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 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