The affair inspired American David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly (1988), which was produced on Broadway.

[2] Bernard Boursicot was born in France and was hired at the age of 20 as an accountant at the French embassy in Beijing.

[2] As recorded in his diary, Boursicot had previously had sexual relations only with fellow male students in school and wanted to meet a woman and fall in love.

He told Boursicot that he was "a female Beijing opera singer who had been forced to live as a man to satisfy his father's wish to have a son".

[3] After being discovered by the Chinese government, Boursicot was pressured into providing secret documents from his postings in Beijing from 1969 to 1972 and in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 1977 to 1979.

And as the French doctors sent to examine Pei Pu discovered, he could create the appearance of having female genitalia by making his testicles ascend into his body cavity and tucking his penis back.

The public disclosure of the long-term affair made Boursicot the subject of widespread ridicule in France.

He was reluctant to share the details of his relationship with Boursicot, stating that he "used to fascinate both men and women" and that "What I was and what they were didn't matter."

Notified at a French nursing home of Shi's death, Boursicot said, "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.