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, avoiding large gatherings, and 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.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you safe, happy, and most importantly healthy. Even though this has been a unique and different holiday season, I hope that you have still taken the time to relax and do something fun. More importantly, I hope that you are all continuing to take covid-19 and the dangers associated with it very seriously.

Before I discuss my week, I want to begin by saying how disappointed I remain in the general attitude and behavior of Americans with respect to the covid-19 pandemic. While I know many of you are remaining at home and are continuing to isolate and stay socially distant, based on what I’ve seen on Facebook and heard about from my family, that is not the case with most of America. I remain incredibly frustrated by the fact that Americans continue to act selfishly by traveling and gathering in large groups. Americans as a whole seem unable to recognize the sacrifices that are needed for the greater good. Given the dramatic rise in increase of covid-19 cases after Thanksgiving, I had hoped that this would not continue to be the case. Moreover, if there was ever a year to not travel to be with loved ones and to remain home and connect virtually, this was it. However, based on what I’ve seen, far too many people failed to follow the CDC recommendations and I believe that the number of cases will continue to skyrocket in the US in the coming weeks. While there’s little I can do, I will emphasize again that the only reason China was able to avoid the catastrophic outbreaks that exist in the US was that the government shut the country down and people wore masks and followed social distancing practices.

While I know a lot of the lackadaisical attitude toward covid-19 exists because people are being selfish and not recognizing the dangers, I think the continued absence of moral leadership from the Republican Senate and current President have only further worsened the situation. Whether it’s the inability to agree to provide more than $600 (which is chump change and in my opinion far more should be and already have been provided) or to extend rent relief and other social benefits, it is clear that the Republican party has a total absence of moral leadership and general morality. So, if you are a Georgia voter or know Georgia voters, please encourage them to vote.

In terms of the covid-19 situation in China, the situation remains under control. There has been a minor outbreak in one of the districts in Beijing, similar to what happened in Shanghai a few weeks ago. However, unlike in the US where there is no response to such an event, here the government acts quickly, using contact tracing to test everyone who came in to contact with the infected individual and also effectively quarantining an entire neighborhood/district. If the US wants to halt covid-19, these same swift actions must be taken. In terms of numbers, there are 108 cases (all but 2 are imported) in Shanghai. In Beijing, there are 21 cases. The recovery rate in Shanghai sits at 92.3%. For China as a whole, the recovery rate is 93.5%. Even though these numbers are so low, the government here always acts swiftly to nip any threat before it grows, which is comforting.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week. Unlike in the US, the semester is still going on, so I’m still working every day. I spent most of my week working on measuring the luminosity function in a simulated mock data set (taken from my friend Haojie’s model — he’s also a postdoc at SJTU). We’re doing this to better understand what we are detecting in our background measurement for our observations. I’m just finishing those measurements now, so hopefully soon, I’ll have some interesting findings. I also spent more time working on my halo mass estimating paper, comparing the magnitude gap method (which I pioneered) to the Central + N satellites method and total satellite luminosity method. On that front, I’m going to refocus the paper to make it more narrow and clear. So, hopefully that will get done this week.

Outside of Astronomy, it was surprisingly warm for most of the week. Most days were in the low-mid 50s, with lows in the 40s. I was even able to wear my short tights during each of my three runs this week! It’s supposed to get cooler during this upcoming week, but the weather will maintain in the 40s for the foreseeable future.

During my walks and runs around Shanghai, I saw more cool things to share!

Now, before I discuss the different highlights of my week, I wanted to let you all know that I got my new passport on Tuesday!!! Only 11 days after I applied for my renewal! Clearly there’s no reason it should take as long as it does in the US. So, I will be able to join my some of my friends for a trip up north to Harbin next week!!!

Even with that to look forward to, I still made some time for some fun activities this week. On Tuesday night, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House hosted another trivia night! I posted the questions I wrote at the end of this blog for you to try out! I think some of them are a little bit harder this time. Then, on Friday, I was invited to a holiday party by my friend Clem (who is not in the picture)!

I had a wonderful time celebrating with great company and enjoying delicious food (I made chocolate peppermint cookies) on Friday night! I spent most of the night talking about travel plans for the winter as well as a great conversation about The Beatles! For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope that you had a nice and safe Holiday.

I know I commented on this last year, but I will again. It’s both weird and really nice to be working during the period of time between Christmas and New Years. It’s weird because I have not been in school or working during this week for almost my entire life. It’s nice, because as someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, it lessens the emphasis that American society puts on celebrating Christmas and allows me to treat the day as I would any other day, which I quite enjoy.

The highlight of my week was seeing Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters on Saturday!!! This was the first time I’ve ever been to a movie theater in China and it was an interesting experience. A few things to note. I saw the movie at an IMAX theater in downtown Shanghai, so I think this experience is probably fairly typical for Shanghai. First, people can bring in snacks and drinks without it being an issue. Many people brought coffee or boba (bubble tea to the movie). Second, the theater didn’t actually sell any food. There was no snacks or popcorn to buy, only drinks. Third, there were no trailers played before the movie. Other than that, the experience was actually fairly normal. The only real difference was that the commercials were in Chinese. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to pick up and recognize a lot of the words in the commercials! I will note that I did wear a mask in the theater. Many of the other moviegoers did as well. I was not bothered by this at all even though at this point it is purely a precautionary measure. Below you can see some of the advertising and signs up in the theater!

In terms of Wonder Woman 1984, I loved the movie. While I don’t think this WW movie is quite as good as the first one, I think the cast did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life. Gal Gadot does such a great job playing Diana/Wonder Woman, so I hope we continue to see her in the role for a long time. More importantly, I thought that the message and heart throughout the film was both very moving and timely. I have a wonderful time seeing it and I hope that you all take the time to see it (it’s streaming on HBO Max for those of you in places where it’s not safe to see movies in the theater).

Overall, this was a quieter week, which was nice since it allowed me to get a lot of work done. As I mentioned, next Thursday I’m flying north to Harbin (it’s really cold there, but there’s snow!!!). I do want to give you all a heads up that I return from Harbin Sunday evening (when I usually write the blog posts), so I won’t be writing a post until the next day. So, don’t worry if you don’t hear from me until Monday of next week. In the interim, I hope that you all have a wonderful New Years! Please make sure to celebrate in a socially distanced and responsible manner. Hopefully 2021 will be a better, healthier, and safer year for everyone!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and my first movie experience in Shanghai! If there’s anything you would like to know about my life in Shanghai, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Trivia

Famous Last Names

For each question, provide the last name in common between the two people described.

1. Director of The Batman and War of the Planet of the Apes and the first actor to play Superman?
2. The creator of Doonsebury and the Prime Minister of Canada?
3. Actor known for his roles in Whiplash and Spider-Man and the founder of The Ringer and former ESPN talking head?
4. Senior Senator from New York and comedian known for her role in movies such as Trainwreck?
5. Musician who was part of the Hollies and CSN and a former two-time NBA MVP?
6. Secretary of State under President George W. Bush and retired Jamaican Olympian sprinter?
7. Formula One race car driver with the most wins of all time and the original actress who portrayed Sarah Connor in the Terminator Franchise?
8. The original actor who played Dumbledore and the vice-President elect of the United States?
9. Actress known for her work in Arrival, American Hustle, and Man of Steel and the Second first lady of the United States?
10. Actor known for his diversity of roles including Batman Begins, The Machinist, and The Fighter and a professional footballer for the Tottenham Hot Spurs?

Characters from the Bible

1. This father of Noah is described as having the longest lifespan of anyone in the Bible?
2. Who are the two adopted sons of Joseph?
3. Who was the King of Israel who was succeeded by King David?
4. Who was the third child of Adam and Eve?
5. Who is responsible for cutting Samson’s hair?
6. Who is the mother of the prophet Samuel whose exultant hymn of thanksgiving is described in the Bible?
7. This sister of Moses led the women in dancing and celebration after successfully crossing the Red Sea?
8. The Talmud names only Four angels, they are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and who?
9. Who was the leader of the Israelites that sent spies into the city of Jericho?
10. Who is the mother of Abraham’s other son, Ishmael?

I’ll post the answers for you next time!