Shi Pei Pu, a Chinese Spy and Opera Singer Who Persuaded His French Lover He Was a Woman
February 17, 2026 1960s , event & history , politics , WTF Shi Pei Pu (1938–2009) was a Chinese opera singer from Beijing who became the center of one of the most unusual and unbelievable espionage cases of the 20th century. His story is a mix of Cold War politics, deep deception, and a 20-year romance that inspired the Tony Award-winning play and subsequent film, M. Butterfly . Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu, before 1960. The story began in 1964 when Bernard Boursicot, a 20-year-old diplomat at the French embassy in Beijing, met Shi Pei Pu at a cocktail party. Shi, who was 26 at the time, was a singer and librettist who convinced Boursicot that he was actually a woman disguised as a man by his parents because they desperately wanted a son. Boursicot believed the story, and the two began a sexual and romantic relationship that lasted two decades. To maintain the ruse during intimacy, Shi utilized extreme...
