Yom Kippur and the Mid-Autumn Festival!

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog highlights that the world can recover from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Once things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find that these interactions will be both meaningful and enjoyable. In Shanghai, life has returned mostly to normal. Since outbreaks may still occur, it’s important that you wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines so that things improve.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this entry finds all of you continuing to stay safe and healthy. With all the turmoil going on in the US right now, I hope that you and your families have been smart and are following social distancing guidelines, wearing masks, and continuing to wash your hands after going outside.

Before I begin, I wanted to address a change in the Word Press platform. Prior to the last few entries, those of you who posted comments would get notifications that I had responded to your message. However, due to a recent update, that feature no longer appears to have changed and I haven’t figured out how to change it back. However, I wanted to assure you that I am still responding to your comments (usually with 1 day). So, if there’s anything I say or show that excites you or you’re curious about, please comment and then check back the next day for my response!

It’s hard not to begin this entry off with some discussion of what’s happening in the US. For what might be a first, I think I learned about President Trump’s covid-19 diagnosis long before many of you did. In an attempt to not be entirely political, I think that this super spreader outbreak that appears to have occurred as a result of a public event in the Rose Garden highlights the importance of doing the exact opposite of what this current administration has done and continues to do. With that in mind, avoid large crowds, wear masks, wash your hands, maintain social distancing guidelines. These are not difficult principles to adhere by and the fact that these policies aren’t in place already in the US is terrifying. Moreover, the fact that there was suspicion about a possible diagnosis and Trump still went to a campaigning event is incredibly stupid, selfish, and arrogant. Additionally, I want to call out the racist response of Senator Kelly Loeffler who in response to Trump’s diagnosis continued to once again blame China. Being racist is not new to Senator Loeffle, who, for those of you who are unaware, is a part owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and claimed that their protest in support of Black Lives Matter was too political and an anti-American statement, and instead called for support of the flag. However, the continued rhetoric from Trump and his underlings within the Republican party that somehow all of this is China’s fault and not their own, is disgusting and false. While China did not handle covid-19 perfectly, everything that has happened since the outbreak began in the US in March lies at the feet of the current administration. With all of this in mind, I’m incredibly grateful that former vice-President Biden is healthy and I hope that he and Senator Kamala Harris remain so. Therefore, as I’ve reiterated multiple times, Please vote. If you’ve gotten your absentee ballot, send it or drop it off as early as possible. If you can still register, please do. Remind everyone you know to vote! With everything happening this past week, it’s clear that we need an administration that will take covid-19 seriously for the entire country, not just when one man gets ill. Moreover, we can’t have a continued administration stoking the flames of hate and racism.

In terms of covid-19 in China, the virus remains under control. Restrictions have been lifted and foreigners holding valid resident (non-tourist) visas have been allowed back into the country (though a 14 day quarantine is required). Moreover, there has been travel during the mid-Autumn Festival holiday (though SJTU, where I work, recommended that we stay in Shanghai). In terms of cases, there are currently 50 imported cases in Shanghai (1 in Beijing). The recovery rate for Shanghai is 94.4% and for China as a whole, the recovery rate is also 94.4%. So, there is a way forward. Covid-19 can be controlled and it starts by taking the matter seriously and not sitting on your hands waiting for a vaccine to be discovered.

In terms of my own research, this was a super productive week! I finished all of the research for my DES paper! Finally! It feels fantastic to just have to adjust a few figures and modify the text! Hopefully, we’ll be submitting the paper to the DES collaboration in 1-2 weeks! Very excited for that. In terms of my Luminosity Function research, I also had a major breakthrough in how I was measuring the background! Sadly for me, that breakthrough was the result of a coding bug that was entirely my fault, but sometimes, that’s how research goes. Overall, I’m now getting results that make physical sense and are in much better agreement with prior results. I’m still working on a few minor adjustments, but, it feels great to have moved forward on that project as well!

Of note, October 1st – October 8th, is the combined Chinese National Day, which celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China (71 years ago), then followed by the mid-Autumn Festival, which is a harvest festival celebrating the moon! So, as a result, I’ll be working from home next week, which hopefully will allow me to be productive, while also going for lots of runs!

One of my favorite perks of working at a Chinese university is that for many of the Chinese holidays, the university gives us gifts! For the mid-Autumn Festival, all employees got a huge package of food!

I got a box full of bags of nuts, 2 bottles of alpine camellia seed oil, a 5kg bag of rice (which I’ll eat forever), and cookies! While it was exhausting carrying all of this home, it was a really nice gift from SJTU!

On top of that, my research supervisor, Ying, gave me a voucher for mooncakes! These are the traditional delicacy for the mid-Autumn Festival (more on that later).

Thanks to the help of some of my friends at improv, I was able to decipher which of the mooncakes were vegetarian!

While not nearly as exciting as all of the holiday presents, I wanted to let you all know that I finally started to learn Mandarin Chinese! No, I’m not taking classes (I wanted to actually have a foundation before considering that), but I’ve downloaded both Duolingo and Hello Chinese onto my phone and have been using the apps for ~ 30 minutes or more each day. I haven’t learned a foreign language since I was in high school, so it’s interesting working these brain muscles again. While I’m still a long long ways away from having a real conversation, I’m already starting to recognize and learn a more words (though reading the characters and not the pinyin/transliteration is unlikely). So, who knows, maybe in a few months I’ll be able to have a simple conversation at work!

On top of the Holiday celebrations, this was a fun week. As I’ve said in the last few posts, it’s now cool enough that I’m able to run comfortably, so I went for 4 runs this week! Additionally, I spent a lot of time outside walking around and took a lot of cool photos to share with you!

As you can see, Shanghai is an awesome city! There are again tons of flowers that were planted to beautify the city (likely for the holiday). Plus, there’s tons of cool sculptures set up all around the city. It always makes it fun when I go running or walking! I never know what I’ll see.

In addition to running, I also took some time to spend with friends! On Thursday, I had a lovely dinner with my friends Heather, Hannah Maia, Shimi, Clem, and Robert! Many of us are involved in organizing the anti-racism discussion series that Moishe House has been hosting, but it was really nice to hang out in a different setting as well!

Plus, we had a fantastic dinner of vegetable tagine, macaroni and cheese, miso-glazed eggplant, sesame cauliflower (I made this!), chocolate chip cookies, and cheesecake!

On Saturday, my friends and I got together for another fun night of improv games! While I still struggle with spontaneity and am generally much better at story telling games, it was a lot of fun to play with everyone! I think my favorites are still the story telling games. This time, we played another game where we had four people set in a square, with each pair set to a different theme. We would rotate every minute and start the conversation with the last thing the said in the previous conversation. We always had to keep it on the theme, whether it was an emotion or idea, which led to some pretty strange (in a good way) improv roles!

Food in Shanghai

While I didn’t have any exotic meals out, I did want to highlight mooncakes! These are a pastry that can be either sweet or savory. I’ve tried a few different ones and they’re really good! I got some vegan mooncakes at last weekend’s Veggie World Expo and I’ve also tried some sweet ones as well. I haven’t tried the ones from Ying yet, but I’ll share photos when I do! The mooncake pastry is flaky (or chocolate for the last one).

The one in the center is the one filled with a vegan meat substitute and the one on the right is cranberry flavored!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As many of you know, I posted my last entry just before the start of Yom Kippur. So, for all of you who observed Yom Kippur, I hope that you had an easy fast and a meaningful and self-reflective day. While I’m sure the services were different than what you’re used to (they were for me), I hope you still found meaning in the holiday.

As was the case for Rosh Hashanah, I had the opportunity to lead services for Kehilat Shanghai. Thankfully, we received videos from Rabbi Art Nemitoff that provided our community with many of the key aspects of the services such as the Kol Nidrei prayer, the torah reading, and sermons, but the rest of the song leading and prayer leading was done by me, which meant I had a lot of solos. I’m happy to say that the community was incredibly appreciative and complementary of my efforts to lead the services. However, it was a completely exhausting and draining experience. By the time it was time to break the fast, I was drained. Despite my exhaustion, I still attended the break fasts hosted by Kehilat Shanghai as well as the one following at Moishe House. So, I definitely got enough to eat that night (though I was a little dehydrated, since I didn’t drink any water throughout the day). After an exhausting day of service leading and fasting (which just makes you tired), it was nice relaxing and celebrating with friends.

Overall, I was honored to have had the experience of leading the High Holy Day services for Kehilat Shanghai. This is not something I ever expected nor really desired to do. I really enjoy the High Holy Days and find the liturgy very meaningful and thought provoking, particularly Yom Kippur. However, I never thought that I would be asked to do any more than lead a prayer or chant from the torah. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to become a participant again and find the entire experience slightly more relaxing.

In addition to my thoughts about my Yom Kippur services, I also wanted to share with you a link to a sermon that Hannah Maia shared with me. The sermon is given by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the Rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York. Rabbi Buchdahl is the first Asian-American to be ordained as a Rabbi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3-dqQ3gUk&feature=youtu.be

Living in Shanghai for almost 1 year and being an integral part of a multi-racial Jewish community has forced me to confront my own racism, prejudices and biases, particularly towards who is Jewish and what makes up the Jewish community. In particular, during the High Holy Days (especially Erev Rosh Hashanah), I was struck by how diverse the congregants at Kehilat Shanghai were. We are a community of White Americans, Chinese spouses, multi-racial children, Israelis, Europeans, Sephardic Jews, and Latinx’s. While we don’t look like one another, we all identify as Jewish or as part of the Jewish community and that is ultimately what matters most. While the Jewish communities in Saratoga (Temple Sinai), at Brown, or in Ann Arbor (Temple Beth Emeth) are all wonderful, supportive, and caring environments, they are, like most Jewish communities, not that diverse, filled predominately with people who look like me. Given that the ideas of racism and inclusion are topics that I have spent much time thinking, reading, and learning about, combined with my experience within a multi-racial community, I found Rabbi Buchdahl’s thoughts and experiences relating to treating the Jewish people not as a race with a distinct look, but rather as a welcoming family particularly powerful and moving. I hope all of you will take 20 minutes out of your day and watch this sermon. If you do, please share with me what your thoughts are.

This upcoming week should be a mix of some fun activities and a productive work week. Moreover, tomorrow, October 5th is my 1 year China Anniversary! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been living in Shanghai continuously for an entire year! I’ll be having a little celebration with some of my close friends next weekend, so I’ll reflect more on my first year in Shanghai in my next post. On top of that, I’ll also have some celebrations for Sukkot and Simchat Torah to share! Additionally, I’m going to start apartment hunting soon, so in one of the next two posts, I’ll discuss that process!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my Yom Kippur experience and seeing some of the treats for the mid-Autumn Festival! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, SJTU, or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse