Bernard Boursicot
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Bernard Boursicot (born 1944) is a French diplomat who was caught in a honeypot trap, by Shi Pei-Pu, a male Peking opera singer, who Bouriscot believed to be a woman. The affair lasted for twenty years with Shi even producing an alleged son.
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[edit] China
Boursicot first met Shi in China while posted to the French Embassy in Peking as an accountant in 1964. He was 20 yeas old and Shi was 26. They met at an embassy reception and shortly began a romance. The two became intimate but made love rarely, always in haste and in darkness. Boursicot attributed Shi's shyness about his/her body to be part of her Chinese upbringing. Shi insisted in later years that s/he never told Boursicot that s/he was a woman. It was a misunderstanding that Shi simply allowed to stand without correction[1].
[edit] Spy
In 1965, Shi claimed to be pregnant and later produced a male baby, Bertrand, who had been bought from a doctor in the Xinjiang region.[2] to complete the illusion that Shi had given birth. Over the next decade, they continued their on-again off-again affair as Boursicot moved from posting to posting within Southeast Asia. Boursicot has stated that he began passing documents to Shi when the Chinese Cultural Revolution made it difficult for him to see Shi. He was approached by Kang Sheng, a member of the Chinese secret service 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.[3]
[edit] Return to France
Boursicot returned to France in 1979 and lost contact with Shi for a time. In 1982 Boursicot was able to get Shi and the now sixteen year old Bertand out of China and to Paris where they attempted to live as a family. The arrival of a Chinese citizen into the home of a former diplomat who had once been posted to Peking raised eyebrows with the French counterespionage service. Boursicot was eventually questioned and confessed to having passed at least 150 classified documents to Shi.[3]
[edit] Arrest
In 1983, Bouriscot and Shi Pei-Pu were arrested for spying for China. At trial, Boursicot defended his actions by saying he only passed documents to Shi so she could protect herself. He said she was at risk for having the affair with him and being the mother of his son.[4]. The prosecution then dramatically revealed Shi's true gender to Boursicot. He refused to believe it until he was permitted to see Shi and be shown in person that Shi was a male. Not long after, he attempted suicide unsuccessfully in prison.[1] Both lovers were charged with spying against the French government and served time. Shi was pardoned in 1987.[5] Shi Pei-Pu was subsequently deported.[6] Boursicot was last known to be living with a male lover. Shi and Bertrand continue to be a family. Boursicot is quoted as saying: "When I believed it, it was a beautiful story."[1]
[edit] Legacy
- The play M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is based on this affair as is the 1993 movie of the same name directed by David Cronenberg.
- Kang Sheng, Shi Pei-Pu's control agent in the Tewu, the Chinese Secret service, has had his career covered in a book The Chinese Secret Service.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c KPBS On Air Magazine (August 1993), "M. Butterfly” at North Coast Repertory Theatre (October 2006)
- ^ Time.com, World Notes Spies - Why Not Sort of Pregnant?, (October 2006)
- ^ a b The New York Times (Sunday, May 11th, 1986), France Jails 2 in Odd Case of Espionage (October 2006)
- ^ Asia Times Online (May 4th 2005) Asia's two butterfly syndromes, (October 2006)
- ^ New York Times (April 10th, 1987), France Pardons Chinese Spy Who Pretended to Be Woman (October 2006)
- ^ The New York times (Sunday April 10th, 1988), A 'Butterfly' That Hovers Over The Issues of Racism, Sexism, (October 2006)
- ^ Faligot Roger, Kauffer Remi (1990), The Chinese Secret Service, William Morrow & Co., ISBN 0-688-09722-7
- Joyce Wadler; Liaison ISBN 0553092138
- Joyce Wadler; August 15, 1993. The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love With a Shadow. "There is a little alarm that goes off in us, a small inner voice that senses danger. And on Thursday, June 30, 1983, on a busy commercial street in Paris, Bernard Boursicot -- an attache in the French Foreign Service who has always dreamed of being a man of distinction -- is hearing that alarm in his head. It is odd. Usually Boursicot returns to Paris after being posted abroad the way a hungry man sits down at the table. Old friends, good food, all-night bars, the possibility of a brief and amusing love affair -- he approaches it all with cheerful greed. But this morning, walking down Avenue Bosquet on the Left Bank, all Boursicot feels is the tension."
