Distinctive character of shifty oriental spy (11)
I believe the answer is:
personality
'distinctive character' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'shifty oriental spy' is the wordplay.
'shifty' is an anagram indicator.
'oriental'+'spy'='orientalspy'
'orientalspy' anagrammed gives 'PERSONALITY'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for personality that I've seen before include "Distinctive character" , "Charisma" , "Individual disposition" , "(Distinctness of) character" , "Celebrity" .)