Who was Shi Peipu, a Chinese spy and opera star who cross-dressed as a woman and had a long-term sexual relationship with a French diplomat?
- 5 years ago
Who was Shi Peipu, a Chinese spy and opera star who cross-dressed as a woman and had a long-term sexual relationship with a French diplomat?
Who was Shi Peipu, a Chinese spy who cross-dressed as a woman?
Shi Peipu, a Chinese opera singer who was born in Shandong province, died in a French nursing home in Paris, aged 70, on June 30, 2009. An aide revealed his death to Agence France-Presse.
However, when Bernard Boursicot, Shi’s former lover, was asked about Shi’s death in a telephone interview, he showed no sympathy.
“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,” Boursicot told Joyce Wadler, a New York Times journalist and author of Liaison: The True Story of the M. Butterfly Affair, published in 1994.
Boursicot granted Wadler lengthy interviews about deeply personal matters as well as access to close family members and all his records.
What happened to the couple? And why is their story regarded as one of the strangest international espionage tales of recent times?
Follow STYLE on:
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style
https://www.facebook.com/scmpstyle
https://www.instagram.com/scmp_style
https://www.twitter.com/scmp_style
https://www.youtube.com/c/SCMPStyle
https://www.dailymotion.com/scmp_style
Who was Shi Peipu, a Chinese spy who cross-dressed as a woman?
Shi Peipu, a Chinese opera singer who was born in Shandong province, died in a French nursing home in Paris, aged 70, on June 30, 2009. An aide revealed his death to Agence France-Presse.
However, when Bernard Boursicot, Shi’s former lover, was asked about Shi’s death in a telephone interview, he showed no sympathy.
“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,” Boursicot told Joyce Wadler, a New York Times journalist and author of Liaison: The True Story of the M. Butterfly Affair, published in 1994.
Boursicot granted Wadler lengthy interviews about deeply personal matters as well as access to close family members and all his records.
What happened to the couple? And why is their story regarded as one of the strangest international espionage tales of recent times?
Follow STYLE on:
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style
https://www.facebook.com/scmpstyle
https://www.instagram.com/scmp_style
https://www.twitter.com/scmp_style
https://www.youtube.com/c/SCMPStyle
https://www.dailymotion.com/scmp_style