Shi Pei Pu

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/shi-pei-pu

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Shi Pei Pu born?December 21, 1938
2. When did Shi Pei Pu die?June 30, 2009
3. What was Shi Pei Pu's job?Chinese opera singer
4. What is the espionage role?Obtained classified information through a 20-year deception of a French embassy employee
5. Who was Shi Pei Pu?Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese opera singer who also worked as a spy. He lived from 1938 to 2009 and pretended to be a woman for 20 years.
6. How did Shi Pei Pu trick the French diplomat Bernard Boursicot?He pretended to be a woman and made up a story about having a child with Boursicot. This made Boursicot trust him and share secret information.

Clandestine Operations: Secret activities, especially those conducted by intelligence agencies or military forces.
Gender Identity: A person's internal sense of being male, female, both, neither, or somewhere else along the gender spectrum.
Allegory: A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.