A Very Van Gogh February (and other sights from Beijing)

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to Astronomer in Beijing. I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe and healthy. This has been an interesting month for me here in Beijing. I spent the first half of February enjoying the Winter Olympics while working remotely from home and then spent the last two weeks heading back to Tsinghua for the daily grind. Although I like my apartment, I am glad to be going back into the office and seeing people. I don’t think I realized just how isolating it was going to be to work remotely during the Lunar New Year holiday. Although this was not my first rodeo when it comes to working from home, it felt very different from the beginning of the pandemic. When I was in Boston, I was in an apartment that I’d spent the last 6.5 years living in, knew the neighborhood (and thus could at least get my vegan ice cream comfort food at Fomu), and the BU astronomy department was having regular virtual events/social hour hang outs. I don’t know if it was because the Lunar New Year is a holiday that people spend with families and my family is half a world away or if it’s just that I don’t really know anybody who lives near me, but it definitely was a lonelier start to the month. Thankfully I was able to do some fun things with friends and enjoy Shabbat with Kehillat Beijing to fill the void of social interaction.

I know that the COVID situation in the US seems to be getting better, but I do hope that you all continue to stay safe and healthy. Here in Beijing, after a couple of cases, we’ve leveled out to no new (non-imported) cases in the last week or so. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of China as there are small/medium sized outbreaks in other cities and a massive outbreak in Hong Kong. Thankfully for me, a couple of days after I posted my last blog post, I was able to get my second dose of the Sinovac vaccine, so I am now fully vaccinated in the eyes of the Chinese government (since I had gotten the Pfizer vaccine last spring, I’m treating this as my booster) and that should help keep me healthy.

Also, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on current world events regarding Russia and Ukraine. It’s certainly a terrifying time and definitely a bit scary to be living nearer to a war zone than I would be if I was in the US. If any of you have family or friends in Ukraine, I hope they are safe and doing well. I’m hoping that the fact that Ukraine hasn’t just let Russia roll in and take over will lead to some cooler heads prevailing. Many of the articles I’ve seen here discuss Chinese nationals leaving or trying to leave Ukraine, but I have had very good conversations with both my colleagues and friends about the current state of the world. As I’m a sports fan, I was pleased to see the IOC come down on the Russian and Belarussian Paralympic teams. While I feel a bit bad for the athletes, starting a war is far different from doping when it comes to punishments. I’ve also been pleased to see the number of younger Russian tennis players, including Andrey Rublev and Danil Medvedev speak out against war as well as a large number of Ukranian players like Elina Svitolina and Dayana Yastremska speak in support of their fellow Ukranians. I’m sure many of you are looking for ways to help and while there are plenty of good charities with which to donate, I know that we at Kehillat Beijing are raising funds to donate to various Jewish organizations in Ukraine, including the Union for Progressive Judaism (which is the international name for Reform Judaism).

Beyond that, let’s dive back into life in Beijing!

A Virtual Van Gogh Exhibit!

Last weekend, Richard, Paulo, Paulo’s wife Jiaxin, and I visited the Van Gogh Alive virtual experience. While I’ve been lucky enough to see Van Gogh paintings in person, this was a completely different experience from your typical trip to an art museum. I know that some of you saw a similar exhibit in Buffalo last year, but for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the general set up (at least for the one here in Beijing) was a large room with many different sized walls, each of which displays a different painting, or portion of a painting. The exhibit acted like a light show, where the audience was guided via music and a few written descriptions (in both English (YAY!) and Mandarin) of the different periods of Van Gogh’s life. I really liked that the entire show was set to music as it brought everything to life! It was really cool to see people of all ages enjoying Van Gogh’s art and brought back lots of different memories that I’ll touch on as I show some photos.

One of the other things that I loved about the exhibit is the way that they juxtaposed different paintings with similar themes/subjects. The self portraits really highlighted this as it showed the different ways that Van Gogh portrayed himself and how his style changed. I also really liked that because the screens enlarged the paintings, you can see all of the brushwork.

I think these paintings were the most surprising to me. As I think most of you know, I’m a huge Japanophile, but it was really cool to see the influence of Japanese art on Van Gogh. I knew that Japanese prints were hugely popular with European artists like Monet (as highlighted by a particularly good episode of the anime Samurai Champloo as well as my visit to Giverny, Monet’s home), but I was less familiar with the influence on Van Gogh. It’s really cool to see him recreate the geisha, but with his clear brush work.

Here you can see how the exhibit showed some of Van Gogh’s most iconic paintings, including the Sunflowers, Bedroom in Arles, and A Wheatfield by Cypresses. Outside of Starry night (see below) and the iconic self-portrait sans ear, these are the pieces I most recognized. I also distinctly remember at least one either Elementary school or Middle School art project that required us to draw our one room as inspired by Bedroom in Arles. It’s always fun what memoriws these paintings bring back.

As an astronomer, I think it probably isn’t too surprising that my favorite piece was Starry Night. The show at this point was set to Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals Aquarium, which inspired some of the music in Beauty and the Beast and they added animations to the swirling night (they also did this throughout the show for leaves, birds, trains, and various other objects) that created a magical and mysterious atmosphere.

The show concluded with a retrospective of the various looks of Van Gogh and I really loved seeing how his visage evolved. Beyond just the virtual display, the exhibit also had a number of 3D displays including an amazing room filled with sunflowers (none of which I think were real) as well as a recreation of the iconic bedroom. All in all, it was a lot of fun to be surrounded by the artwork of Van Gogh, especially since I won’t be able to see any of his pieces in person any time soon. It was also great to hangout with Richard, Paulo, and Jiaxin and explore a new part of Beijing (well, new to me). When we were leaving, I saw that the Dewey Center is doing a similar exhibit on Monet in April and I definitely want to check it out!

Lanterns!

As those of you who read my brother’s blog (Astronomerinshanghai.com) know, two weeks after the Lunar New Year is the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival is a holiday aimed to honor one’s ancestors and promote peace and forgiveness. While Jesse was able to see a traditional lantern display at the Yu Gardens in Shanghai, here in Beijing, Richard and I were able to visit something a bit different at the Solana mall in Beijing (we also did a lot more exploring earlier in the day and had the fun experience of trying to go to an English language book store that closed in 2019 and a vegetarian restaurant that no longer exists). As you can see by the photos below, we got to see a very modern display of lights and lanterns all themed to the New Year and the Winter Olympics. The lights had a definite Christmas in the city vibe, which was nicely familiar and a bit nostalgic to seeing the crazy light displays near Niagra Falls with my grandparents in Buffalo. I particularly liked the giant lantern of the kids hugging as well as the various cartoony characters showing off different winter clothes! Although everything else that Richard and I tried to do that day ended up backfiring, it was quite a nice way to end the evening (which was then later capped of by watching the Winter Olympics closing ceremonies).

Life (Back) at Tsinghua!

Although half of the month was spent with me working remotely, it was quite a productive month in terms of my scientific research. In particular, Project Morphology is quickly approaching a conclusion. Right now, I’ve measured the morphology of all of the galaxies in the protoclusters and am working to measure the morphology of galaxies in fields at similar distances from the Earth (similar redshifts for the Astronomy folks) to see how the protocluster environment impacts evolution. In fact, I’ll be presenting some preliminary results this week at the Cosmic Cartography 2022 virtual workshop on Thursday (I believe the talks will be posted on youtube, so I’ll be sure to post the link in my blog next month if any of you are interested in watching). Having a deadline has really helped up my productivity and I’ve been more productive these past couple weeks wrapping up that project than I’ve been in quite a while. I’m planning to start writing up the paper once I finish the presentation this week. In terms of my other project, Project Radio is still in the works and I’m planning to make it the priority once I’ve started wrapping up Project Morphology and as an added bonus, since I’ve been so delayed, the LOFAR survey, which I use for it just released its second data release, so I might be able to increase my sample size! I also was able to do some good work updating my older red sequence evolution code for Project Evolution, so I’m hopeful that that project might also come together later this semester, too! On the non-research front, over the holiday break, the Astronomy Department finally updated the postdoc wall, so Richard and I are now on it!

While I didn’t do anything too exciting on campus this month, when I went to get my second COVID shot at the Tsinghua Hospital, I did see a number of cool statues, pagodas, and even the a frozen lake! While the weather has warmed up significantly in the last couple weeks (it got into the 60s this week), I hope you enjoy some shots of a frozen Tsinghua.

A Vegan Feast

After going to the Van Gogh exhibit, Richard, Paulo, Jiaxin, and I went out to a wonderful vegan feast. I really appreciate everyone being willing to appease my request as I’m the only one with any significant dietary restrictions. Although Jiaxin could obviously ask if things are vegetarian far easier than I can, the number of things to make sure to exclude (mostly various oils and fats) makes it a bit more complicated than in the US. We went to the sister restaurant of the vegetarian restaurant near Tsinghua’s campus for a fantastic meal. We got shiitake mushrooms, lotus room, vegetarian meat skewers, tofu, vegetarian fish (which I was told by everyone else had a sea food quality due to the use of nori – Japanese seaweed), vegetarian eel, sweet and sour eggplant, and sesame pancakes. For those of you who aren’t familiar with traditional Chinese cuisine (or at least Beijing cuisine), the vegetarian fish was in the style of a traditional baked fish dish (and yes, those are all tons of VERY SPICY peppers on top – both Richard and Paulo definitely have a better tolerance for heat than me). I’ve seen people get the real one before, so it was nice to partake in the vegetarian version! Everything was delicious, but I think the eggplant and mushrooms were my favorite. I’ve had lots of eggplant dishes here in China, but this one was different from others and I loved the crispy exterior with a fluffier interior. I also loved the sesame pancake as they had a nice sweetness to cut the richness of the rest of the meal. It was a great meal not just because of the amazing food, but also the great conversation with friends.

Exploring Beijing

Hopefully by now, some of these sites will look a bit familiar. While I always love exploring new parts of Beijing, I also really like the Gulou area that I live in. As you see the pictures I took of both the Drum Tower and the Houhai lake. Earlier in February, there was snow and much of the lake was frozen, while on Friday (the last couple of photos), much of the lake had already thawed (although there were crazy strong winds, which made for a fun run). Regardless of the season, the area I live in really looks magical at night. The way the Drum tower is lit against the black night sky makes it look like a magical palace and every time I see it when I’m returning home from work, it immediately draws my eye.

Outside of Gulou, I’m always on the lookout for fun and cute statues in Beijing. When Richard and I were looking for the now closed Beijing Booksmith, we wandered by the Taikoo Li Mall and got to see lots of cool and funky statues (we also saw some other ones near the Van Gogh exhibit, too). I love all of these goofy little mascots and how they don’t always align with an obvious product, but sometimes are just designed to get your attention (like the metallic cats and random white cat sculpture). You’ll also see a number of cute designs on what look like cloth coverings (especially toward the end of this album). These are motor scooter blankets that lie over your hands when you’re on a motor scooter (they are super popular here). I’ve asked a few friends who ride how effective they are and they say it works best as a wind breaker rather than keeping you warm.

As you’re all aware, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were happening during the first two weeks since my last blog post. While I had the benefit of getting to watch on livestream in realtime many of the sporting events (especially the snowboarding and skiing, those are my favorites), I obviously wasn’t able to attend the games in person. However, I did see TONS of ads for both the games directly or for other products but highlighting the winter games. You can see a ton of the two mascots, the panda Bing Dwen Dwen (Olympics), and the lantern Shuey Rhon Rhon (Paralympics). The mascots, especially Bing Dwen Dwen became incredibly popular here (maybe only to be topped by Chinese-American free skiing sensation Eileen Gu). In fact, there was a run on any official Olympic merchandise featuring Bing Dwen Dwen. I definitely felt very pleased with myself knowing that I got two little figurines of both Bing Dwen Dwen playing hockey and Shuey Rhon Rhon playing sled hockey back in the end of December when I wandered by the official Olympic store, which at that point was not bustling (and don’t worry Jesse, I got one of each for you, too).

Also, despite the Lunar New Year being at the very beginning of February, there are still a ton of decorations up here in Beijing. You can see a number of red lanterns by the Old Summer Palace Entrance (directly below, hanging on trees), as well as a few more Tiger posters.

Last, but not least, I had to share pictures of two different Toyota Priuses that I spotted here. Since Jesse and I each drove a Prius in grad school, my Dad had one for many years, and my Mom currently owns one, this car is always near and dear to me. Here in China, though there are quite a lot of hybrid buses, the government has incentivized electric cars (which are great), so I see far more Telsas than Priuses.

Jewish Life

As is my typical Friday routine, I spent three Fridays with Kehillat Beijing (I missed one because I was feeling a bit congested and under the weather and thought it made more sense to rest). It’s been nice that the last few weeks we’ve seen some larger crowds with people returning who’d either been away or busy due to the holidays and various other commitments. As is the norm, Ted really went all out with the different themes, including a “Spaced Out Shabbat”, where all of the dishes were named after different space themes, including “Milky Way Mac n’ Cheese,” “Supernova Schnitzel,” “Protoplanetary Potato Salad”, and “Full Moon Fennel & Mushrooms.” I also made some delicious vegan chocolate chocolate chip cookies that were very well received.

However, two weeks ago was probably the best thematic Shabbat dinner we’ve had as we had “Back to School Shabbat” to celebrate the beginning of the new semester after the Lunar New Year Holiday beak. As the pictures show, Ted really hit the theme on the head with metallic lunch trays, PB&J, veggie nuggets, creamed corn, tomoto soup, and sloppy joes. I also made another very well received apple cake, trying to hone in on the theme of school days.

Lastly this past week we had Zhong He Jie Festival Shabbat. Zhong He Jie is the festival celebrated on the 2nd day of the 2nd Lunar Month in the Chinese calendar and traditionally is celebrated by getting haircuts (as inspired by the dragon raising its head). I also got the opportunity to lead services this past week, which is always fun and I have a few tunes in mind that I’m hoping to share in future weeks.

Animals of Beijing

As I don’t have any pets, I always love running into furry friends around Beijing. As you can see, many of these photos this month center around one tabby cat and then Roberta and Ted’s puppies Mimi and Honey. The tabby cat lives next door to me and when I leave my apartment on particularly warm or sunny days, I often find it hanging out in the window (I assume that’s how the owners let it in and out).

While I was working from home, I also got the surprise of hearing a thud on my skylight and being surprised by a furry friend. While I couldn’t make out it’s face, it was still very cool to look up to the ceiling and see a cat. In fact, later the same week, I saw another cat (the last picture) through the sky light.

What was I Reading/Watching?

As mentioned above, I watched a lot of the Olympics this month. However, that didn’t stop me from enjoying some scripted programming as well. I finished watching the BBC production of Around the World in 80 Days, which I really enjoyed. It aired on PBS in the US and was a very fun adventure. I also have been enjoying the new season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. While I’m hoping for a bit more development for Midge’s career there is something very fun and warm about the whole show and I’ll definitely miss it when I finish it next weekend. I also watched the movie The Old Guard on Netflix. Based on the comic The Old Guard by Greg Rucka and Leonardo Fernandez from Image Comics, it tells a tale of a team of mercenaries who happen to be immortal and what happens when people find out they exist. I really loved the comic and while the comic is definitely superior, the movie is quite fun. For those of you who are wondering (or happen to walk by a movie theater in the last week), you might be wondering if I’ve seen The Batman. While I’m INCREDIBLY excited about this movie it won’t be opening in China for two more weeks, so I’m trying to do my best to avoid spoilers while also being very pumped that it is opening here (many of the 2021 Marvel superhero films have not opened here). I’m also excited to see a movie in theaters as the last time I saw one was when my friend Phil and I went to see Birds of Prey in February 2020 (wow that feels like ages ago).

On the book front, I recently finished the 2019 Best American Sports Writing edited by Charlie Pierce. While the stories aren’t current any more, most aren’t about the daily grind of athletes, so it was a lot of fun to read (and also to check in on a few of the athletes mentioned and see what they’re up to). For those of you who ever listened to the NPR Program Only a Game, many of the stories were in that vein, in terms of often tangential or non-traditional sports connections. I also recently finished the comic book series Birthright by Joshua Williamson and Andrei Bressan. I’ve been reading it for the last 5ish years (it’s 50 issues long and has been coming out roughly monthly with some gaps) and loved the conclusion to the epic. If you’re a comic book fan and looking for a swords and sorcery/adventure story, I’d definitely recommend it!

East Meets West

In my exploring Beijing, I’ve gotten to see lots of fun reminders of the west, even sometimes at grocery stores. They had Beyond Burgers and Vegan pesto at my import store and I saw Capri Sun at another! While Beyond Burgers aren’t my favorite veggie burger, it’s nice to see them every once and a while since unlike at a US grocery store, veggie burgers aren’t pervasive. I also saw Addidas ads featuring tennis great Garbine Muguruza and Utah Jazz point guard Donovan Mitchell (Go Jazz!). As a Jazz fan, that’s always fun to see. And of course, there was lots and lots of Disney (including a fun Winnie the Pooh sign), but also, the Simpsons showed up, too!

Anime & Comics

Last but not least, it isn’t an Astronomer in Beijing blog post without a reminder that I’m a huge anime, manga, and comics fan and so are the people of Beijing. While I saw lots of figurines (I really love the large displays filled with different figurines, especially when they mash-up different shows) , motor scooter decorations, and puzzles, I think one of the coolest things I saw were the Evisu Dragon Ball Z pants, shirts, and sweatshirts. I’m always looking for cool anime apparel, but as cool as these were, they are a bit outside my price range (~ 1000+RMB, which is ~ $130 and that’s on the low end, some were as much as 3000 RMB). Still, it’s always cool to see people fandom on display, especially when it overlaps with my own. I also saw a huge human size transformer statue near the Van Gogh exhibit, which was really cool. Obviously I’ll be keeping an eye out for advertisements for The Batman in the coming weeks, so don’t be surprised to see some of that next time.

Anyway, for those who’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoyed hearing about what I was up to this February. Although I spent a lot of time working, I also had a lot of fun a long the way. Again, I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe and healthy (and may you all enjoy an earlier Spring) and may the world feel a little more peaceful and safe by the next time I write a blog post. If you have any questions about anything please feel free to reach out either via e-mail or commenting below. Here’s to a good March (and for those of you with a Spring break, a relaxing one, too)!

In Peace,

Emmet