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 modesty and physical manipulation, citing Chinese cultural “tradition” to keep the lights off and clothes on.

Bernard Boursicot worked as an accountant at the French Embassy in Beijing in 1965.

The deception went even further. Shi claimed to have become pregnant and later presented Boursicot with a son, Shi Du Du. In reality, Shi had purchased the child from a doctor in a remote region of China. When Chinese intelligence discovered the affair, they pressured Boursicot into providing embassy documents. Between 1977 and 1982, Boursicot turned over approximately 500 classified documents to the Chinese government, believing he was protecting his “wife” and “son.”

The truth finally came out in 1983 after Boursicot moved Shi and the boy to Paris. French authorities arrested them both for espionage. During the trial, a medical examination confirmed that Shi Pei Pu was biologically male. Boursicot was reportedly devastated and became the subject of widespread ridicule in France. Both men were sentenced to six years in prison, but Shi was pardoned by President François Mitterrand after only a year to ease diplomatic tensions with China.

Shi (left) and Boursicot met in 1964. Shi dressed as a man but claimed that he was actually a woman.

Boursicot and Shi Dudu, his ‘son’ with Shi Peipu. In reality, the boy was adopted.

Boursicot (left) and Shi stood trial in France in 1983 for spying for China. They were found guilty in 1986 and received six-year sentences for espionage. Both were pardoned in 1987.

After his pardon, Shi returned to performing as an opera singer. He was reluctant to share the details of his relationship with Boursicot, stating that he “used to fascinate both men and women” and that “What I was and what they were didn’t matter.” Shi spoke infrequently with Boursicot over the subsequent years. However, in the months before Shi’s death, he told Boursicot that he still loved him.

Shi was said to be 70 years old when he died on 30 June 2009, in Paris. Shi is survived by his adopted son, Shi Du Du, who later fathered three sons of his own. Notified at a French nursing home of Shi’s death, Boursicot said, “He did so many things against me that he had no pity for; I think it is stupid to play another game now and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free.”

Shi and Boursicot’s affair is one of the strangest espionage stories of recent times.

A scene from the 1993 film M. Butterfly.