be able to return to the SJTU campus on occasion and actually see your mentor, Ying, in person.
When you note that this is your 8th month in Shanghai, I realize I have not seen you in 8 months! I hope that in 2021 it will be safe for you to come to the US for a visit or a visit combined with a conference. But in the meantime, keep enjoying your life in your new home.
Love,
Mom
Hi Mom! I’m glad you enjoyed the post! I’m glad that you enjoyed seeing the different statues and Lucky. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out/make a plan for when I’ll return to the office soon. It does feel weird to have not seen you, Dad, and Emmet in 8 months. I hope that things improve in the coming year so I can come home and visit and you can visit me! I hope you and Dad have a safe and healthy week!
Thanks , as always, Jesse, for the lovely shots of points of interest in Shanghai and the photos of food. The statues of cats and cats and people project a very people friendly public art – not political or military figures.
You suggest that gluten is different from seitan and so I wonder in what ways that it might be. The seitan I am familiar with is made from wheat gluten so is the gluten you refer to made from a different grain?
The Jewish World (published in Albany) ran a small story on Moishe House and mentioned MH in Shanghai. The focus of the story was that for the first time over Shavuot MH was planning to connect people via the web (Zoom, I think) and that MH admin people were really excited about that and that they intended to continue to use the web as an additional link for those interested in being involved.
As to why Shavuot is associated with dairy, I think there may be two reasons. The first is that this is a spring festival and in an agricultural setting cows and goats would be producing milk to feed their young and so milk would now be available as a fresh food in ways that it would not have been before calving or giving birth to kids. The second reason is that there is an idea that Shavuot being also the festival associated with the receiving of the Torah meant that when the Torah was given with restrictions on which animals were considered kosher and how they were to be slaughtered for food the people would have been unable to immediately prepare and eat meat and so they ate cheese and other dairy foods. At least that is one idea that was promulgated by the Rabbis. So in many ways Shavuoth is a festival skewed more towards vegetarians or at least dairy meals.
I won’t say anything about the protests that are sweeping the US at the moment and the administration’s crass response to the fear and anger that is felt by so many over the callous disregard for the life of African- Americans by those sworn to uphold the law and safety and peace of all people. Except, that if this President wanted to make America great as it once may have been , by his own estimation, he certainly succeeded in making it like it was in the ’60s when the national guard was called in to quell similar protests in many states and numerous cities.
Hi Bernard, I’m Heather, Jesse’s friend in Shanghai. Thanks for the fascinating explanation on the foods of Shavuot. We had wonder why dairy over dinner on Tues, so thanks for educating me! The first one makes a lot of sense. Could you explain further the second reason. It’s not clear to me why the giving of the Torah would mean that Shavuot skews towards dairy based dishes.
Hi Bernard! I’m glad you enjoyed seeing this side of Shanghai. I think the city projects very friendly. There are some statues of historical figures (like Marx and Engles), but the only time I see anything that’s militaristic is when I run by some of the consulates. I believe gluten is very similar to seitan. I think it’s texture is slightly different though. It’s a bit softer and stringier. I don’t recall seeing the exact comparison in the US, though. That’s cool that you saw an article about the Moishe House. I think that’s the virtual event I attended!
I completely agree with you about the situation in the US. It’s very worrisome and being here is frustrating that seemingly every day I wake up to more distressing news.
Thanks so much for explaining why we eat dairy on shavuot! Like Heather’s comment below, I was a little confused about the second reason. Was it that they wanted to celebrate or make an offering right away and hadn’t yet learned which meats were kosher?
It looks like you had a nice week. Thanks so much for the photo of Lucky! The silver statue was also quite cool! I hope you have another good week Jesse 🙂
Thanks Ryan! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and picture of Lucky! I hope that you also have another good and healthy week!