16 Facts About Zheng Pingru

Zheng Pingru was a Chinese socialite and spy who gathered intelligence on the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Zheng Pingru's life is believed to be the inspiration for Eileen Chang's novella Lust, Caution, which was later adapted into the eponymous 2007 film by Ang Lee.

Zheng Pingru was born in 1918 in Lanxi, Zhejiang Province, Republic of China.

Zheng Pingru's father, Zheng Yueyuan, known as Zheng Yingbo, was a Nationalist revolutionary and a follower of Sun Yat-sen.

From her mother, Zheng Pingru learned to speak Japanese fluently.

Zheng Pingru grew up in Shanghai, where her father taught at Fudan University.

Zheng Pingru studied at the Shanghai College of Politics and Law.

Zheng Pingru admired famous actresses Hu Die and Ruan Lingyu and wanted to be an actress, she performed with a group of actors from Datong University.

Zheng Pingru became a well-known socialite and appeared on the cover of the popular pictorial The Young Companion in 1937.

When Japan invaded China in 1937 and occupied Shanghai following the Battle of Shanghai, Zheng Pingru secretly joined the resistance movement and became an underground Kuomintang spy.

On 10 December 1939, Zheng Pingru invited Ding back to her home at the end of a date where assassins waited inside, but Ding refused her invitation and the plan failed.

On 21 December 1939, Zheng Pingru accompanied Ding to dinner at his friend's house.

Zheng Pingru hid a Browning pistol and drove to 76 Jessfield Road; when she was about to enter, she was arrested by Li Shiqun and held at Ding's intelligence headquarters.

In February 1940, Zheng Pingru was secretly executed near the Zhongshan Road in western Shanghai, at the age of 22.

Zheng Pingru's brother, Zheng Haicheng, was a fighter pilot in the Republic of China Air Force who died in battle on 19 January 1944.

Zheng Pingru's story is generally believed to have inspired the character of Wang Jiazhi in the novella Lust, Caution, written by Eileen Chang in 1979.