Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug addiction, domestic violence, and misogyny as well as its graphic depictions of violence and death. It also discusses racism and antisemitism.

Aiyi Shao is the primary protagonist of The Last Rose of Shanghai. She appears at age 60 in the 1980 frame of the novel and is age 20 at the beginning of the main events in 1940. Aiyi comes from an aristocratic Shanghai family and is caught between that family’s expectations and her own subversive desires, embodying the theme of Oppression Versus Safety in Traditional Roles. Both Aiyi’s business ownership and her romantic relationship with Ernest place her in conflict with her family, the latter more so than the former.

At the beginning of the novel, Aiyi defines herself through her physical attractiveness and business acumen. She values her youthful beauty, demonstrated by her misery during her pregnancy because her “slim body turn[s] into an ugly barrel” (297). As a nightclub owner, she describes herself as cold to increase her authority as a young woman employing men. Miriam also sees Aiyi as “cold,” a

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