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1983, Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested for spying for China. The prosecution then dramatically revealed Shi's real sex to
Boursicot. He refused to believe it until he was permitted to see proof in the form of Shi's body. Not long after, he attempted suicide while in prison but was unsuccessful. In 1986, after a two-day trial, Boursicot and Shi were convicted of spying against the French government. Each received a sentence of six years in prison.
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Boursicot returned to France in 1979 and lost contact with Shi. In 1982, Boursicot was able to get the now 16-year-old Shi Du Du out of China and to Paris, where they lived as a family. Boursicot was questioned by authorities and confessed to having passed at least 150 classified documents to Shi. In
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About the affair, Boursicot is quoted as saying, "When I believed it, it was a beautiful story." However, when
Boursicot was 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
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Boursicot related through Wadler that Shi first told him the story of an opera about a
Chinese girl who swaps clothing with her brother so she may be educated. She falls in love with another student but is called home to participate in an arranged marriage. The male student is driven to suicide and
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again with an added twist that he, Shi Pei Pu, had been a woman masquerading as a man all his life to prevent her father from taking a second wife and shaming her mother who had two older daughters. Upon Shi's birth, this fiction was created. Boursicot accepted the lie, their affair began, and all
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Boursicot was born in 1944. He attended boarding schools as a youth, where he engaged in multiple homosexual affairs with other students; upon graduation, Boursicot became determined to have sex with a woman for the first time, believing that institutionalized homosexuality among boarding students
215:
Shi was pardoned in 1987. After his release, Shi remained in Paris, where he enjoyed his notoriety and performed as an opera singer. Boursicot, released four months after Shi, was last reported to be living contentedly with
Thierry and has apparently made peace with the nature of his relationship
172:
about the affair, would later attribute
Boursicot's belief that Shi was a woman to Shi's unique ability to retract his own testicles, which, combined with the manipulation of his own penis, created the illusion of labial lips and a clitoris and allowed for shallow penetration.
242:
in 1993, titled "The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love with a Shadow", Wadler reveals in intimate detail how
Boursicot came to believe the fiction that Shi Pei Pu was a woman despite having first come to know him socially and in a close friendship as a man.
191:, having multiple liaisons with women while also engaged in a long-term relationship with a Frenchman named Thierry, with whom he one day hoped to form a family including Shi Pei Pu and Bertrand. Boursicot has stated that he began passing documents to Shi when the Chinese
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In his obituary, it was reported that Shi Pei Pu disliked answering questions about the sexual specifics of the affair; in 1988 he was quoted in an interview as having said, "I used to fascinate both men and women. What I was and what they were didn't matter."
216:
with Shi. Shi Pei Pu and Shi Du Du had no contact with
Boursicot until Shi's death in 2009. In Shi's obituary, it was reported that Shi Du Du was living in Paris and believed by Boursicot to have a family with three sons.
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692:
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was released in 1993. Periodic restagings of the play and television airings of the film based on it continue to spark interest in the espionage case at the heart of the fictional works of art.
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Over the next decade, they continued their on-again off-again affair as
Boursicot moved from posting to posting in Southeast Asia. During this period Boursicot embraced his own
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176:
In 1965, Shi claimed to be pregnant and was able to use a baby boy called Shi Du Du (later called
Bertrand by Boursicot and his family), who had been bought from a doctor in
235:, granting her lengthy interviews about deeply personal subjects as well as access to all records and his closest family members. He is frequently quoted in the book.
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318:
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as an accountant in 1964. They met at a party just before
Christmas held by Claude Chayet at the French Embassy and shortly began a relationship. Reporter
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who offered him access to Shi in exchange for his passing documents. He believed Shi's safety was at risk if he failed to participate.
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184:. Boursicot believed he was a mixed-race Chinese and French, and that there was a family resemblance between him and the boy.
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singer who performed female roles, whom Boursicot claimed he believed to be female. This espionage case became something of a
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in France in 1986, as Boursicot and Shi were brought to trial, owing to the nature of the unusual sexual subterfuge alleged.
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697:
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Boursicot reported that it is only when he had the opportunity to leave his dull job that Shi Pei Pu told him the
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Specifically pages 58 through 60 discuss the sexual titillation the case caused in the French media at the time.
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309:
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307:, Shi Pei Pu's control agent in the Chinese Secret Service, has had his career covered in a book
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The case was again back under a public spotlight when a play loosely based on this affair,
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eventually the girl does the same at the grave of her true love. The opera is called the
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231:, who was seeking information for her book on the espionage case and affair,
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420:"The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love With a Shadow"
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102:(born 12 August 1944) is a French diplomat who was caught in a Chinese
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People convicted of spying for the People's Republic of China
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Boursicot's and Shi's public comments regarding their affair
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Hawthorne, Melanie C. (Winter 1997). "'Du Du That Voodoo':
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made it difficult for him to see her. He was approached by
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by Njo Kong Kie and Wong Teng Chi is based on this affair.
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481:"Shi Pei Pu, Singer, Spy and 'M. Butterfly,' Dies at 70"
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542:"France Pardons Chinese Spy Who Pretended to Be Woman"
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is based on this affair. This became the basis of the
106:trap (seducing him to participate in espionage) by
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274:say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free."
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238:In a separate but lengthy article published in
160:in China while posted to the French Embassy in
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469:
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516:"France Jails 2 in Odd Case of Espionage"
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410:
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227:Boursicot cooperated fully with reporter
220:Cooperation with Joyce Wadler, author of
131:, premiered in 1988 and yet again as the
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316:The contemporary Chinese Music Theatre
278:Legacy of the affair and espionage case
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595:
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207:Return to France, trial and aftermath
37:Boursicot's passport photo circa 1960
458:from the original on 6 October 2021.
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534:
499:
13:
631:
619:from the original on 14 March 2023
446:"Spies: Why Not Sort of Pregnant?"
14:
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688:Espionage scandals and incidents
550:. 10 April 1987. Archived from
85:Thierry Toulet (beginning 1974)
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345:
148:was merely a rite of passage.
1:
579:. 3 July 2009. Archived from
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297:of the same name directed by
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7:
713:French bisexual politicians
645:. William Morrow & Co.
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240:The New York Times Magazine
16:French diplomat (born 1944)
10:
729:
643:The Chinese Secret Service
310:The Chinese Secret Service
199:, a member of the Chinese
703:Bisexual male politicians
89:
76:
68:
60:
42:
30:
23:
641:; Kauffer, RĂ©mi (1990).
261:that came after ensued.
135:of the play directed by
698:China–France relations
571:"Obituary: Shi Pei Pu"
258:Story of the Butterfly
250:Story of the Butterfly
374:10.1353/esp.2010.0168
319:Mr. Shi and His Lover
168:, who wrote the book
152:Relationship with Shi
156:Boursicot first met
708:French bisexual men
576:The Daily Telegraph
193:Cultural Revolution
93:Shi Dudu (Bertrand)
547:The New York Times
530:on 2 October 2013.
521:The New York Times
512:Bernstein, Richard
486:The New York Times
425:The New York Times
418:(15 August 1993).
434:on 15 March 2011.
362:L'Esprit Créateur
291:David Henry Hwang
129:David Henry Hwang
100:Bernard Boursicot
97:
96:
25:Bernard Boursicot
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683:French diplomats
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605:. Bantam Books.
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524:. Archived from
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489:. Archived from
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428:. Archived from
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299:David Cronenberg
137:David Cronenberg
83:(beginning 1964)
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585:on 9 July 2009.
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556:on 4 June 2011.
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514:(11 May 1986).
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479:(1 July 2009).
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454:. 19 May 1986.
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333:Chevalier d'Eon
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133:film adaptation
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639:Faligot, Roger
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495:on 6 May 2011.
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53:12 August 1944
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673:Living people
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652:0-688-09722-7
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612:9780307799173
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597:Wadler, Joyce
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477:Wadler, Joyce
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55:(age 80)
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621:. Retrieved
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582:the original
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553:the original
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527:the original
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492:the original
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431:the original
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368:(4): 58–66.
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358:M. Butterfly
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286:M. Butterfly
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229:Joyce Wadler
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180:, and was a
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166:Joyce Wadler
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124:M. Butterfly
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112:Peking opera
99:
98:
18:
678:1944 births
189:bisexuality
61:Nationality
667:Categories
339:References
305:Kang Sheng
197:Kang Sheng
158:Shi Pei Pu
143:Early life
108:Shi Pei Pu
81:Shi Pei Pu
69:Occupation
49:1944-08-12
390:162228980
283:The play
110:, a male
623:14 March
617:Archived
599:(1993).
456:Archived
382:26288055
354:M. Venus
327:See also
178:Xinjiang
104:honeypot
90:Children
77:Partners
72:Diplomat
602:Liaison
233:Liaison
222:Liaison
170:Liaison
649:
609:
388:
380:
182:Uyghur
162:Peking
64:French
386:S2CID
378:JSTOR
647:ISBN
625:2023
607:ISBN
451:Time
356:and
295:film
43:Born
370:doi
360:".
289:by
127:by
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47:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
