The Cheongsam Code of Ayako

The Qipao Code

Protagonist: Asano Ayako, secretary at the South Manchuria Railway Company in Japan. Her true identity is a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Anti-War Alliance.

Setting: The Sincere Department Store on Nanjing Road and the Japanese consulate’s secretariat.

Ayako uses the number of frog closures on custom-made qipaos to relay intelligence about Kwantung Army movements. She discovers that the consulate has used pages from The Tale of Genji to wallpaper a secret map room. She recruits a KMT agent who is infatuated with her, hiding a miniature camera inside the ribs of a sandalwood fan. But while taking photographs, she stumbles upon the French consul’s wife smuggling opium with the Green Gang. In the end, she strangles the Special Services Division chief who has been spying on her with an obi, then slips the bloodstained map film into a diplomatic pouch the consulate is sending to Berlin.