Yoshiko Kawashima Part 1: Double O Princess | 77

Even The Royals

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.4 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yoshiko Kawashima was more than just a Manchu princess – she was also one of history’s most notorious spies. After being torn from her family at age 8 and forced to navigate between Chinese and Japanese identities, Yoshiko refuses to be held back by society’s expectations of women. She dresses like a man, becomes a staple of Shanghai nightlife, and has affairs with both men and women. But living large can be dangerous. And Yoshiko’s inability to stay in the shadows might just prove to be her fatal flaw.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderry Plus subscribers can listen to Even the Royals early and ad-free right now.
0:04.1	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:07.7	A quick note about our show.
0:09.6	We do a lot of research for our stories, but we also enter high school history class,
0:13.5	so some details and scenes are dramatized.
0:16.6	And a heads up that today's episode contains a brief mention of suicide and sexual assault, along with language that could get you kicked out of the forbidden city. Please be advised.
0:32.7	So, Brooke, do you think you would make a good spy?
0:36.9	Oh, absolutely. I know I would make a good spy,
0:41.6	like 1,000 percent. Okay. What would be the thing that would blow your cover, though?
0:47.4	Empathy or some dumb shit. I know. Isn't that the worst? Yeah. Why couldn't I be born without a moral
0:53.8	compass? I know. So usually,
0:57.6	spies want to fly completely under the radar, as we know, is aspiring spies ourselves. Yeah.
1:03.2	And while our royal today was a real-life spy, she was definitely not low profile.
1:09.9	Yoshiko Kawashima was a gender-fluid, high-flying partier who happened to moonlight in espionage.
1:16.4	She was a master of reinvention and loved the attention she got.
1:20.4	But eventually, her fame came back to bite her.
1:23.6	Yoshiko was a princess of China's Qing dynasty.
1:27.1	But her family's rule was overthrown when she was a kid, and eventually Yoshiko was a princess of China's Qing dynasty. But her family's rule was overthrown when she was a kid,
1:29.8	and eventually Yoshiko was sent to Japan to live with a new family.
1:34.4	Overnight, she lost her way of life, her family, and her crown.
1:38.7	In the course of trying to find a sense of home again,
1:41.6	she ended up spying for the Japanese,
	...

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