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Liaison: the Gripping Real Story of the Diplomat Spy and the Chinese Opera Star
The story behind the Broadway play M. Butterfly chronicles the strange love affair between a French diplomat in Beijing and a mysterious opera singer, a liaison in which the Frenchman is unaware that his lover is a man.
321 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
9 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Wadler
11 books19 followers Joyce Wadler is a former New York Times staff reporter, who wrote the award winning ‘I Was Misinformed’ humor column for several years and today writes a humor column on Substack. https://joycewadler.substack.com/
Joyce was also the New York correspondent for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for New York Magazine and Rolling Stone.
Her best-selling memoir about breast cancer, ‘My Breast’, has been translated into several languages and was adapted by Ms. Wadler as a CBS television movie. Gloria Steinem called the book, “An irresistible and intimate story of defeating cancer with humor and self-respect.”
"Cured, My Ovarian Cancer Story", originally published as a cover story in New York Magazine, tells the story of Ms. Wadler's later battle against advanced ovarian cancer, as well as her discovery that she carried the BRCA-1 genetic mutation, which puts women at higher risk or breast and ovarian cancer. Like 'My Breast', it is a cancer book which will make you laugh -- and one with a happy ending.
Joyce was also the New York correspondent for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for New York Magazine and Rolling Stone.
Her best-selling memoir about breast cancer, ‘My Breast’, has been translated into several languages and was adapted by Ms. Wadler as a CBS television movie. Gloria Steinem called the book, “An irresistible and intimate story of defeating cancer with humor and self-respect.”
"Cured, My Ovarian Cancer Story", originally published as a cover story in New York Magazine, tells the story of Ms. Wadler's later battle against advanced ovarian cancer, as well as her discovery that she carried the BRCA-1 genetic mutation, which puts women at higher risk or breast and ovarian cancer. Like 'My Breast', it is a cancer book which will make you laugh -- and one with a happy ending.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 7, 2011
While the story itself is, as the title says, gripping, and the research is indubitably thorough, Wadler's overbearing obsession with the mechanics of how to have sex with a man you truly believe is a woman---which issue was, after all, not even remotely related to the espionage for which Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested---eventually makes you just want to gag her, if only so Boursicot can stop saying, "Joyce, my sex life is not your business!" Boursicot was obviously deceived about the "love story" aspect of his claim to be spying to save his "family," just as he so industriously deceived Pei Pu throughout their relationship about his own half of their "love story," but then again he admitted right up front that he didn't spy for love, he spied because he believed spying for Communist China was the morally right thing to do. His sex life actually had nothing to do with it.
This is what happens, folks, when you put a complex research assignment about international politics into the hands of a writer from People magazine.
But if anybody's looking for a pair of powerfully-torn protagonists for the most amazing, conflict-ridden, lushly-set novel of the twenty-first century, these two characters are your men.
This is what happens, folks, when you put a complex research assignment about international politics into the hands of a writer from People magazine.
But if anybody's looking for a pair of powerfully-torn protagonists for the most amazing, conflict-ridden, lushly-set novel of the twenty-first century, these two characters are your men.
July 22, 2024
Liaison by Joyce Wadler.
In 1982, French diplomat Bernard Boursicot was arrested for passing intelligence information from his embassy in Beijing to Chinese opera singer Pei Pu. Boursicot claimed that he had spied to protect Pei Pu from punishment by the Chinese government when it was discovered that Pei Pu was his lover and the mother of his son. But investigation revealed that Pei Pu was in fact a man. Claiming an adopted child as his and Boursicot’ s, Pei Pu had successfully deceived Boursicot, in and out of bed, for 18 years. Wadler has written a vivid account of this bizarre story, drawing on interviews with Boursicot, Pei Pu and more than 100 of their friends and colleagues. Boursicot, a bisexual who has admitted to scores of love affairs, and Pei Pu have both served time in prison for espionage. And while their duplicitous lives are richly detailed here, their true natures remain a mystery.
High-class retelling of the real-life affair behind the mistaken-sex plot of M. Butterfly. Wadler wrote the poignant My Breast (1992). Bernard Boursicot sought adventure and, in the early 60's, wound up clerking for the French embassy in Beijing as a 20-year- old virgin who'd detached himself from some distasteful homosexual episodes as a schoolboy. In China, he met Shi Pei Pu, a small, mysterious, and apparently male singer who'd played women's roles with the Beijing Opera. After many months of shared lunches and dinners, Pei Pu revealed to Bernard that he was actually a woman. His anxiety-ridden parents had raised him as a boy, he said, and, in unisex Mao clothes, it had been easy to pass as a man. Slowly, Bernard fell for Pei Pu, then began having sex with her/him, usually in the dark but not always. According to both, this was passionate sex, and, 18 years later, Bernard still thought Pei Pu a woman despite the singer's affairs with other women. When the two were arrested in Paris for spying (Bernard had fallen under the spell of Mao's Little Red Book and performed some innocuous spying for China so he could stay with Pei Pu and care for his supposed son by the singer), doctors proved that Pei Pu was a man. How had the guileful Pei Pu duped Bernard for so long? Well, the answer convinces but won't be revealed here, since Wadler (who badgers Bernard in several interviews reprinted throughout the text) passes through several explanations before arriving, on her last page, at the real trick used by Pei Pu.... Compelling and faintly bittersweet.
In 1982, French diplomat Bernard Boursicot was arrested for passing intelligence information from his embassy in Beijing to Chinese opera singer Pei Pu. Boursicot claimed that he had spied to protect Pei Pu from punishment by the Chinese government when it was discovered that Pei Pu was his lover and the mother of his son. But investigation revealed that Pei Pu was in fact a man. Claiming an adopted child as his and Boursicot’ s, Pei Pu had successfully deceived Boursicot, in and out of bed, for 18 years. Wadler has written a vivid account of this bizarre story, drawing on interviews with Boursicot, Pei Pu and more than 100 of their friends and colleagues. Boursicot, a bisexual who has admitted to scores of love affairs, and Pei Pu have both served time in prison for espionage. And while their duplicitous lives are richly detailed here, their true natures remain a mystery.
High-class retelling of the real-life affair behind the mistaken-sex plot of M. Butterfly. Wadler wrote the poignant My Breast (1992). Bernard Boursicot sought adventure and, in the early 60's, wound up clerking for the French embassy in Beijing as a 20-year- old virgin who'd detached himself from some distasteful homosexual episodes as a schoolboy. In China, he met Shi Pei Pu, a small, mysterious, and apparently male singer who'd played women's roles with the Beijing Opera. After many months of shared lunches and dinners, Pei Pu revealed to Bernard that he was actually a woman. His anxiety-ridden parents had raised him as a boy, he said, and, in unisex Mao clothes, it had been easy to pass as a man. Slowly, Bernard fell for Pei Pu, then began having sex with her/him, usually in the dark but not always. According to both, this was passionate sex, and, 18 years later, Bernard still thought Pei Pu a woman despite the singer's affairs with other women. When the two were arrested in Paris for spying (Bernard had fallen under the spell of Mao's Little Red Book and performed some innocuous spying for China so he could stay with Pei Pu and care for his supposed son by the singer), doctors proved that Pei Pu was a man. How had the guileful Pei Pu duped Bernard for so long? Well, the answer convinces but won't be revealed here, since Wadler (who badgers Bernard in several interviews reprinted throughout the text) passes through several explanations before arriving, on her last page, at the real trick used by Pei Pu.... Compelling and faintly bittersweet.
January 27, 2018
I'm a bit torn about this one. On the one hand, the sexual side of the story is not only intriguing but necessary to those of us on the outside of this cultural and sexual experience. On the other hand, this is definitely informed by a 25-year-old perspective on being trans and more ethnocentrism than Wadler wants to admit to. All in all, it's useful as a near-primary source about the real story behind Madam Butterfly, but the sensibility does come off as dated at best.
February 13, 2022
Interesting but it did wear a bit thin. I had seen the play and this added some background that made the unlikely story more understandable.
December 25, 2023
A little more drawn out and technical than I would’ve liked but what a crazy story!
June 26, 2013
The story of a complex love affair that almost qualifies as folie a deux, "Liaison" is a gripping read. When Bernard Boursicot, a young, insecure French embassy worker meets Shi Pei Pu, a shy, soft-spoken Chinese man, they begin a long, tumultuous relationship in which neither is exactly what he claims to be.
Pei Pu tells Bernard that he is a woman in disguise, and Bernard becomes obsessed with the secret more than the person, smuggling documents out of the embassy so the government will allow his unorthodox affair to continue. Events escalate from there until both lives--and the life of the young man who is claimed to be a product of the affair--are changed irrevocably.
I very much enjoyed this book, although I did feel it put too prurient a focus on the sexual details of the story. Sadly, it is told almost entirely from Bernard's perspective, as Pei Pu declined to participate; I most wanted to know how their son, an innocent victim of his parents' obsession, has been able to make a life for himself apart from them.
Pei Pu tells Bernard that he is a woman in disguise, and Bernard becomes obsessed with the secret more than the person, smuggling documents out of the embassy so the government will allow his unorthodox affair to continue. Events escalate from there until both lives--and the life of the young man who is claimed to be a product of the affair--are changed irrevocably.
I very much enjoyed this book, although I did feel it put too prurient a focus on the sexual details of the story. Sadly, it is told almost entirely from Bernard's perspective, as Pei Pu declined to participate; I most wanted to know how their son, an innocent victim of his parents' obsession, has been able to make a life for himself apart from them.
February 13, 2009
This is about the Chinese opera singer - Shi Pei Pu and his romance with French attache Bernard Boursicot. Boursicot was unaware that Pei Pu, the love of his life and longtime sexual partner, was a man. Their relationship began in 1965 and they had child 'together. A tragic story of love and illusion.
December 22, 2013
BEST READ!
August 10, 2016
The most extraordinary story I have ever read.
Read
July 22, 2018An exceptionally well-written book about a nearly unbelievable story. Not only does it provide a look into the tragic lives of the main characters, but also a perspective on the changes that happened in China through the 20th century.
I really did enjoy reading this book, and looking forward to reading M. Butterfly and watching the Jeremy Irons movie. I hope to find some of the additional books and films that are referenced throughout the book.
I really did enjoy reading this book, and looking forward to reading M. Butterfly and watching the Jeremy Irons movie. I hope to find some of the additional books and films that are referenced throughout the book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews