The Chinese soprano, Shi Pei Pu (1938–30 June 2009) was 70 years old when he/she died at the nursing home where he/she had lived for quite some time. He/She had been a librettist and soprano for the Beijing Opera and besides that he/she taught Chinese to foreign diplomat families.The fact that he/she, who was born a male, had been engaged in one of the craziest love affairs of the century makes him/her an early LGBT-individual, but not solely by choice. No, his/her female roles at the Beijing Opera gave him/her a false identity as a woman and the young French diplomat Bernard Boursicot became obsessed with him/her. He was convinced that the illustrious opera diva, Shi Pei Pu, really was a biological woman.
The beautiful voice and studied female beauty of Shi Pei Pu enthralled Boursicot when he encountered the famous opera singer in 1964. Being very inexperienced he didn't expect foul play when his Chinese lover proclaimed that their love making - always in total darkness - had led to a pregnancy. In reality this Muslim boy had been bought from his poor mother by Shi Pei Pu.
Bernard Boursicot with his so-called "son" by his Chinese lover
The ability to pull off this stunt is a tribute to the talent of the opera singer and performer, but why did Shi Pei Pu commit this fraud? Well, he/she was not only a star at the Beijing scene, but also a dedicated Chinese spy who wanted to extract as much information from his/her French lover as possible.
The former lovers, Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, in the French court where they were sentenced for espionage
In 1983 both Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested on charges of espionage and
in 1986 they were convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. By then it was revealed how the young Frenchman had been deluded by the Chinese spy and opera singer. However, Shi Pei Pu refused to say that he had deluded anyone about his true gender, because, as he said: "I never stated it." This strange love affair was turned into a
Broadway production, "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang
which later also was to be filmed by David Cronenberg.
What I find extremely interesting in this "love affair" is the ability of Shi Pei Pu to play act as the opposite sex, to know how to engage in sexual acts of the opposite sex while hiding his own.
https://china-underground.com/2022/05/02/the-incredible-story-of-the-chinese-spy-shi-pei-pu/
https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1946375_1946448_1948269,00.html
Wikipedia
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