Shi Pei Pu, the Beijing opera singer and spy who was the inspiration for the broadway show M. BUtterfly died in Paris last week. Shi’s sexually convoluted love affair with a French Embassy worker created one of the strangest cases in international espionage.
The New York Times reported:
Mr. Shi, who was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot, was believed to be 70. He had also been believed for years to be a woman, at least by Mr. Boursicot, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France.