Shanghai Chic, Volume 1

Shanghai is seriously bursting with energy. The pace of construction alone is mind boggling with buildings being thrown up all around town; people say that China's national bird is the crane. The construction crane. But for me? The energy is with the people.

I am on a serious quest to find and interview the cool people of Shanghai, the ones who are propelling that change.


So when Ted (on the left), the Coolest Person I met at July's YPulse Mashup conference (coveing all things teen & tech) in San Francisco, told me he was swinging through Shanghai via Italy and wanted to get together, I immediately said YES. His hao pengyou (good friend, aren't you impressed with my growing vocabulary?), Evan, brought us to one of his favorite restaurants, Kathleen's 5 rooftop cafe on top of the Shanghai Art Museum. Between the two, they've got the entrepreneurial spirit of Shanghai nailed.

There, looking over the Shanghai skyline lit up like arcade games--or Shanghai women with all their bling--it was the Ted and Evan Show as they regaled me with stories of the Singles Scene in Puxi (the old section of Shanghai). Let's just say I got several ideas for novels from this one dinner alone! SEVERAL. I haven't laughed that hard since moving to Shanghai.

Inspirational in a different way was the tour of my kids' new international school. How weird is it that I was invited to speak at the school two years ago...and now we're members of the school community! The campus is beautiful and vast, housing K-12 students from something like 140 different countries.



If I don't get my act together, my kids will be my translaters. Here's my daughter's Chinese book that the Mandarin teachers said she'd be able to read in a few months...


My hubby and I officially celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in China. (Unofficially, we had partied it up in LA before our move.) So we brought the kids with us to the Face Bar in the Dongjiao State Hotel where we had a fantastic Indian meal. Totally hip and cool, if a little out there in the boondocks. But there's another Face in Puxi, which we will for sure visit.

My own hao pengyou, Stacey--remember? my kids' former music lao shi (translation: teacher. Impressed, yes?)--took me to one of her favorite hot yoga spots, Y+ Yoga near Xintiandi (this is the refurbished area of Shanghai clustered with old courtyard buildings). I haven't done yoga period for 5 months since I bruised the cartilege in my knee in a flow class. (Say no to advanced jumping techniques!) Can you say out of shape? I sweated enough to water my lawn and my neighbor's lawn.

After the class, Stacey and her husband, Richard, took my family out to her favorite restaurant:

I am for sure bringing my sister to this place. And isn't the postcard darling? Whoever the artist is should be a picture book illustrator! Who are you? And couldn't Stacey be a model? She's gorgeous and I'm sure half of the high school boys at our school are in looooove with her.

The brunch was heavenly, but paradise? Being a paper freak, I found it on Fu Zhou Lu. Here's my new favorite store on stationary street--Jian Lan. Just look at all that paper! For a fraction of the cost as in the U.S. Unbelievable. I went a little crazy and will be collaging soon. (No, really, I will be writing again. Really.)



There was a Tibetan rug store that I wanted to visit (as research for a novel), but they had moved and we got lost. But just look at what we found instead. A lovely little alley of old homes.

FREE book giveaway!

And now this from Melissa Walker whose VIOLET IN PRIVATE

is featured (and dissected--in a good way!) at readergirlz this month... Guess what? My new writer-buddy is giving away a copy of GIRL OVERBOARD to those intrepid enough to take a fun quiz! (I was wondering why Melissa wanted me to sign the book but not personalize it to her when we were together in San Francisco for Ypulse.) So book on over to Melissa before the end of the week.

Here are the deets from her blog:

"This week, your prize is a signed copy of Justina Chen Headley's fantastic Girl Overboard, which pretty much has it all: family, snowboarding, community service, dim sum and friend-love (yes!).

To win a copy of the book, you have a fun mission: Take this quiz by LaToya Evans ("What's your Spare Time Read?") and tell me what book you get... I thought I knew where I'd end up, but I got The Luxe (which I still haven't read--oops)! It must be that amazing ball gown that I dream of owning."

Mashing It Up!

Riddle: Fill a ballroom of gearheads and teen gurus, and what do you get?


Oh, hush! "Snooze-fest!" is so not the right answer. What you get is this:a hopping conference about reaching today's totally wired generation with technology. Anastasia Goodstein, the award-winning blogger of Ypulse...

invited me to speak at the pre-conference, neither as a gearhead or a guru (thankfully!), but as an author for teens. It was so fun to be alongside the very talented Melissa Walker (Violet on the Runway and readergirlz pick for August)...

and NY Times bestselling Lisa McMann (Wake). Here's Lisa doing the "Justina Chen Headley" author photo pose. Which is actually the Katie Couric author photo pose. Anyhow, Lisa looks waaay cuter than either me and Katie.


One of the best parts of Ypulse was meeting my heroes...like Tracy Grand, CEO of JacketFlap, a social networking site for the publishing world. And then, of course, there was David Levithan (author extraordinaire, executive editor, man of many talents). It was as if my camera was embarrassed by my fangirl moment around him and blushed on my behalf.


I've decided that Cindy Eagan, the editor of the Gossip Girl series among others, needs to move next door to me so we can hang out all the time. And it's only because I like her so much that I've posted our picture...because does or does not my face look ginormous here? I'm sorry, but it does. And I cannot believe my sister who delicately blamed my still-blushing camera from above for creating an optical illusion.



And then there were the Girls Inc dream team: Allison Keilly and Claire Mysko (who wrote You're Amazing!):


And the girl who could have been the case study for Claire's book, Ashley Qualls, the teen creator of Whatever Life, who very generously outfitted me with a pink piggy bank, slinky, and water bottle. What I really wanted was her dress.