SATA
ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Noodle & Bao
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://shainadoesart.com/
CITY: Malden
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Wellesley College, B.A.; Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ed.M.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Teacher, artist, writer, and community organizer. Eliot K-8 Innovation School, Boston, MA, media arts teacher, 2020-22; Josiah Quincy Elementary School, Boston, MA, visual arts teacher, 2023-. Has worked as a teaching artist in numerous school and library programs.
AWARDS:Unsung Hero, Massachusetts AAPI Commission, 2023, for her work as an artist and organizer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Horn Book Magazine, January-February, 2025, Shenwei Chang, review of Noodle & Bao, p. 85.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2024, review of Noodle & Bao.
ONLINE
HG Literary, https://www.hgliterary.com/ (April 4, 2025), author profile.
Sampan, https://sampan.org/ (April 4, 2025), Yuchen Hon, “Artist, Writer Shaina Lu Draws From Life Stories in Chinatown.”
Scope Boston, https://thescopeboston.org/ (July 4, 2022), Lex Weaver, author interview.
Shaina Lu website, https://shainadoesart.com/ (April 4, 2025).
Hello! I’m shaina lu 呂明穎 (she/her)!!
I am a queer Taiwanese-American artist interested in the intersection of art, education, and activism.
I like to create community art for social change, which means that my art happens in conversation with community members of places that I live, work, or play. Basically, my art is made through dialogue with other people. Sometimes I photograph protests; sometimes I paint murals in collaboration with youth; and sometimes I write and illustrate stories for a more just and liberated world, like NOODLE & BAO (2024, HarperCollins Quill Tree).
When I’m not creating community art, I work with young artists and makers in the public school system. We design cool stickers, photograph our communities, make joyful comics, and imagine our radiant futures through art. See my teaching artist experience here!
I hold a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where I drew comics and ate Hot Cheetos under my desk studied Arts in Education.
& most important, I drink juice every day, and I am full of sugar.
🤵 Serious Professional Bio:
Shaina Lu 呂明穎 (she/her) is a queer Taiwanese-American artist interested in the intersection of art, education, and activism.
She creates community art for social change through dialogue and conversation with local youth, residents, and grassroots organizers. You can see her public art throughout Boston’s Chinatown, MA, where she works, and in Malden, MA, where she lives. In 2023, the Massachusetts AAPI Commission honored Shaina as an Unsung Hero for her work as an artist and organizer.
Shaina has worked in the education field since 2012, both as a public school teacher and as a program director in a community-based organization. As an educator, Shaina develops project-based learning experiences for young artists to draw knowledge and inspiration from their communities and to use art as a tool to effect social change.
Shaina also writes and illustrates for a more just and liberated world. She is the author and illustrator of NOODLE & BAO (2024, HarperCollins Quill Tree), a middle grade graphic novel about food, family, and fighting against gentrification. She also has two upcoming picture books with Penguin Kokila.
Shaina is a proud alumna of Wellesley College, and she holds a Masters in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Most important, she drinks juice every day, and she is full of sugar.
Shaina Lu
WRITER & illustrator
Website
Instagram
Represented by Wendi Gu
Shaina Lu 呂明穎 (she/her) is a queer Taiwanese-American artist interested in the intersection of art, education, and activism.
She creates community art for social change through dialogue and conversation with local youth, residents, and grassroots organizers. You can see her public art throughout Boston’s Chinatown, MA, where she works, and in Malden, MA, where she lives. In 2023, the Massachusetts AAPI Commission honored Shaina as an Unsung Hero for her work as an artist and organizer.
Shaina has worked in the education field since 2012, both as a public school teacher and as a program director in a community-based organization. As an educator, Shaina develops project-based learning experiences for young artists to draw knowledge and inspiration from their communities and to use art as a tool to effect social change.
Shaina also writes and illustrates for a more just and liberated world. She is the author and illustrator of NOODLE & BAO (2024, HarperCollins Quill Tree), a middle grade graphic novel about food, family, and fighting against gentrification. She also has two upcoming picture books with Penguin Kokila.
Shaina is a proud alumna of Wellesley College, and she holds a Masters in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She is the author of the middle grade graphic novel NOODLE & BAO (Quill Tree/Harper, October 2024) and the forthcoming picture book GRACE’S GARDENS (Kokila/Penguin, 2026).
Artist, Writer Shaina Lu Draws From Life Stories in Chinatown
by Yuchen Hong
In her debut graphic novel “Noodle & Bao,” artist and writer Shaina Lu offers a heartwarming and powerful story of friendship, community, and fighting against gentrification. Set in the fictional Town 99, the book follows Momo and her best friend Bao as they work to save their beloved neighborhood food cart from displacement.
Lu, a queer Taiwanese-American artist and educator based in Boston, draws deeply from her experiences working with youth in Chinatown.
“I wanted to write and draw a story that explored questions about gentrification, but that young readers would still find fun and meaningful,” she said.
The novel emerged from Lu’s work as the program director of a school-age childcare program in Boston’s Chinatown, where students engaged in place-based learning about local history and current struggles during summer
programming. “Learning about gentrification is unavoidable in place-based learning in Boston Chinatown,” Lu said.
The book pays homage to real-world community resistance, referencing
actual protests such and ongoing fights against development in Chinatowns including the fight against developments in Boston, Philadelphia Chinatown’s fight against an arena, and Manhattan Chinatown’s protests against a mega jail.
Lu’s approach to storytelling is collaborative, a principle she applies both to her art and her community work. “It’s very important to me that my art is happening with the community, not to it,” she emphasized. This philosophy is evident in her first public art project — a youth-led mural in Phillips Square that depicted a Chinatown resident’s mother and child, created in partnership with local youth and community members.
As an educator at Josiah Quincy Elementary School and a long-time community organizer, Lu brings a unique perspective to her storytelling. The graphic novel explores intergenerational dynamics and the tension between innovation and tradition.
“It’s not always smooth when people grow up in different times and have, at times, conflicting ideas of how things should be done,” she reflects.
Beyond “Noodle & Bao,” Lu continues to create art with a purpose. She is currently working on a picture book about Chinese American activist Grace Lee Boggs and a fantasy graphic novel inspired by xian xia literature, both aimed at exploring how critical connections can transform individuals and communities.
For Lu, art is never just about storytelling—it’s about creating change. “The book is about the small things that we do in our own communities that ripple out to change the world around us,” she said. “I hope readers feel inspired and hopeful that their actions have an impact.”
Local artist, author Shaina Lu talks art activism and pays homage to Chinatown activists in upcoming book
“One thing that’s really important to me is that the art is happening with the community and not to it, or necessarily even for it.”
Lex Weaver, Editor|July 4, 2022
Photo of artist, educator and author Shaina Lu.
Photo: Vivian Ho
Photo of artist, educator and author Shaina Lu.
Shaina Lu, a queer Taiwanese American educator and artist from Malden, Mass., is on to something big.
Lu is what many people could describe as a “superhuman,” someone who can be found everywhere, somehow doing everything; this person is extraordinary and creates feelings of effectiveness through their impactful work and presence that inspires and benefits a collective of people. In time, these awe-spiring and activated moments begin to lend to practical and community-based social change. Most of the time, Lu does this with her art and has nourished a visual presence across Greater Boston, with work that can be seen throughout Malden and Boston’s Chinatown. The art and social conjuncture go hand-in-hand for the esteemed illustrator, often leading communities to seek out her expertise to help develop visual and inviting elements of art that can introduce and explore complex social issues between Boston neighborhoods and identities.
During the week, the graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Graduate School of Education serves as a media arts teacher at Eliot K-8 Innovation School in the North End; but that doesn’t stop her from being everywhere else. You can also often find Lu with her Sifu and peers lion dancing for Wah Lum Kung Fu Academy at various events across the city, or you can catch her helping out at social cause. Now, the artist is gearing up to release four books, one of which, being published by Harper Collins, may have found inspirational routes in Boston’s Chinatown.
The Scope was able to catch up with Lu to find out how she does this and what it all mean for her, her art and the Greater Boston community. Parts of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a queer Taiwanese American artist. I always say that I’m a person who’s interested in the intersection of art, education and activism. This is how I explain what I do to kids … I like to create community art for social change. Community art means that my art happens in conversation with community members of places where I live, work or play. So for me specifically, I live in Malden, the unceded lands of the Massachusett and Pawtucket people, and I work in the North End right now. And then I play in Chinatown and worked there for a while. So my art is made in dialogue with people I live, work and play with. I’ve done protests with photography and painted collaborative murals in the past, and right now, my passion projects are working on writing and illustrating stories.
You do a lot of community education. You help people and organizations bring their initiatives and inner thoughts to life through public art, event flyers and other visual means often devoted to addressing social and racial justice. As an artist, can you talk to me about the potential ways or conversations from the art you hope to embed into these communities when you take on these projects?
One thing that’s really important to me is that the art is happening with the community and not to it, or necessarily even for it. I think it has to definitely be a collaborative effort. I don’t believe that art should happen to communities. A lot of times, what I am hoping to accomplish is to have both myself as an artist and also, you know, either a resident or community member, working with other community members so that the art feels like it really belongs to the community.
I think the process for that usually is sometimes we have like art workshops where we brainstorm things, sometimes we draw things, we ideate things and we have question prompts that we answer as a group. As a group, [ people that I work with] have things they want their community to know about them or things they want to say; then, we collaboratively develop a message that we want the art to say. So, for example, in working with Asian CDC youth in Malden, we painted two switch boxes together and some things that they were thinking about where ‘we really want people to know that we belong here in Malden, we as an Asian American youth; we want them to know that we stand for racial justice, hear all of our values and we want Malden to feel like a warm, welcoming and inviting place for people of all genders, races and nationalities. So those were the driving things the youth brought that they wanted to express, so I worked with them to figure out the best way to communicate that. Through lots of conversations and brainstorming, we settled on a potluck-themed idea and one on a really inclusive [social justice] march [in the neighborhood].
You’re publishing four new books under Harper Collins soon, and one book specifically is summarized as one girl’s mission to save her favorite community food cart and neighborhood from gentrification. Have you drawn any inspiration from what you see happening in Boston’s Chinatown?
Yeah! I’m super excited. Two actually are picture books. But, my book with Harper Collins is called “Noodle and Bao.” I know that the publisher has described it as like one girl’s plan to save her community, but it really is inspired by the work that community organizations have done. I was inspired by what organizations in Boston’s Chinatown have done and others. I was really inspired by the Parcel C story, in particular. There are a lot of activists who are – I don’t consider myself an activist, I’m not worthy – but these older activists are still around, and they’re still helping and mentoring newer ones. They founded the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), and they were executive directors of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) and ACDC back in the day, and that was something. The Parcel C story is really amazing and inspiring to me.
So I used to work in Chinatown; I used to be the program director of their school-age programs program called Red Oak. It is, I don’t know, a little over 50 years old [and was] started in the Josiah Quincy Elementary School by parents and community members. So I love that grassroots beginning also. I actually have many Red Oak students at my school [in the North End] right now, which was the most amazing thing in a different context. When I was at Red Oak, I took the kids on a lot of walking tours for their field trips. We would look at Chinatown buildings and streets, and we’d be like, ‘Oh, what’s happening here?’ What do you notice happening here in this building?’ ‘Why do you think the inkblock is all made of glass and metal?’ ‘Who do you think these places are for?’ And I think one thing that I thought would have been amazing is if we had some kind of text about gentrification that was anchored in a Chinatown-like setting; it doesn’t have to be Chinatown, but I would have loved to have an accessible middle-grade text for them.
I went to a potluck that my friends were organizing hosted at the Pao Arts Center. They had us write down our wishes for the year, and I was like, ‘I wish or I hope that I will do this.’ So, I started thinking about this story about housing, gentrification, and food and innovation, rooted in a kind of Chinatown history, but I wanted it to feel a little bit universal; [so, the book] has animal protagonists and things like that.
That’s where the story came from. The Parcel C story really inspired me. I was also thinking a lot about the building on Harrison Ave. That my ACDC mural that I painted with Yvonne is on, that building was slated – no longer – but slated to be demolished and become a hotel with an Asian-inspired lobby or something like that. I think that’s no longer the plan for it. I don’t exactly remember what the new plans are. Still, I think back when I was attending Chinatown Residents Association (CRA) meetings then, I felt this really inspiring moment where all the elders from CPA and others, you know, were just sitting in the cafeteria of Josiah Quincy. They all rolled up to the microphones and were like, ‘We don’t want a hotel. We don’t want Chinatown to feel like a very temporary place.’ And it was really cool. I was like, ‘That’s really awesome. You’re coordinated, just like speaking your truth in another language to all these developers sitting here.’ And I was like, I really want that to be in this book. And I want kids to read that.
How can people collaborate with you on an art project in Boston?
I do so on a pretty limited basis. My criteria for commissions are really kind of like, ‘Do I love this, and will I have joy every minute of this project?’ And then I think the other thing is, I know, actually a lot of artists are like, ‘You should not take social justice cause projects because they’re always like, you know, blah, blah, blah.’ But, I think about whether or not the cause is something I believe in or support. I’m doing a commission for Rubato right now. There used to be a bakery in Quincy called Contempo. And the son of the original owner is taking it over now. He was a community organizer for CPA, and I was like, ‘I will absolutely make something for you and your bakery.’ So I feel like our values are really aligned. I love what he’s trying to do with his bakery. He’s like trying to serve existing clientele but also bring in different audiences to their food, which I’m like, ‘I dig that;’ It’s kind of what the graphic novel is about.
Noodle & Bao
by Shaina Lu; illus. by the author
Intermediate, Middle School Quill Tree/HarperCollins 224 pp.
10/24 9780063283411 $24.99
Paper ed. 9780063283404 $15.99
e-book ed. 9780063283428 $11.99
Momo has spent her entire life in her beloved Town 99, a fictional setting resembling real-world Chinatowns but where humans and anthropomorphic animals from different cultures coexist. Gentrification threatens the survival of Noodle & Bao, the restaurant run by Momo's best friend's ah-ma (grandmother)--and it also threatens Momo's own housing situation. Not content to stand by and do nothing, Momo makes plans to organize Town 99's residents against the corporation funding the town's gentrification. Lu's clean and expressive graphic-novel style, with most characters drawn with exaggeratedly round features and figures, radiates gentleness and warmth.
The limited two-tone palette of black and red, combined with a mix of flat coloring and screen tones, creates contrasts and highlights as well as visual variety and texture. The use of multiple Chinese languages (Mandarin and Cantonese), usually but not always accompanied by English translations, represents the linguistic diversity of the setting and appeals to audiences with multiple literacies, adding layers of nuance and enjoyment for those in the know. Blending silly moments and fantastical elements with a more serious real-world issue, this book serves as both a loving tribute to Chinatowns and an invitation to young readers to stand up against injustice in their own communities. Back matter gives information on Chinatowns, gentrification, community organizing, and language. SHENWEI CHANG
* indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Chang, Shenwei. "Noodle & Bao." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2025, p. 85. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A822951893/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=938673ac. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.
Lu, Shaina NOODLE & BAO Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (Children's None) $15.99 10, 15 ISBN: 9780063283404
Two kids try to save their beloved neighborhood from gentrification.
"This is a love story between people and a town." Momo grew up in Town 99. Her favorite place to eat, Noodle & Bao, belongs to Noodle, her best friend Bao's grandmother. When the landlord sold the building, Noodle had to close the restaurant and instead open a food cart. Bao says the business is struggling. Ms. Jujube, the owner of Fancé Café, the restaurant that took their place, is trying to force them out. Momo also notices changes--higher rent, "shiny new stores and big buildings appearing," and neighbors moving away. Then Fancé Café's owner announces that she's opening Fancé Hotel, which she says will transform the "dirty old neighborhood." Momo and Bao try everything they can think of to protect Town 99--it isn't easy, but gathering everyone together is the only way to protect their neighborhood. This fantasy world, which is populated with humans and anthropomorphized animals, is based on the real history of American Chinatowns and the struggles of community organizations against gentrification. Lu uses light humor to tell the story in an accessible way. Informative backmatter offers additional context. Illustrated in black and white accentuated by shades of salmon, the charming, whimsical illustrations highlight the food and various neighborhood details. Noodle is Taiwanese, and her dialogue is written in English and traditional Chinese characters; Momo's family and some other characters use English and romanized Cantonese.
An empowering combination of food, humor, and advocacy.(Graphic fiction. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Lu, Shaina: NOODLE & BAO." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806452726/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ac74a860. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.