Shi (left) and Boursicot met in 1964. Shi dressed as a man but claimed that he was actually a woman.
Chinese Opera is known for its convoluted plots, vibrant makeup, beautiful costumes and sets, and performers’ distinct vocal styles. Unsurprisingly, many of the 1,000 schemes revolve around political and military conflict rather than romance. But did you know that there was an Opera Singer who also worked as a Spy against the French?
Shi Pei Pu is a Chinese opera singer-turned spy who obtained secrets from a French embassy worker for twenty years by posing as a woman during their sexual relationship. He even took a child and pretended it belonged to them.
Who was the Chinese Opera Singer Who Also Worked as a Spy Against the French?
Chinese Opera is known for its convoluted plots, vibrant makeup, beautiful costumes and sets, and performers’ distinct vocal styles. Unsurprisingly, many of the 1,000 schemes revolve around political and military conflict rather than romance. But did you know that there was an Opera Singer who also worked as a Spy against the French?
Shi Pei Pu is a Chinese opera singer-turned spy who obtained secrets from a French embassy worker for twenty years by posing as a woman during their sexual relationship. He even took a child and pretended it belonged to them.
Shi Pei Pu and His Life as a Spy
Shi Pei Pu was a moderately successful Beijing opera singer and actor. He later became a spy after developing a relationship with a French Embassy employee named Bernard Boursicot, through whom he passed all of his secrets to the Chinese government.
Shi Pei Pu was dressed as a man at the party where he met Boursicot, but his bright eyes and exquisite facial features were as delicate and enchanting as a woman’s. He once boasted that he used to fascinate both men and women, and Boursicot, a 20-year-old accountant at the new French embassy in Beijing, was captivated by his beauty.
After the party, the two stayed in touch and met several times. Shi Pei Pu claimed that he was born a girl and that his mother mistook him for a boy because his father was desperate for a son after having two daughters. He claimed to have lived a more masculine life since then. Boursicot believed him.
The couple eventually fell in love and began a sexual relationship, which Boursicot later described as quick and furious and always carried out clandestinely. He was told that this was proper Chinese etiquette when having sex.
When the Chinese government found out about the affair, Boursicot was forced to produce documents, first from the embassy in Beijing from 1969 to 1972, and then from his posting at the consulate in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, from 1977 to 1979.
From 1966 to 1976, China was in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, making it difficult for Boursicot to meet Shi Pei Pu. Boursicot was assigned to a post in Southeast Asia. During one visit he presented Boursicot with their four-year-old son, Shi Dudu, whom Shi claimed was born in 1966. Boursicot claimed the boy as his own. (Source: South China Morning Post)
Were They Able to Catch Shi Pei Pu and Prove His True Gender?
In the summer of 1983, the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire discovered the two were living together and questioned them about secret documents provided to Chinese authorities.
Following the interrogation, Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Shi Pei Pu insisted that he knew nothing about secret documents and that he was a woman.
The French judge, who was unconvinced, eventually sent him to Fresnes, a men’s prison in Paris’s southern suburbs, after a thorough medical examination to prove Shi’s gender.
He told doctors while in police custody that he had a buried penis and had hidden his genitals to convince Boursicot that he was a woman.
I never told Bernard I was a woman, I only let it be understood that I could be a woman
Shi Pei Pu
(Source: South China Morning Post)