Shi Pei Pu, Chinese opera singer and spy (born Dec. 21, 1938, Shandong, China—died June 30, 2009, Paris, France), engaged in a bizarre love affair and in espionage work with French embassy clerk Bernard Boursicot that became the basis for a Tony Award-winning play. Shi worked as an opera singer and as a librettist in Beijing, where he met Boursicot in 1964 while teaching Chinese to diplomats’ families. Shi convinced Boursicot that he was actually a woman disguised as a man, and the two began a love affair that continued for 20 years, during which time Shi also told Boursicot that he had become pregnant and had a son. Boursicot turned over as many as 150 French embassy documents through Shi to the Chinese secret service before returning to France in the early 1980s. Shi and his “son,” whom he had purchased from a doctor in China, joined Boursicot in Paris, where Shi won acceptance in the French community with his cultural performances, even appearing on television. He and Boursicot were arrested in 1983 and charged with espionage. They were each sentenced to six years in prison, but since the documents passed were of minimal political significance, after 11 months both were pardoned and released. Shi’s story inspired the Tony Award-winning Broadway play M. Butterfly (1988; film adaptation 1993) by Chinese-American David Henry Hwang and was recounted in the book Liaison (1993) by American author Joyce Wadler.

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