Always on the Lookout

With his mop of frizzy hair, thick eyeglasses, and shiny, polka-dotted shirts, Lawrence Lee bears a striking resemblance to Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me . He prefers to think of himself as "the guy behind James Bond, 007." His ramshackle office in a low-rent district of Taipei is lined floor to ceiling with spy gadgetry: neckties fitted with lenses, cameras disguised as Bibles, infrared goggles. If you are lucky, he will show you his small library of Japanese manuals with detailed instructions on how to secretly film your neighbor's underpants.

For 10 years, Lee's company, Singa...