1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,360
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Hey, y'all.

2
00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:04,240
Speaker 2: I felt like I had a little secret when I

3
00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:08,680
Speaker 2: said it like that. Hey, everybody, what guess what? I

4
00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:12,080
Speaker 2: have no secrets for you. I wear everything on my sleeve.

5
00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:15,280
Speaker 2: You get what you know what you're getting with me.

6
00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:18,560
Speaker 2: That's one thing. People have always said, I got nothing

7
00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,880
Speaker 2: to hide. Do you think that's true? You know me

8
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:23,720
Speaker 2: better than most.

9
00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,160
Speaker 1: I don't think you have anything to hide unless you've

10
00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,159
Speaker 1: hidden it very very very well. For me.

11
00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 2: Maybe I have.

12
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: I know well and apparently you can.

13
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,319
Speaker 2: I guess I'm really good at keeping secrets. Then I'll

14
00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,520
Speaker 2: tell you what secret. I'll tell you what. I don't

15
00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,600
Speaker 2: have any secrets right now, but I'm a great secret keeper.

16
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,600
Speaker 2: Right If someone says, hey, don't tell anyone about this,

17
00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,400
Speaker 2: because you know we we know people. I'm sure everyone

18
00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:53,240
Speaker 2: knows people where if you tell them, don't tell anyone

19
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,880
Speaker 2: about this. They can't help it. It bursts out of

20
00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:03,760
Speaker 2: them like just you know, a rain erupting from I'm

21
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,399
Speaker 2: a magical volcano. They have to get it out. There's

22
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 2: just an impulse. It's like I must tell someone, and

23
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:15,199
Speaker 2: I'll tell you whatever that is in your brain, it's

24
00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,759
Speaker 2: broken in mind. I have no impulse to share secrets.

25
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 2: It's just not interesting to me. So you can tell

26
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,640
Speaker 2: me whatever you want, as long as you say, please

27
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,320
Speaker 2: don't tell anyone. Eh, okay, well yeah.

28
00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:29,720
Speaker 1: I need to know it's in confidence. I've definitely had

29
00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,160
Speaker 1: someone like I've said like, oh, yeah, I remember talking

30
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:34,160
Speaker 1: about that with so and so about whatever, and they'd

31
00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:37,000
Speaker 1: be like, oh damn, put me on blast. You know, yes,

32
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:38,840
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that. And I was like, oh, if

33
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:40,440
Speaker 1: you had said so, I would have definitely kept it

34
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,960
Speaker 1: to myself. But if you're just talking to me, yeah,

35
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: you got. I'm not going to assume that this is

36
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:46,360
Speaker 1: a privileged information.

37
00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:52,440
Speaker 2: Right, So everyone email your deepest darcacy to ridict romancegmail

38
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,760
Speaker 2: dot com with the subject line keep this a secret. Yeah,

39
00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:58,560
Speaker 2: and we will not read it on the show, but

40
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,400
Speaker 2: we'll be glad to know it. But you were about

41
00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:03,280
Speaker 2: to say something.

42
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,160
Speaker 1: Oh I don't okay, sorry, I'm trying to think of

43
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,080
Speaker 1: something to talk about this. It's not going to frustrate me.

44
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,799
Speaker 2: Oh well, it must be a mere weeks away from

45
00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:13,239
Speaker 2: the Atlanta Fringe Festival.

46
00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:15,640
Speaker 1: It is mere weeks in the fringe.

47
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,919
Speaker 2: Well, we'll just leave it at it's very exciting it's

48
00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,560
Speaker 2: going to be a festival with lots of cool performances,

49
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:23,919
Speaker 2: and you're very tired and.

50
00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:29,720
Speaker 1: Overwel and I'm tired and I'm here now all as well.

51
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're we're we're going to take a break from

52
00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:36,600
Speaker 2: that and uh and go back in time a little bit.

53
00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:37,320
Speaker 2: How does that sound?

54
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:38,520
Speaker 1: That sounds lovely?

55
00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, separate ourselves from that chaotic world into this chaotic world.

56
00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:47,160
Speaker 1: Yay, a different chaos, someone else's chaos. More importantly true,

57
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,440
Speaker 1: I'm not mine, I'm not involved.

58
00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:54,919
Speaker 2: Yeah, you all can leave your troubles behind and enjoy

59
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:56,720
Speaker 2: these people's troubles just like us.

60
00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,640
Speaker 1: Because this is a pretty crazy story we're about to

61
00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,840
Speaker 1: tell you today. This story was suggested by a listener

62
00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:09,800
Speaker 1: Katie p or At a clockwork Kitten on Instagram. Thank you, Katie,

63
00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,800
Speaker 1: this is a really good recommendation because today we're talking

64
00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:17,520
Speaker 1: about Bernard Borischool, who is a French diplomat who got

65
00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,200
Speaker 1: into some really big trouble in the nineteen eighties for

66
00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,760
Speaker 1: slipping information to the Chinese government on a deal to

67
00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:30,160
Speaker 1: help protect his friend and lover Shu Pay Pooh, who

68
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,440
Speaker 1: was Sha Pay Poo. Well, that's where it gets complicated.

69
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,680
Speaker 1: So let's dive into the story of show pay Pool

70
00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,320
Speaker 1: and Bernard Boris Skull and the honey pot plot that

71
00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:42,920
Speaker 1: titillated a nation.

72
00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 2: Oh sounds dangerous. Let's go.

73
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:46,720
Speaker 3: Hey their French come listen.

74
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,880
Speaker 1: Well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell.

75
00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,600
Speaker 3: There's no matchmaking, a romantic tips.

76
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,840
Speaker 1: It's just about ridiculous relation, ships, a love.

77
00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,200
Speaker 3: There might be any type of person at all, and

78
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:01,960
Speaker 3: abstract concept don't conquer. But if there's a story, we

79
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,920
Speaker 3: were the second Glance Ridiculous Romans.

80
00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:07,520
Speaker 2: A production of iHeartRadio.

81
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,920
Speaker 1: Okay, most of our info is coming from a nineteen

82
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:15,560
Speaker 1: ninety three New York Times article written by Joyce Wadler

83
00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:19,800
Speaker 1: that's called the true story of m Butterfly, the spy

84
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:21,839
Speaker 1: who fell in love with a shadow.

85
00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,440
Speaker 2: Fascinating So, Bernard A.

86
00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:28,120
Speaker 1: Burisco was a Frenchman. He was bored. I don't know

87
00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,440
Speaker 1: if that's you put on that. Well, anyway, he is

88
00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:34,200
Speaker 1: a Frenchman. He was born in nineteen forty four, and

89
00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,119
Speaker 1: he went to boarding schools as a kid, and while

90
00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:41,520
Speaker 1: he was there he engaged in multiple homosexual affairs. Sure,

91
00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,640
Speaker 1: but after he left school he became very determined to

92
00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,400
Speaker 1: have sex with a woman because he felt that homosexual

93
00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,560
Speaker 1: activity was just like a rite of passage in an

94
00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,240
Speaker 1: all male school. He was like, that's not me, that's

95
00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:53,880
Speaker 1: just what you do.

96
00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,000
Speaker 2: That's just another sport we play, right, I guess so

97
00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:58,000
Speaker 2: much boys in a room? What else are we getting into?

98
00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,080
Speaker 1: Joyce wrote quote, he enjoyed it, but it made him

99
00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:05,160
Speaker 1: feel guilty. He felt so badly about it that when

100
00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:07,960
Speaker 1: he turned eighteen, he made a promise to himself, he

101
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,880
Speaker 1: will stop sleeping with boys. It's a schoolboy's game. Oh okay,

102
00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:15,920
Speaker 1: what a weird schoolboy game.

103
00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:18,720
Speaker 2: Well, you know, back then it was like that or

104
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:20,280
Speaker 2: a hoop and a stick, right, I.

105
00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,680
Speaker 1: Guess so one or the other. Nineteen forty four we.

106
00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,520
Speaker 2: Got our own hoop and stick over here. I don't know.

107
00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:31,240
Speaker 1: It's sad though that He was like, I enjoyed it,

108
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:32,160
Speaker 1: but I can't do it.

109
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,960
Speaker 2: I know it does suck to that. There's like everybody's

110
00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,800
Speaker 2: it's clearly what everybody's into. Why do we have to

111
00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,039
Speaker 2: feel guilty about it? Well? Well, Bernard ended up a

112
00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,400
Speaker 2: college dropout at the age of twenty, but he managed

113
00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,279
Speaker 2: to finagel himself a job as an accountant at the

114
00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,440
Speaker 2: French embassy in China. In nineteen sixty four. This is

115
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,960
Speaker 2: right around or just after the Cultural Revolution when Mao

116
00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,920
Speaker 2: Zetong was taken over, and a lot of stuff changing

117
00:05:57,960 --> 00:05:58,960
Speaker 2: in China at this time.

118
00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:00,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, very period.

119
00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,760
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And French President Charles de Gaulle, who you

120
00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:07,880
Speaker 2: might know from the worst airport in the world. We've

121
00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:12,960
Speaker 2: got a personal story about that one will horrible. Well,

122
00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:16,240
Speaker 2: Charles Degall recognized the People's Republic of China and the

123
00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:20,080
Speaker 2: new communist regime of Chairman Now in January of nineteen

124
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,160
Speaker 2: sixty four, and then France became the first Western power

125
00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,560
Speaker 2: to open an embassy there in China since the Korean

126
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,600
Speaker 2: War eleven years earlier. So a lot of relations going

127
00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,919
Speaker 2: on between France and China. Probably a relatively good relationship

128
00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,440
Speaker 2: between the two countries at the time, yeah, compared to

129
00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:38,120
Speaker 2: a lot of the others.

130
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:43,400
Speaker 1: Right, But in China, foreigners are not welcome at this

131
00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:45,839
Speaker 1: period of time. They're kind of like, we just want

132
00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,240
Speaker 1: to be dealing with China's stuff with Chinese people. We

133
00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:52,120
Speaker 1: don't want a bunch of randoms run around. So it's

134
00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:55,760
Speaker 1: kind of dangerous to be a foreigner in China. You

135
00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,720
Speaker 1: don't really get to talk to Chinese people. Without government permission.

136
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,320
Speaker 1: Everyone who's in the French embassy is basically just like

137
00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,359
Speaker 1: pushing paper. They're saving for retirement, you know, they're not

138
00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,080
Speaker 1: really there to like make big changes in the world.

139
00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,800
Speaker 1: There's something so Bernard is kind of bored and lonely.

140
00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,480
Speaker 1: He thought he would get an exciting, like traveling diplomat job,

141
00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:17,840
Speaker 1: but he ends up in this embassy where you like

142
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:20,520
Speaker 1: can't really leave, you're not really talking to anybody new.

143
00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,600
Speaker 1: And yeah, he does get invited to like French embassy things,

144
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,840
Speaker 1: little events and get togethers and whatever, but all the

145
00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,880
Speaker 1: diplomats that work there can tell he's like a working

146
00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,200
Speaker 1: class kid. He's not really one of them. You know,

147
00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,160
Speaker 1: they're from a higher echelon of society and this guy's

148
00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:39,760
Speaker 1: just a clerk, you know. Okay, so he's kind of

149
00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:41,480
Speaker 1: getting iced out at the parties.

150
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:45,360
Speaker 2: You dropped at the college you and the boarding school

151
00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 2: where you played oops and sticks. Will the other boys

152
00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,520
Speaker 2: you're not one of us, well, Bernard is. I mean,

153
00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:53,520
Speaker 2: he's a good looking guy. He's kind of shortening. He's

154
00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,040
Speaker 2: got these broad shoulders and he's got a small waist.

155
00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:59,600
Speaker 2: He's got like a swimmer's body. A top little fellow nice.

156
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,200
Speaker 2: So you know, people are always giving him the eyes

157
00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,680
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, never mind, he is from our class.

158
00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,040
Speaker 2: So at a Christmas party that year, Bernard meets a

159
00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:12,840
Speaker 2: twenty six year old Chinese man named Shape Pooh. And

160
00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,200
Speaker 2: this guy was teaching some of the embassy wives Chinese.

161
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,080
Speaker 2: They could get around a little easier. And Bernard really

162
00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,440
Speaker 2: wanted to befriend some Chinese people. He's trying to open

163
00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:26,240
Speaker 2: up his diversity, you know, getting to know the locals.

164
00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,080
Speaker 2: I'm sick of being trapped in this little box. And

165
00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 2: he says, hey, maybe we should be friends. I could

166
00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:36,480
Speaker 2: stand to learn the little Chinese myself. And they do.

167
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,280
Speaker 2: They get to know each other a little bit. Bernard suggests,

168
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,080
Speaker 2: as should that he go out dancing. There's all these

169
00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:44,880
Speaker 2: pretty girls here, sir, why don't you go out and

170
00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:48,120
Speaker 2: try dancing. You're a handsome lad. And she says, well,

171
00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,439
Speaker 2: I don't really like dancing and never really date women

172
00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:56,280
Speaker 2: at all. And when Bernard asks him why he never dates,

173
00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,280
Speaker 2: he tells him, oh, well you would never understand.

174
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:00,480
Speaker 1: He's like, I would.

175
00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,840
Speaker 2: I love a schoolboys game, right, Oh so you're hoop

176
00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:07,520
Speaker 2: and stick player, I see now.

177
00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:09,960
Speaker 1: Sha of course, is his last name, not his first name,

178
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,320
Speaker 1: but it's easier to say, so we're just gonna say

179
00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:17,120
Speaker 1: them now. Sha invited Bernard to dinner a few days later,

180
00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,400
Speaker 1: which was very exciting because you don't usually get to

181
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,800
Speaker 1: like go out and hang out with Chinese people. And

182
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,400
Speaker 1: he tells him, I was an actor and a singer

183
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,959
Speaker 1: as a teenager under the tutelage of Mae Lanfeng, who

184
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,840
Speaker 1: is one of the most famous actors in China, and

185
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,800
Speaker 1: they specialized in female roles. Okay, so they're playing women

186
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:36,600
Speaker 1: on stage.

187
00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:38,520
Speaker 2: Okay, Shakespearean kind of thing, and the men are playing

188
00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:39,520
Speaker 2: women exactly.

189
00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:42,840
Speaker 1: Sha also played female roles, that's what you know. He

190
00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:46,000
Speaker 1: learned to do under the tutelage of Meylan Feng, and

191
00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:47,840
Speaker 1: he was really well suited to it because he was

192
00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:49,840
Speaker 1: kind of a short guy. He had sort of feminine

193
00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:52,800
Speaker 1: features in small hands, so he was able to really

194
00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:56,640
Speaker 1: play with that androgyny. But now he writes operas and

195
00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: plays and he's telling Bernard, my dad was a professor

196
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:02,880
Speaker 1: before he died. But my mother lives with me in

197
00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,839
Speaker 1: Beijing and she's a teacher. And Sha also had two

198
00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,960
Speaker 1: older sisters. Okay, so she's learning all this stuff about Sha,

199
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:10,280
Speaker 1: they're getting really close.

200
00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 2: Well, they did become very close friends, and they hung

201
00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,960
Speaker 2: out all the time. Bernard felt like they tell each

202
00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,760
Speaker 2: other things they can't tell anyone else. Say I'm a bestie.

203
00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:22,320
Speaker 2: I know I can unload on you. And she had

204
00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,200
Speaker 2: a really lonely childhood because his sisters are actually way

205
00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,560
Speaker 2: older than him. So he tells Bernard a lot of

206
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,000
Speaker 2: stories about the history of China and his own roles

207
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,720
Speaker 2: on stage, and one night he told him about the

208
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,480
Speaker 2: most famous role he ever had. It was in a

209
00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:40,640
Speaker 2: production of the Story of the Butterfly.

210
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:45,319
Speaker 1: Long ago in China, there lived a beautiful girl named

211
00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:48,360
Speaker 1: Ju ying Tai. She was the daughter of a very

212
00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:51,080
Speaker 1: learned man, and she dearly wished to attend one of

213
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,120
Speaker 1: the imperial schools, but being a girl, she was not

214
00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:57,559
Speaker 1: permitted to do so. But her brother did really badly

215
00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,360
Speaker 1: in school, so she really upset her. She made a

216
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:04,560
Speaker 1: plot with her brother. They exchanged clothes and she went

217
00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,959
Speaker 1: to school in his place, pretending to be a boy.

218
00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:10,320
Speaker 1: And she was this brilliant student. But in school she

219
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,560
Speaker 1: met a handsome boy named Lang Shan Beau and they

220
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,560
Speaker 1: came to love each other. Oh, but Liang could not

221
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:21,040
Speaker 1: understand this strange attraction that he felt for another boy.

222
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,360
Speaker 1: It's like a Mulan situation. And Ju, who was attracted

223
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,559
Speaker 1: to Liang as well, yearned to tell him her secret,

224
00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:32,199
Speaker 1: but of course she refrained because she was afraid it

225
00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:35,920
Speaker 1: would bring dishonor to her family. Then word came out

226
00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:38,199
Speaker 1: that she had to go home because her family had

227
00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:43,000
Speaker 1: found her a husband. So finally, Jue revealed her true

228
00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:46,240
Speaker 1: identity to her friend Liang, and he declared his love

229
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:48,760
Speaker 1: for her and asked her to marry him. But even

230
00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,520
Speaker 1: though she loved him, Ju could not disobey her family,

231
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:56,560
Speaker 1: so she went home, and distraught, Liang took his own life.

232
00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,679
Speaker 1: Ju's family insisted that she proceeded with her wedding with

233
00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:02,640
Speaker 1: the other guy that they found, and she agreed, but

234
00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:05,119
Speaker 1: she said she had to first go visit her beloved's

235
00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:08,080
Speaker 1: grave and you know, pay her respect, say her goodbyes.

236
00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,600
Speaker 1: And there beneath the willows, she threw herself on his

237
00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:16,440
Speaker 1: tomb and died. Her family, who finally understood how much

238
00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:20,360
Speaker 1: their daughter loved Liang, buried her beside him, and the

239
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:24,040
Speaker 1: souls of the two lovers turned into butterflies and flew

240
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:29,160
Speaker 1: away together and over the grave, willow branches grew and intertwined.

241
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:31,000
Speaker 2: Oh lovely story.

242
00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 1: So that's the story of the Butterfly.

243
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,520
Speaker 2: Well. In mid March of nineteen sixty five, Bernard was

244
00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:41,560
Speaker 2: offered a position at an expedition in Brazil. Not so bad,

245
00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:44,200
Speaker 2: I mean, some nice tropical vacation in there.

246
00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's excited because he was like, that's the

247
00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:50,080
Speaker 1: whole point of me being a diplomat or a diplomat's accountant,

248
00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:52,000
Speaker 1: run around the world.

249
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:55,080
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he tells Sha that he plans to resign

250
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,839
Speaker 2: from the embassy in China, and she says, hey, why

251
00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:59,719
Speaker 2: don't you come over to my house? And this is

252
00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,040
Speaker 2: the first time he's had an invite over to Show's house.

253
00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:07,200
Speaker 2: Bernard is very excited because hardly any foreigners ever get

254
00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:10,800
Speaker 2: to go to a Chinese person's home. It's very special. Yes,

255
00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:14,400
Speaker 2: and there he met SHA's mother, who served him some tea.

256
00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,840
Speaker 2: Now days later, Sha walked with Bernard through the Forbidden

257
00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,920
Speaker 2: City and he told him the story of the Butterfly again,

258
00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,680
Speaker 2: and he told Bernard I have a secret quote, look

259
00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 2: at my hands, look at my face. That story of

260
00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:33,480
Speaker 2: the butterfly, it's my story too.

261
00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:40,800
Speaker 1: Yes, it turned out that shape Coop was secretly a woman.

262
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,000
Speaker 1: She had been born years after her two older sisters,

263
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,400
Speaker 1: and she explained to Bernard that her mother had been

264
00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,319
Speaker 1: told by her mother in law that if she had

265
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:54,400
Speaker 1: another girl, the son would take another wife.

266
00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:55,239
Speaker 2: Oh.

267
00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:58,840
Speaker 1: So she's mother is like, she has another girl, and

268
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:01,040
Speaker 1: she's like, I don't want to lose my position in

269
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:04,400
Speaker 1: my household is some other lady. And of course the

270
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,080
Speaker 1: husband actually didn't want another wife either. He sort of

271
00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:10,000
Speaker 1: loved his wife, so he's like, get off my back, mom.

272
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:14,160
Speaker 1: So they agreed to raise Sha as a boy and

273
00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:18,000
Speaker 1: conceal his true identity from the grandmother. Wow, I'm like,

274
00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:19,440
Speaker 1: what kind of power does the grandma have?

275
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:20,040
Speaker 2: Oh?

276
00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,120
Speaker 1: I had him full online about her grandkid to keep

277
00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:24,880
Speaker 1: her from getting you to marry someone else.

278
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,120
Speaker 2: You know, Elders across many cultures have some sway. But

279
00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:30,080
Speaker 2: I think in China, as I understand.

280
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,240
Speaker 1: It, Oh, yeah, a very serious situation.

281
00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:33,840
Speaker 2: That is wild.

282
00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,680
Speaker 1: So Sha has been concealing themselves as a man, teaching

283
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,160
Speaker 1: Chinese to these ladies, uh huh, and befriending Bernard, and

284
00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,920
Speaker 1: finally decides to reveal her true identity to her best

285
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:45,720
Speaker 1: friend Bernard.

286
00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 2: Amazing. I bet when she was playing in the Butterfly Show,

287
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,480
Speaker 2: they were like, damn, you are so good at playing

288
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:55,600
Speaker 2: a woman pretending to be a man. You know. I

289
00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:58,320
Speaker 2: don't know where you get that instinct, but you just

290
00:14:58,360 --> 00:14:59,960
Speaker 2: a natural. I'm total natural.

291
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:02,680
Speaker 1: Close my eyes and I really get method with it.

292
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:06,040
Speaker 2: Well, that is incredible. Obviously there's going to be some

293
00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:08,240
Speaker 2: fallout from this, and of course we want to know

294
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,920
Speaker 2: Bernard's reaction. So we'll take a quick break and we'll

295
00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:12,120
Speaker 2: be right back more after this.

296
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:17,640
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Honeypot.

297
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,760
Speaker 2: So Bernard believes Shaw's story right away, and he promises,

298
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:25,480
Speaker 2: I will not tell anyone about this your secret then mind.

299
00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:28,520
Speaker 2: But now that he knows Sha is a woman, he

300
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 2: feels like they should start having sex. The New York

301
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,720
Speaker 2: Times article says, quote, he doesn't feel a great passion.

302
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,800
Speaker 2: It's something he feels he and Shad have to do.

303
00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:41,520
Speaker 2: You are a woman, I am a man. We love

304
00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:43,800
Speaker 2: one another. Therefore we should have.

305
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:45,440
Speaker 1: Sex, all right, Bernard.

306
00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:48,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, So his attitude is like, oh, well, if you're

307
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,280
Speaker 2: a woman and you're talking to me, that means we

308
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:52,640
Speaker 2: should be doing it, right, Like we should sleep together.

309
00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,920
Speaker 1: So like he just cannot imagine being friends with a lady.

310
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,520
Speaker 2: Oh yeah about a sexual component, or maybe it was like.

311
00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:04,000
Speaker 1: His you know, insane, he was like so obsessed with

312
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:05,960
Speaker 1: trying to have sex with a woman. Yea, So maybe

313
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:07,920
Speaker 1: he was just like, oh, we get along and turns

314
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,440
Speaker 1: out you're a woman, so maybe I could finally fulfill.

315
00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,520
Speaker 2: This, yeah life's mission. But he wasn't very good at

316
00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:18,200
Speaker 2: talking to people except this dude apparently, so well, he

317
00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:20,920
Speaker 2: makes this proposition and she is like, yeah, okay, but

318
00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 2: not now, all right, And of course Bernard is like,

319
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,640
Speaker 2: all right, well, you know, no rush, just let me know.

320
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,480
Speaker 2: It's been you know, eight years, what's what's few more weeks?

321
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:31,680
Speaker 2: Take your time.

322
00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:36,080
Speaker 1: So eventually they did start having a physical affair, but

323
00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:40,600
Speaker 1: the sex was not very satisfying. She always seemed very

324
00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:43,320
Speaker 1: nervous and had to like guide him. It was very

325
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:46,880
Speaker 1: rushed and in darkness, and she tells Bernard that in

326
00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,320
Speaker 1: order to maintain her fake identity as a man, she's

327
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,840
Speaker 1: taken hormones and she's afraid that it's damaged her health,

328
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 1: and that's sort of offered up as an explanation for

329
00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:00,200
Speaker 1: why their sex is always kind of rushed and so

330
00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,760
Speaker 1: carefully guided and everything. But you know whatever, he's like

331
00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,400
Speaker 1: getting what he always wanted. So he's probably feeling pretty good, right.

332
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:12,320
Speaker 2: I guess, or he's like really everything I was hoping

333
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:12,840
Speaker 2: it would be.

334
00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:16,680
Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. It's like, wow, turns out all of

335
00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:17,400
Speaker 1: us about.

336
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:18,640
Speaker 2: Maybe Hoop and Stick was more fun.

337
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:20,840
Speaker 1: Boys do it better.

338
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:21,840
Speaker 2: Well.

339
00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,639
Speaker 1: At the end of December nineteen sixty five, just as

340
00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,680
Speaker 1: Bernard is about to leave for Brazil and leave Sha

341
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,959
Speaker 1: behind in China, Shit tells him she's pregnant. Oh well,

342
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,320
Speaker 1: Bernard swears he will come back, and he's like, I

343
00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 1: can't cancel the expedition now, but I will come back

344
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,600
Speaker 1: to China. I promised you, And he says, we'll please

345
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,160
Speaker 1: name the kid Bertrand if it's a boy.

346
00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:47,040
Speaker 2: Well, four years later, Bernard finally comes back to China.

347
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:50,000
Speaker 2: Now he has had a serious love affair with a

348
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,760
Speaker 2: beautiful French medical student, a woman, and he is still

349
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,880
Speaker 2: seeing her at this point. But after his trip through

350
00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:59,960
Speaker 2: the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, he did end up get

351
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,439
Speaker 2: a job back at the French embassy in Beijing as

352
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,400
Speaker 2: an archivist so that he can find Shappey Pooh and

353
00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:10,600
Speaker 2: his son Bertrand. He writes to her, but he's not

354
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 2: sure he has the right address anymore, so he tries visiting,

355
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 2: but he goes to all these wrong houses until a

356
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:18,720
Speaker 2: girl is like, oh my god, you're looking for shipepoo.

357
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,000
Speaker 2: Come with me right this way. She takes him to

358
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,520
Speaker 2: the right address and there is Shad pay pooh. Four

359
00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:27,119
Speaker 2: years later, and Bernard goes in and gives her a

360
00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:28,520
Speaker 2: big old smooch.

361
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:32,399
Speaker 1: And she tells him times have been awful while he

362
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,000
Speaker 1: was gone. Those last four years have been really difficult,

363
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 1: and it's really too dangerous for him to be visiting

364
00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,800
Speaker 1: her because everyone in the building is going to see

365
00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,200
Speaker 1: that there's a foreigner in her apartment. Oh, not cool,

366
00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:45,960
Speaker 1: that's not cool. And of course we know Sha is

367
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,400
Speaker 1: concealing a giant secret, still living as a man, right,

368
00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:53,000
Speaker 1: so it's understandable that shows like, please don't get attention

369
00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:54,600
Speaker 1: on me, right, And I mean, you can't just be

370
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:56,280
Speaker 1: coming around here and people are going to start asking

371
00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:57,840
Speaker 1: me a lot of questions. They're going to start paying

372
00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:00,000
Speaker 1: a lot more attention to me than I want. Yeah,

373
00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,200
Speaker 1: and she tells him we do have a son together,

374
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,159
Speaker 1: he's just not here. But on Bernard's second visit, she

375
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,879
Speaker 1: does show a picture of bertrand to him and he

376
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,520
Speaker 1: sees he sees the kid, and he's like, oh, I'm

377
00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:14,600
Speaker 1: so excited. But just then loud shouting is heard right

378
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 1: outside the door. Sha is terrified. She opens the door

379
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 1: and dozens of people Russian. They start yelling and pointing

380
00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,160
Speaker 1: at Bernard, and one grabs an alarm clock and says

381
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:24,879
Speaker 1: it's a radio.

382
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:26,200
Speaker 2: They're spine.

383
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:29,399
Speaker 1: Oh shit, So she was not fucking around saying it

384
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:30,160
Speaker 1: was really dangerous.

385
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:30,320
Speaker 2: No.

386
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, people are jumping in all kinds of conclusions.

387
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,399
Speaker 2: Right, So these three guys in army uniform show up

388
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,240
Speaker 2: and they take share to her bedroom and they close

389
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:40,399
Speaker 2: the doors. You study here while we deal with this frenchman.

390
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,679
Speaker 2: And one of them does speak French, so he's like,

391
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:46,440
Speaker 2: what are you doing here, bro? And Bernard thinks fast

392
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,480
Speaker 2: and he's like, oh, well, I'm taking lessons from Sha

393
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:54,160
Speaker 2: on the on the greatness of Chairman MoU to better

394
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:55,800
Speaker 2: understand the cultural revolution.

395
00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:59,000
Speaker 1: First, they're like, well, there's so much to say about

396
00:19:59,040 --> 00:19:59,960
Speaker 1: the great chair.

397
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,920
Speaker 2: Oh well, allow me to shime in. I've got a

398
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 2: few things to add too. Oh yeah, oh yeah. So

399
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,199
Speaker 2: they you know, they do kind of accept this story

400
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,320
Speaker 2: after a minute, after Bernard really grovels and says, he's

401
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:13,520
Speaker 2: so great. I just needed to learn more about this

402
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:15,680
Speaker 2: awesome guy, isn't he the.

403
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,639
Speaker 1: Besket if only Plans was more like China, right, what

404
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:19,080
Speaker 1: I say?

405
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,760
Speaker 2: They're like, hey, this guy's all right, So they do

406
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,280
Speaker 2: accept his story. They let him go, They send him

407
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,840
Speaker 2: out of the apartment. All right, go on your way home.

408
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 2: Praise beat a mau. We all love him, We're glad

409
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,200
Speaker 2: you do too, et cetera, et cetera. But after a

410
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,359
Speaker 2: little while, Shaw has not returned, so Bernard is getting

411
00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 2: worried that he got shut into some serious trouble.

412
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,360
Speaker 1: So he becomes a little obsessed with just seeing her

413
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,199
Speaker 1: one time just to make sure she's okay. And he

414
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,840
Speaker 1: knows he can't just like drop by again, right that

415
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,080
Speaker 1: turned out really badly, So instead he borrows a bicycle

416
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: from the embassy and he bikes by her neighborhood just

417
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,320
Speaker 1: to see even catch a glimpse of her while she's

418
00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:00,920
Speaker 1: walking around outside or something. But he realized he's being

419
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:04,280
Speaker 1: followed three guys who are also on bikes and they're

420
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: just following around. So he's like, oh, he doesn't sound

421
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 1: like maybe the smartest guy in the world. Because he

422
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,480
Speaker 1: borrowed the bike from the embassy, so it has diplomatic plate,

423
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,399
Speaker 1: oh man, like street plate. So it's like, you're not

424
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:17,760
Speaker 1: really incognito, my friend.

425
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:21,400
Speaker 2: Maybe they're like, well, he's not a spy, because that's

426
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 2: the stupidest thing a spike can do.

427
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: They need some better training. But this makes him even

428
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 1: more nervous. She's like, what happened to shit, I haven't

429
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 1: seen her now, people follow me around, like what's going on. Finally,

430
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:37,000
Speaker 1: in October he spots her walking with an elderly lady

431
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 1: and he's like, so he kind of surreptitiously gets up

432
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,359
Speaker 1: close to her, and he kind of whispers in her

433
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:45,480
Speaker 1: ear that he'll wait at a certain corner of this

434
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: really busy intersection in the city every Thursday at two pm.

435
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 1: And he's like, just come there so I can see you.

436
00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:56,320
Speaker 1: I know you're okay. And for months, she takes a

437
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:58,639
Speaker 1: bench across the street and he takes a bench on

438
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:00,440
Speaker 1: the other side of the road, and so they're not

439
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 1: even in the same side of the street. They're crossed

440
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:04,360
Speaker 1: like seven lanes of traffic.

441
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 2: Wow.

442
00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: But they sit on the bench across from each other

443
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: again just to see each other, just to kind of

444
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 1: be close for a second. One time, Bernard managed to

445
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: pass a letter to Sha, but a woman saw him

446
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 1: do it and screamed out loud, oh my God, which

447
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 1: sounds like she was going through something else. I don't

448
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 1: know why guys like somebody would be so scary.

449
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 2: I mean, I just feel like the culture at the

450
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 2: time people were so nervous about spies and foreigners and

451
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,879
Speaker 2: stuff that, and they're such you know, they're so into

452
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:38,440
Speaker 2: their country right that they see someone passing a note

453
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 2: and they're like, it's my civic responsibility to draw attention

454
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:42,919
Speaker 2: to this.

455
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a spy.

456
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 2: Somebody do something.

457
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 1: It's very true. It kind of gives you a good

458
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:49,960
Speaker 1: idea of what kind of environment.

459
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 2: You're dealing with.

460
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Bernard's losing hope. He starts to feel like

461
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,800
Speaker 1: he's never going to see Shaw or his child ever.

462
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 2: Well, one day in Spring called Bernard up and says

463
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,439
Speaker 2: that she spoke to her boss at the Writers' Association

464
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 2: and received permission to teach Bernard classes about Chairman Mao

465
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 2: twice a week. So this scheme was still gonna work.

466
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 1: Oh, just made the lie real.

467
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they remember how much they loved it when

468
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,200
Speaker 2: you said you were taking classes on chairman. Now let's

469
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 2: do that. Let's just do it. So Bernard comes to

470
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,480
Speaker 2: her house and she reads to him from a book

471
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 2: of Mao quotations, and he sits across from her, and

472
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 2: he praises Mao as a great poet, and think, oh, man,

473
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,080
Speaker 2: this guy knows how to write a book. You know,

474
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 2: little red backed and smart. I like it. They're afraid

475
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 2: that there's microphones in the house. They really want to

476
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,919
Speaker 2: put on a show. But then Bernard talks to her

477
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 2: out in the hallway, and over the next month or so,

478
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:48,600
Speaker 2: he learns that their son together, Bertrand, was obviously of

479
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 2: mixed race, right. They knew this was half Chinese half

480
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 2: French child, So therefore he was not safe in Beijing.

481
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,880
Speaker 2: So Sha had him sent to live near the Russian

482
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,440
Speaker 2: border with one of the family servants.

483
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: So that's why he ain't engaging with.

484
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:05,679
Speaker 2: Her sun around. Yeah.

485
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,439
Speaker 1: Well, then Bernard learns that she's not going to be

486
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: teaching him anymore. All of a sudden, someone else from

487
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,160
Speaker 1: the Chinese government is going to take over his lesson.

488
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 2: That was the whole point. Wait about I feel like

489
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 2: it's a movie trope too. When you walk into a

490
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 2: party and you're like, oh, I'm gonna I'm going to

491
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 2: ask this girl to dance and finally get to know her.

492
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,120
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, I was just about to start

493
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 2: the room here dance with my sister. Oh that's not

494
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:30,719
Speaker 2: what I wanted.

495
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to dance with her.

496
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 2: I wasn't really interested in dancing, right.

497
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 1: So unfortunately, now Bernard actually has to take real classes,

498
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: take these real classes from someone else in the Chinese

499
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: government whose name was Kang shown okay, and they study.

500
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,760
Speaker 1: Now it's all chill for a few weeks. But then

501
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:55,119
Speaker 1: Bernard says, hey, I completely understand the Cultural Revolution.

502
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 2: Now I've learned enough.

503
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: Thank you, I'm ready to graduations.

504
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 2: Well, I think he probably don't need to take these

505
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 2: classes anymore.

506
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:09,000
Speaker 1: Huh, I'm a head out. But no, He's like, you've

507
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 1: taught me everything. The Cultural Revolution is so amazing. I

508
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: feel like I've got a real grasp on the principles

509
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,439
Speaker 1: of it and everything you're trying to do. And da

510
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 1: da da, And now I want to help the Chinese people.

511
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: I want to help the Cultural Revolution really succeed because

512
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: I get it so much. It's so amazing. It's definitely

513
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 1: the best way to run things, and he's suggests a

514
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: Kaying that his position at the embassy might give him

515
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:37,880
Speaker 1: access to some useful information. Now, Bernard is a low

516
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: level we already said this, right, He's not like a diplomat, right,

517
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: He's not in some high level meetings or anything. He

518
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: doesn't get military reports, but he does get everybody's messages

519
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 1: to file, so he's like, they've already read them, but

520
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,479
Speaker 1: like I can look at them too, And there is

521
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: some tantalizing stuff about the movements of Russia, the Russian army.

522
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: At this point, China does not have an ambassador in Russia,

523
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 1: so they're very interested in what's going on there because

524
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 1: they don't have anybody reporting back to them, right, and

525
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: they have a huge border with Russia. So it's like

526
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: I need to know what they're up to. So Bernard

527
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 1: starts slipping documents under his shirt or into his briefcase

528
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 1: at THEES day, bringing them to Kang, who makes copies

529
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: and then gives them back to Bernard, and then he

530
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 1: goes and slides them back in their files. No harm,

531
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: no foul, nobody'll know, right, And Bernard doesn't really feel

532
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: bad about this because Kang is like, we don't have

533
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 1: any interest in French state secrets. Okay, we don't want

534
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,400
Speaker 1: to know what France is up to. We only want

535
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: to know about Russia.

536
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 2: Okay.

537
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,439
Speaker 1: So Bernard's like, I'm not betraying my own country.

538
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 2: Here, so it's okay, betraying the Russians, like whatever. Well,

539
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 2: he does manage to start seeing Shaw more and more often,

540
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 2: but it's not really all that great of a time together.

541
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 2: She makes him these extensive shopping lists of stuff to

542
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 2: buy for her. She's always complaining that he doesn't spend

543
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 2: enough time with her, and he's like, because I'm always

544
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 2: at the store. I mean. They're having sex, but it's

545
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 2: as unsatisfying as ever, and Shit basically just uses her

546
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 2: hands and her mouth in their sexual encounters. He actually

547
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 2: threatened to marry the French girl at one point, and

548
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,199
Speaker 2: she's like, oh, wow, so you would do that. You

549
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,959
Speaker 2: would just leave and go to France and never see

550
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 2: your son again? Oh no, oh damn, I did have

551
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 2: a son. I guess I got some responsibilities here, even

552
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 2: though he hasn't even seen this kid. Right, But sometimes

553
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,360
Speaker 2: things are okay between them. They still get along, They

554
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:40,160
Speaker 2: still have a something of a relationship, and sometimes they

555
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 2: even talk about living in Paris together. Well, in spring

556
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,360
Speaker 2: of nineteen seventy two, Bernard's post at the Chinese embassy

557
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 2: ends and he does ask Sha if she would go

558
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,159
Speaker 2: to Paris with him, but Kang says not, it's impossible.

559
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 2: You can't get out of the country. Show you're gonna

560
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 2: stay right here. And Bernard's upset about this, but he

561
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 2: does feel like, hey, I've kind of done quite a

562
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,439
Speaker 2: service to the Chinese government. I've given them hundreds of

563
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 2: documents about Russia and all this mail and everything, so

564
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,120
Speaker 2: y'all kind of owe me. I guess she'll be safe.

565
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: Here with you guys, right right, Maybe I don't have

566
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: to worry about her.

567
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 2: Yeah.

568
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: But a year later, he goes back to see Sha

569
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: okay and knocks on the door. Sha greets him, and

570
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: she says, I've got a surprise for you. Oh, and

571
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 1: right behind her is Bertrand so Bernard finally meets his

572
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 1: kid for the first time, and he does see a

573
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 1: family resemblance. He's like, that's my kid, Bertrade. Amazing, and

574
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: the kid is about six years old at this point.

575
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: But Sha said, you know, as you've been away, the

576
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 1: environment in China got a little more liberal, and also

577
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: her mother was very sick and dying, and she wanted

578
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: to see your grandkid one more time. So Sha thought

579
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: it would be okay to bring Bertrand to Beijing. But

580
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: to keep up appearances, she had adopted Bertrand as Sha Pepou,

581
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: the man, her male self as her males adopted Bertrand

582
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,960
Speaker 1: as her son. Okay, interesting, so Bertrand's Chinese name was Sha.

583
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 2: Dude do okay? Well, Bernard has met his son, He's

584
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 2: seen Sha again. It's time to return to Paris. At

585
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 2: this point, he has quit the diplomatic service. He hasn't

586
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 2: worked in months, but he's making ends meet because he's

587
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 2: selling rugs and other things that he bought in China

588
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 2: or Saudi Arabia bottom sheep there sell them back home

589
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 2: for a high price. And he also does have some

590
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 2: one night stands with both men and women alike. Then

591
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 2: he met a handsome Frenchman named Tieri Toulet. These guys

592
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 2: fell crazy in love together and they moved it together quickly,

593
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 2: and eventually, you know, the rug bunny ran out and

594
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 2: Bernard had to join the diplomatic service again. You know,

595
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 2: every time I get out. They keep following me back

596
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 2: in because I need money paycheck right, So he accepts

597
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:58,480
Speaker 2: a posting at the French Embassy in New Orleans. Fun. Yeah,

598
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 2: it's the seventy it's New Orleans. They're going to gay

599
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 2: bars and clubs. They're having a great time for about

600
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 2: two years.

601
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 1: But then it was nineteen seventy seven, and by now

602
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 1: China is in the news a lot because the Gang

603
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,640
Speaker 1: of Four who were kind of in charge of everything,

604
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: or the old guard they had fallen. Everything's changing in China.

605
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: It's another chaotic time, and Bernard is getting really worried

606
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: about Sha and Bertrand because he's like, all the people

607
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: I knew there, they might not be there anymore. Who knows, Like,

608
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: I don't know what the purge did. So finally, one

609
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: night he confesses everything to Tieri. He tells him I

610
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: actually have this woman back in China. We have a

611
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: kid together, and he asks, can I bring Shah back

612
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: to Paris and we all live together in a minage.

613
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 1: That's my ideal situation is that I have both my

614
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: wife and my husband at the same time, same place.

615
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 2: My wife, my husband, my son. You know, it's all

616
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 2: about me and everybody else just kind of has to

617
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 2: join in on this thing.

618
00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: And Tierri's like, oh, okay, he's not really in the idea.

619
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: But he's like, I mean, I guess you're married, So

620
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: what am I going to do?

621
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 2: Well that day you find out your husband has a

622
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 2: wife and a kid, you know, what can you do?

623
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: Okay? Adapt He's like, I don't want to break up

624
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: with you, right, I mean? So Bernard asks about getting

625
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: a job or diplomatic posting in the Far East so

626
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 1: he can get closer to shut and he gets offered

627
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: this real shit job in Mongolia. Oh it is the

628
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: smallest French embassy. Everyone thinks it's the most miserable place

629
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,239
Speaker 1: in the world. Oh man, that's all you're hearing about this.

630
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 1: But it's only a thirty six hour train ride from Beijing.

631
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 2: Is that all?

632
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 1: Thirty six hours is so long?

633
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 2: Ass? Yeah? I guess it's closer than Paris.

634
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: It's closer to the New Orleans, New Orleans.

635
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 3: Yeah.

636
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: So Bernard's like, great, I'll take the job.

637
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: Well, security at this Mongolian job sucks. There is no

638
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: official embassy. The diplomats work out of hotel. Since it's

639
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 2: such a small staff, Bernard has not only his job,

640
00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 2: but he doubles as the ambassador's secretary. So he's like, yeah,

641
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 2: you gotta file this paperwork, but you gotta do my

642
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 2: drag cleaning. You gotta give me a ride to wherever

643
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 2: I gotta be in the morning. Make my coffee. I said,

644
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 2: two creams, no sugars. Well, on his way to the gig,

645
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 2: he stopped over in Beijing to visit you, and he

646
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 2: tells her get in touch with Kang. Let him know

647
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 2: we can get back on that espionage horse. And I'm

648
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 2: go ahead and slip you some more info from my

649
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 2: new job. Let Kang no se Yeah that sounds old,

650
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 2: Kang boy.

651
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the.

652
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 2: Communications at his new job are super boring. All they

653
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 2: get is like, there's Mongolian plans for a staging of

654
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 2: the opera Carmen Ooh, big secrets. Kang's like, wow, so

655
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 2: glad I know that you're really changing the global power

656
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 2: map here, buddy.

657
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: Thanks, I'm I'm gonna elevate this right to the top.

658
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. Or he digs up quote a request from the

659
00:32:53,920 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 2: ambassador for ten 'bdifiers and a cheese tray. My god,

660
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 2: how did you ever get this sensitive information rights?

661
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: What are they up to?

662
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 2: We've got our top guys on it.

663
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: They're clearly planning to cut something.

664
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 2: So basically he's got nothing to offer Kang at first,

665
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 2: but Kang is still like, look, there's no such thing

666
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 2: as bad intelligence, so whatever you can tell us about

667
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 2: Russia is still super important because China is threatened by

668
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 2: Soviet revisionism, where like, they don't want Russia defining what

669
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 2: communism is, right, I want their own thing to kind

670
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 2: of be the global idea of communism. So Bernard is

671
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 2: still in the lookout. He's like, don't worry, I know

672
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 2: how to look past the cheese trays and the operas.

673
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 2: I'm gonna find some good dirt on Russia.

674
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, he asks for a visa for his cousin TIERI

675
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: visit him.

676
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 2: We're close, You're very very close.

677
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 1: Cousin Tierri. He also set up a court of like

678
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: young Mongolian students who like became like his besties. I

679
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: guess his little followers in Mongolia because they lived in

680
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:10,359
Speaker 1: pretty deprived conditions until Bernard came along. At the university,

681
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: they're only allowed a three minute shower once a week,

682
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 1: and it's like the matron, you know, is standing outside

683
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 1: the shower controlling the water, so at three minutes she

684
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 1: just shuts it off. Oh so, but Bernard is like,

685
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 1: you can use my bathroom whenever you want. And they

686
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of good food, but he has

687
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: the best food and French champagne and he just lets

688
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,160
Speaker 1: them like rate his fridge whenever he wants. And I

689
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: don't care how good your food is. If you got

690
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,400
Speaker 1: college students around, they're gonna come over for that. But

691
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 1: the best thing about it was that there was nothing

692
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 1: sexual in his invitations. The students were never propositioned or anything.

693
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,439
Speaker 1: He just liked having folks around. You know, this guy's again,

694
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: he's a bit of a kind of a party guy, right.

695
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 1: He wants people, he wants friends. He wants to be

696
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 1: out at parties and in the middle of like nowhere Mongolia.

697
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 2: And as she's spending time with these guys, he's like,

698
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 2: whoof you get a three minute shower once? It's a

699
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 2: week and I'm having a hard time hanging out with

700
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:04,720
Speaker 2: you guys, So why do you come over to rinse

701
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:05,720
Speaker 2: off once in a while?

702
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: I needed to use my bathroom.

703
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 2: Now she can love this French soap I got. Well,

704
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,759
Speaker 2: you know, Bernard also can't be tied down. So while

705
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 2: he's trying to figure out how he's gonna get Sha

706
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 2: back to Paris, he does have a couple of affairs,

707
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 2: one with a married woman, but quote that doesn't deter him.

708
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 2: He has a formula for married women. You invite the

709
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,440
Speaker 2: woman to lunch, which is a respectable meal. Then you

710
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,839
Speaker 2: invite her back to your apartment for coffee, which is

711
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 2: merely polite. There you play the bittersweet love songs of

712
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 2: Jacques prel and sit beside her on the sofa and

713
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 2: take her in your arms. When she says no, you

714
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 2: ignore her because she means yes. By six she has

715
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,399
Speaker 2: returned to her husband. Wow, Bernard, what a system you've got.

716
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 2: She had a problem you straight up include when she

717
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 2: says no, she means yes.

718
00:35:56,040 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: O Lord, what a ridiculous ula. You just say, take

719
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,799
Speaker 1: it on lunch and you turn a coffee, and then

720
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:08,920
Speaker 1: you put on the bittersweet love songs of Jacques Brea.

721
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,880
Speaker 2: All amidst all these affairs, his partner Tieri came to

722
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 2: visit him, but after he left, Bernard had a little

723
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 2: fling with a Polish girl. Oh so, just a lot

724
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 2: of opportunities for him here in Mongolia.

725
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 1: Right, I guess I am happy that he has really

726
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:29,400
Speaker 1: embraced his bisexuality. At this point, the guys decided, you

727
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: know what, it don't need to be ashamed of liking

728
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: sex with men, right, I also like sex with women.

729
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 2: Sure.

730
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 1: Now, while all this is going on, he is visiting

731
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: Beijing every six weeks with documents from the embassy. He

732
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 1: gets thirty six hours in the city, so as long

733
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: as the train ride, it's just enough time to buy

734
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 1: things for the Mongolian students and for Sha. Everybody's always

735
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,960
Speaker 1: given Bernard a damn shopping list. He socialized with the diplomats,

736
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: he rendezvous with Kang, but of course Shah is getting

737
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: mad at him that he doesn't spend more time with

738
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: her when he's in Beijing. And now he does try

739
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:05,839
Speaker 1: to get some better info for Kang, you know, some

740
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: more sexy stuff that they can use. But it's like

741
00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:12,760
Speaker 1: always dumb shit that he's picking up. He's got stuff

742
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: about like how East Germany built a meat processing plants,

743
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: oh no, or how the French ambassador feels that the

744
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 1: fedoras that Mongolian politicians wear make them look like al Capone.

745
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:29,399
Speaker 2: These Deep States secret here, I guess we have.

746
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: To write a report every day about what you're doing.

747
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 1: You're just like nothing, I mean, nothing's going. It's Mongolia.

748
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,439
Speaker 1: It's the middle of nowhere. The university students smell better.

749
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 1: I don't know, but Kang keeps telling him, don't go

750
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: out of your way, all right, it's too dangerous for

751
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: you to like try to get sensitive stuff. So whatever

752
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 1: you come across, that's fine. You don't have to go

753
00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: out of your you know, don't have to go the

754
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:54,439
Speaker 1: extra mile.

755
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 2: Right. In nineteen eighty two, Bernard submitted an official request

756
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 2: for a visa for Sure to come to a three

757
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 2: month cultural lecture tour in France. It's like, how about

758
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 2: she comes here and tells us how great Communism is day.

759
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 2: But when she arrives in Paris with their son, bertrand

760
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 2: Bernard is in Belize on another posting, so Tiery has

761
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:22,280
Speaker 2: to look after Sha and Bertrand it's like, oh, okay,

762
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 2: I guess I'll spend my weeks caring for my boyfriend's

763
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 2: girlfriend and her son.

764
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: Okay, right, I don't even want them here.

765
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: So Sha and Bertrand move in with Thierry, and he

766
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 2: knows the secret that Sha is really a woman. But she,

767
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:37,919
Speaker 2: of course, she has to stay disguised as a man

768
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 2: even while they're in Paris, so that no one in

769
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:44,760
Speaker 2: China hears anything suspicious. Secret can't get out. Finally, Bernard

770
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 2: returns to parish. Tiery is like, oh my god, thank god,

771
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 2: take your girlfriend, get her out of my face, and

772
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 2: he does. He goes and starts introducing around to all

773
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 2: his friends, but he doesn't introduce her around. He introduces

774
00:38:58,040 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 2: him around because of course they don't want this sea

775
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 2: getting out. Sha does have to go back to China. Eventually,

776
00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 2: they don't reveal her secret and she's got their son

777
00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:12,480
Speaker 2: with them, but Bernard introduces her as Bertrand's uncle. So

778
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 2: Sha starts networking, getting to know people in Paris. She

779
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,760
Speaker 2: ends up working in opera again and even gets into

780
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:24,720
Speaker 2: two TV shows. So monsieur Sha, this fella, this uncle

781
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 2: is actually getting pretty famous in Paris.

782
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what that means. It means attention, right,

783
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 1: And so these French surveillance agents they realize that shape

784
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:40,239
Speaker 1: Poo is living in Bernard's apartment and they're like, huh,

785
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 1: so you must have met while in your diplomatic service,

786
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,720
Speaker 1: So that means that might be a government employee of China.

787
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: That's a big problem. They need to, you know, have

788
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,839
Speaker 1: clearance to have a government person run around. They don't

789
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,920
Speaker 1: want same issue as in China. You can't have somebody

790
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 1: run around work with the government that you don't know about.

791
00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:57,800
Speaker 1: Maybe pass the secrets.

792
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 2: They don't want since he worked in the garn in China,

793
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 2: they don't want his Chinese friends coming back because those

794
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 2: guys are probably also government, right.

795
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:07,520
Speaker 1: I think they're just like, we just need to like

796
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:09,359
Speaker 1: clear him, you know what I mean. I get asked

797
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 1: some questions. So in nineteen eighty three they bring Bernard

798
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,239
Speaker 1: in for questioning and ask him what's up with this guy?

799
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: What's your relationship? What's the deal? And two days later

800
00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 1: they charge Bernard with Espiona. Oh shit, and then they

801
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:26,439
Speaker 1: go see Sha Pey poop. Now Sha is like, oh shit,

802
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,600
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. Starts complaining about a history of heart problems.

803
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: It says, I'm real sick. So they're like, great, we'll

804
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 1: bring a doctor in, but she won't allow an examination.

805
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,279
Speaker 1: When the doctor comes in, so they're like okay, and

806
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 1: she finally says, okay, I'll tell you the real truth.

807
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:46,719
Speaker 1: I'm a woman. I was raised as a man, you know,

808
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: explain to them that she never knew Bernard was involved

809
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,840
Speaker 1: in espionage and that has completely got nothing to do

810
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:55,280
Speaker 1: with me. I only taught him classes about chairman.

811
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 2: Now, my friend Bernard espionage, how weird. He's like a

812
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,279
Speaker 2: male clerk, what does he know?

813
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: So five days later, the French arrests Sha as well,

814
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:09,880
Speaker 1: and the judge says, we're going to give Sha a

815
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: medical examination, prove this whole story about being a woman

816
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:15,440
Speaker 1: in a man's disguise.

817
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 2: Well, on July eighth, in prison, Bernard heard that Sha

818
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:22,759
Speaker 2: is in the same prison as him, and he's like, Oh,

819
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 2: that's weird because of course I'm in a male prison

820
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,399
Speaker 2: and Sha is really a woman, So I guess they

821
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,879
Speaker 2: don't know that yet. They still think it's a man.

822
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:34,439
Speaker 2: They just put her in here whatever. Both of them

823
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 2: are escorted by police back to Bernard's apartment for a search.

824
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,360
Speaker 2: Tierry is there too, and while they're at the apartment

825
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 2: with the police and everybody, Bernard asks Sha to marry him.

826
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,400
Speaker 2: Oh he thinks that'll keep her safe, right, Like, oh,

827
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 2: if we're for a husband and wife, they can't charge

828
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,240
Speaker 2: a husband in mine with the same crime.

829
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:58,479
Speaker 1: It's like the Blues method always worse.

830
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 2: I got the worst fucking lawyer. Well, anyway, he just

831
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 2: does think this, this will help if they're married, if

832
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,280
Speaker 2: everybody thinks they're getting married. But she says it's too late,

833
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:14,840
Speaker 2: we can't do this. And on July thirteenth, Bernard was

834
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 2: sitting in his prison cell listening to the news on

835
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 2: the radio, and there's a bulletin that talks about the

836
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 2: accused spy should pay Pooh, a man who is disguised

837
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 2: as a woman, who is actually a man. The announcer

838
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 2: on the radio said, quote, he is a man. So

839
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 2: totally blows Bernard's lid right off the top of his head,

840
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:50,920
Speaker 2: absolutely bakes his baguettes. Uh, completely unravels his beret. I

841
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:56,719
Speaker 2: don't know cargo. Yes, his croissants are toasted. He's like,

842
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 2: what should put should pay? Pooh? Is really a man

843
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 2: this whole time? No way. Well, look, we've got a

844
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 2: little bit more to this story, and we're gonna tell

845
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 2: you everything that's happened here and try and make it

846
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:11,960
Speaker 2: all make sense. So stick around right off this break

847
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 2: and we'll be right back. Welcome back, everybody. Let's figure

848
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 2: out what the hell's going on here with pe poop, I.

849
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 1: Am all turned around. So this is a man dressed

850
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,320
Speaker 1: like a woman who's actually a man. So it turns

851
00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: out that when the French gave Sha the medical examination,

852
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,400
Speaker 1: they had been given a set of rules, like some

853
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: things to figure out.

854
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 2: Okay, here's your checklist exactly.

855
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 1: And this is the check The following is the checklist. Quote.

856
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 1: Determine if the prisoner, in addition to his masculine organs,

857
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:49,760
Speaker 1: has external female organs. If he does, not, determine whether

858
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: he might have had female organs in the past. Determine

859
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: whether the prisoner shows any trace of surgical intervention of

860
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,319
Speaker 1: the sexual organs. If so, make a report of the

861
00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 1: nature of that intervention. Determine whether the prisoner, as he

862
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 1: has claimed, has the ability to withdraw his penis and

863
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: testicles into his body cavity. And finally, examine the prisoner's

864
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: anis for signs of sodomization.

865
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 2: Damn, examining my anis is a sign of sodomization.

866
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 1: You don't know about withdrawing your That's like it's like

867
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,440
Speaker 1: a go go gadget thing to which, well, I have

868
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 1: heard of penis into your cavity.

869
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:32,879
Speaker 2: Drag Queen's being able to do this. Oh okay, uh yeah.

870
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:34,480
Speaker 2: I had a drag queen friend who was like, this

871
00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 2: is how you can actually those up inside. I mean

872
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 2: that's from whence they came, you know, I guess so,

873
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 2: which sounds like something I'm not going to experiment with myself.

874
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 2: But more power to you if that's your superpower.

875
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 1: Also, what a checklist? I know, you know, the doctors

876
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,320
Speaker 1: that got it were like, I went to a medical

877
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:55,520
Speaker 1: school for this, you.

878
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 2: Know, eight years of university.

879
00:44:58,080 --> 00:44:58,760
Speaker 1: Eight years.

880
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 2: So the doctors do their little check and determine that

881
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 2: Sha is a man with very typical male sexual organs,

882
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 2: no signs of surgical intervention, no signs of sodomization, and

883
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 2: despite all of his talk about heart problems, they say,

884
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 2: this guy's got a totally normal heartbeat.

885
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong there, Everything looks fine.

886
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,319
Speaker 2: So Sha says, after this, okay, all right, let me

887
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 2: explain everything to you guys. The New York Times article

888
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:30,760
Speaker 2: quotes it for us in words that will just borrow

889
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:36,320
Speaker 2: from them. Yeah, and if talk about anatomical manipulation bothers

890
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 2: you you know, I don't know, plug your ears for

891
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:43,439
Speaker 2: a second or something, they say, quote easily smoothly. He

892
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,480
Speaker 2: pushes his testicles up into his body cavity. The skin

893
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:52,319
Speaker 2: of the scrotal sack hangs slack like curtains. The man

894
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 2: now pushes his penis between his legs towards his back,

895
00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 2: bisecting the skin of the scrotum, and squeezes his legs

896
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,799
Speaker 2: tightly together. The penis is hidden while the skin of

897
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 2: the scrotum resembles the vaginal lips beneath a triangle of

898
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 2: pubic hair pushed between the empty scrotle sack. The penis

899
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 2: has also created a small cavity so that shallow penetration

900
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 2: is possible. Wow, So now we learn about what this

901
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 2: sort of weird, uncomfortable sex that Bernard and show we're having,

902
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 2: and why Bernard didn't really know and why should eventually

903
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 2: was just like let me just use my hand's mouth

904
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 2: here for both of us.

905
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 1: Much better. Yeah, okay, okay.

906
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 2: You know, in a in a dark bedroom, when when

907
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 2: emotions are high and everybody's trying to have a good time,

908
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:46,800
Speaker 2: you can miss a lot.

909
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 1: I guess, especially if you know she's like turn all

910
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 1: the lights off. Yeah, you know, our guide your where

911
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,560
Speaker 1: you need to go, and it'll be very specific every time.

912
00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:00,960
Speaker 1: And now, of course I'm the radio. All they say

913
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 1: is that Sha is a man. They don't explain all

914
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:07,360
Speaker 1: the squirtle curtains or whatever. But Bernard is not believing this,

915
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 1: of course, He's like, no, I can't be okay, I've

916
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 1: known her for years now decades and we have a

917
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:14,600
Speaker 1: kid together, and like, what are you talking about?

918
00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:14,839
Speaker 2: Right?

919
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 1: So they're interrogated separately for six months, and then they

920
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 1: finally get interrogated together. Oh and Bernard hears Sha say

921
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: with his own mouth that he is a man. He

922
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 1: also hears Shah say quote, I never told Bernard I

923
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 1: was a woman. I only let it be understood that

924
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: I could be a woman.

925
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 2: Wow. So the old uh you know, I'd never technically

926
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 2: and told you trick. Come on, another blue family legal trick.

927
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 1: I see, maybe yeah, probably. And then he also says

928
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: that Bertrand is not his son, but of course, but

929
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: he also does say that through artificial insemination, Bertrand is

930
00:47:57,719 --> 00:47:58,759
Speaker 1: Bernard's son.

931
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,439
Speaker 2: Oh whoa, which I got quite like, so I saved it.

932
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: Okay, that'sn't like Bernard's like, you like, what how did

933
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: you just anyway throw this?

934
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,320
Speaker 2: Well it's shallow cavity, uh, I mean.

935
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 1: You know, scraped into a vial.

936
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:14,879
Speaker 2: I don't throw that in the freezer and then take

937
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 2: it to the lab and we'll make.

938
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 1: A kid in a I mean, what a weird, elaborate

939
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:20,359
Speaker 1: thing to do.

940
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:24,400
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, Well, for eight months people have been telling

941
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 2: Bernard that Sha was really a man, but he had

942
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:31,000
Speaker 2: refused to believe it. After a second interrogation at court,

943
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 2: they were sitting together in a holding cell waiting for

944
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 2: police to transport them back to prison, and Bernard says, quote,

945
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 2: so it's true you're a man, and Sha says, quote,

946
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 2: of course. Oh so, Bernard says, show me, and Sha

947
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:53,040
Speaker 2: pulls down his pants to prove it. And when Bernard asks,

948
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:56,120
Speaker 2: why didn't you tell me this whole time? I mean,

949
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 2: I'm bisexual. Come on, like, I don't have a problem.

950
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 2: This would have been fine, okay, and Shaw says, quote,

951
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 2: oh there was no time.

952
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:06,720
Speaker 1: There was no time when I've known you for a decade,

953
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:10,760
Speaker 1: when I've been buying you shit every fucking thirty six hours.

954
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:12,879
Speaker 2: Oh real quick, before you go to the grocery store,

955
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:13,719
Speaker 2: I'm actually a man.

956
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:18,239
Speaker 1: Okay, Like, why even bother with the lie in the

957
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: first place? Oh so weird, So Chris Bernard is devastated

958
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:29,560
Speaker 1: and very depressed. Again, most sure Shah is famous in France.

959
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:31,920
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and so this is a really big deal.

960
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 1: Even if it was, you know, it probably would be

961
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 1: anyway because it's like an espionage thing. But this is

962
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 1: with a famous person doing espionage, so it's like all

963
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,799
Speaker 1: over the country everybody knows about it. Bernard's a bit

964
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 1: of a laughing stock, and so he's really depressed. And

965
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 1: then he hears that Shah gets released from prison to

966
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:52,800
Speaker 1: go await trial at home because of his heart problems.

967
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:57,479
Speaker 1: Oh the quote unquote heart problem. Right, so he's like, man,

968
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:00,640
Speaker 1: Shug gets to go like hang out at home. Then

969
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:04,640
Speaker 1: another blow when blood tests come back proving that Bertrand

970
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 1: is not Bernard's son at all.

971
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 2: Oh man, no relation.

972
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:12,719
Speaker 1: Poor Bernard was very upset and he decided he would

973
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:15,879
Speaker 1: rather be dead. So he pulled the razor blade out

974
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: of his shaving razor and he slit his own throat.

975
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:23,239
Speaker 1: But he survived. He did not go deep enough, I guess.

976
00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:26,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, in May of nineteen eighty six, they finally

977
00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 2: have this trial, and lawyers argue that Bernard didn't even

978
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,640
Speaker 2: give the Chinese government any substantial info it would be

979
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:34,799
Speaker 2: stupid to throw the book at him. Just be a

980
00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:36,879
Speaker 2: waste of time. You know, what are we even talking

981
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,000
Speaker 2: about here? Some cheese plates exactly.

982
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,319
Speaker 1: They're reading this stuff.

983
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:43,600
Speaker 2: Like come on, come on, Oh, Mongolia is doing Carmen.

984
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:47,799
Speaker 1: Like, okay, they wear fedoras, who cares, what's the big deal.

985
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:50,960
Speaker 2: And the lawyers say that Shah could have escaped to

986
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,200
Speaker 2: China while awaiting trial if he was, you know, such

987
00:50:54,239 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 2: an incredible spy, right, so you know, we let him

988
00:50:57,480 --> 00:50:59,440
Speaker 2: stay at home and he doesn't break out, so he

989
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:01,960
Speaker 2: can't really be some superspy that we're all making him

990
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:04,560
Speaker 2: out to be. So at the end of the trial,

991
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 2: both of them get sentenced to six years in prison.

992
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:10,879
Speaker 2: But in April of nineteen eighty seven, just the next year,

993
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 2: Sha got a presidential pardon because his imprisonment is an

994
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:20,040
Speaker 2: embarrassment to the Chinese government and it was damaging international

995
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 2: relations between China and France, and this case wasn't serious

996
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,799
Speaker 2: enough for those kinds of consequences to be acceptable. This

997
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:28,759
Speaker 2: is not worth what we're going through.

998
00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 1: So, right, if you were selling French state secrets or

999
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:33,480
Speaker 1: something really important, sure, but.

1000
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:37,280
Speaker 2: So Sha enjoys this notoriety, ends up staying in Paris.

1001
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,480
Speaker 2: I've made so many friends here and I got all

1002
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 2: these connections. And he returned to the opera to perform.

1003
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 1: Bernard got his pardon, his presidential pardon four months later.

1004
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: I guess they were like, you can stay for a minute, think.

1005
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 2: About what you've done.

1006
00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, you know, he's a bit of a

1007
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,200
Speaker 1: laughing stock in Paris. But he ended up living contentedly

1008
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 1: with Thiery. Ok So Tierry's still there. I'm happy he

1009
00:51:59,239 --> 00:51:59,800
Speaker 1: didn't break.

1010
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,719
Speaker 2: Up with it. That guy stuck it out.

1011
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 1: I thought, this is a very easy going gentleman like that.

1012
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 2: Worth it. My god.

1013
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: There's no contact between Bernard and Sha or Bertrand who.

1014
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,440
Speaker 1: Of course, Sha had adopted back in China, so that's

1015
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 1: still his adoptive.

1016
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:17,839
Speaker 2: Sh So the adoption was real.

1017
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:19,040
Speaker 1: The adoption was real.

1018
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 2: Okay.

1019
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 1: I guess he really needed a cover for this pregnancy

1020
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:25,440
Speaker 1: or whatever. But anyway, in nineteen eighty eight, their story

1021
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,680
Speaker 1: was turned into the famous play M Butterfly by David

1022
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:32,839
Speaker 1: Henry Hwang. Actually B. D Wong played the part of Well,

1023
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:35,160
Speaker 1: the part that was inspired by Sha.

1024
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:39,600
Speaker 2: B d Wong I know, phenomenal actor, great actor. If

1025
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 2: you might know him as the scientist in Jurassic Park,

1026
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,920
Speaker 2: doctor Wu what did we just see him? And oh

1027
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:49,400
Speaker 2: he was in Gotham. He was the other doctor Strange,

1028
00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:54,279
Speaker 2: the DC mister Strange in Gotham. A scientist, that's right,

1029
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,120
Speaker 2: that's a bad scientist anyway, many more things. But of

1030
00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 2: course B. D.

1031
00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,319
Speaker 1: Wong and like Sha, doesn't give a lot of inner views.

1032
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,680
Speaker 1: He prefers to be sort of a mysterious, you know,

1033
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:07,279
Speaker 1: kind presence. But Bernard cooperated with author Joyce Wadler on

1034
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 1: a full biography of his story called Liaison. It was

1035
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:13,760
Speaker 1: published in nineteen ninety three, and he's not as bitter

1036
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:16,240
Speaker 1: as he could be about the whole thing. He's quoted

1037
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,520
Speaker 1: as saying, quote, when I believed it, it was a

1038
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:23,839
Speaker 1: beautiful story. So I guess he I don't know, maybe

1039
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:26,359
Speaker 1: those four months were good for him to, like, right.

1040
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:27,359
Speaker 2: Think about what he'd done.

1041
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, getting well, there's very and I feel like I

1042
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 1: would be very mad. So I don't know. Just I

1043
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:35,240
Speaker 1: guess he figured out, you know whatever, no no harm

1044
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:36,720
Speaker 1: really came from it. I suppose.

1045
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so nice that he's able to take

1046
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 2: something positive from it. I guess. I mean, you know

1047
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 2: what the emotions were real, you know that kind of

1048
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 2: thing is like, maybe that person didn't really love me,

1049
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:47,800
Speaker 2: maybe that person was lying to me the whole time.

1050
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 2: But I was a person in love, you know. I

1051
00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:53,960
Speaker 2: had this amazing magical experience of whatever he's He technically

1052
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:56,719
Speaker 2: got his adventure right, going all over the world. Maybe

1053
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 2: it wasn't as fantastic as he imagined it would be.

1054
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,920
Speaker 2: But the guys lived a pretty adventurous life for a

1055
00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 2: long time there.

1056
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:04,560
Speaker 1: That's very true.

1057
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 2: So what about the young boy Bertrand? Or should do

1058
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 2: do well? He explained the mystery of where he came

1059
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 2: from in his own statement to the police. He was

1060
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 2: from China's Huiger minority, and he said that he had

1061
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:21,399
Speaker 2: actually been sold by his mother. He said, quote, it

1062
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 2: was not that my mother did not love me. We

1063
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 2: were starving. And from Joyce Wadler's two thousand and nine

1064
00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 2: obituary for Sha, it said that at the time of

1065
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:33,840
Speaker 2: SHA's death in two thousand and nine, Bertrand was living

1066
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:36,279
Speaker 2: in Paris and had three sons of his own.

1067
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: Man Bernard brought both of them over from China. He

1068
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 1: had brought like his biggest mistake over from China. I

1069
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:45,920
Speaker 1: had to like share the city.

1070
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:45,840
Speaker 2: Had a great time living it up in Paris.

1071
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 1: Yes.

1072
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 2: Now.

1073
00:54:47,040 --> 00:54:49,759
Speaker 1: In that obituary, that same obituary, it was reported that

1074
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:54,600
Speaker 1: Sha Pepoo disliked answering questions about the sexual specifics of

1075
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 1: the affair.

1076
00:54:55,239 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 2: Sure, as many people do.

1077
00:54:56,440 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: Most people don't like. But in a nineteen eighty eight interview,

1078
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:04,360
Speaker 1: he said, quote, I used to fascinate both men and women.

1079
00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:08,319
Speaker 1: What I was and what they were didn't matter. I mean,

1080
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:12,320
Speaker 1: I guess, but it sort of does matter to poor Bernard.

1081
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:16,319
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I guess it doesn't matter if you

1082
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:19,239
Speaker 2: know it doesn't matter. But if you're deliberately misleading.

1083
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:19,720
Speaker 1: Right exactly.

1084
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:21,799
Speaker 2: I think that's if someone's like, are you a man

1085
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 2: or are you a woman? You can absolutely say like

1086
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:26,919
Speaker 2: does it matter to you? What difference does it make?

1087
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:29,279
Speaker 2: And that person can then say you're right, fuck it,

1088
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:31,760
Speaker 2: I think you're cool, I think you're hot. Who cares?

1089
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 2: Or you can say, well, personally, it does matter to me,

1090
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:38,400
Speaker 2: and it's something that you know I would I would

1091
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:41,080
Speaker 2: like to have disclosed in some way or another. I mean,

1092
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:43,080
Speaker 2: maybe you don't identify as a man or a woman,

1093
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:47,480
Speaker 2: it may matter to someone else for their sexual preferences

1094
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:50,360
Speaker 2: in terms of how you identify.

1095
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think too, it's like so odd to

1096
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 1: make up this lie, Yeah, especially because Bernard really didn't

1097
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:01,160
Speaker 1: seem to care, particularly if you're a male or female.

1098
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 1: I mean especially later on. You know, at the time

1099
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:05,520
Speaker 1: he met Sha, he was very much looking for a

1100
00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:08,360
Speaker 1: woman to have an affair with. Yeah, but later he's like,

1101
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 1: you know, I'm with Thierry you know when, and women alike.

1102
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:12,920
Speaker 1: I don't have no problem.

1103
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:14,440
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's what I'm saying too, is like

1104
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:18,279
Speaker 2: it's not so much that the identity is important. It

1105
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:21,080
Speaker 2: could very well not be important to anyone. But the

1106
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:26,839
Speaker 2: deliberate secret keeping exact's sketchy, that's not honest. And that

1107
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:30,520
Speaker 2: gets into like consent issues, right, Like I lied to

1108
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:32,160
Speaker 2: you about who I am, and then we had a

1109
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:35,160
Speaker 2: sexual relationship. Well, then I didn't really have a sexual

1110
00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:38,320
Speaker 2: relationship with the person I thought I was. That's deceitful.

1111
00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:42,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. And it sounds like the plan here

1112
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:47,160
Speaker 1: was for Sha to I guess, to pretend to be

1113
00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:49,520
Speaker 1: a woman, so the baby thing would happen and it

1114
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 1: would like tie Bernard to China. I see, I'm assuming

1115
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:55,160
Speaker 1: that that was maybe the idea was that it would

1116
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:56,520
Speaker 1: be like, oh, if you have a kid here, you'll

1117
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: keep coming back. You'll want to like take care of us. Okay,

1118
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:01,799
Speaker 1: you know, but in some ways it just feels like

1119
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:06,359
Speaker 1: really bored spies trying to have fun. Spy thing happened, right,

1120
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:08,640
Speaker 1: They made up this honeypot with this guy who really

1121
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:10,160
Speaker 1: can't get him anything exciting.

1122
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:14,239
Speaker 2: So you're saying, just to clarify that she was put

1123
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:16,880
Speaker 2: up to this by the Chinese government, is the implication?

1124
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:19,320
Speaker 1: Yes, I believe. So it looks like it was a

1125
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:22,120
Speaker 1: honeypot trap. It was supposed to be. This sexy woman

1126
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,760
Speaker 1: comes in and you fall for her, and then she

1127
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:27,080
Speaker 1: starts pulling your strings for it.

1128
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:29,440
Speaker 2: Which I mean just goes to show the elaborate nature

1129
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:33,680
Speaker 2: of espionage and how in depth something might be just

1130
00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:37,680
Speaker 2: to learn from one guy, like when Mongolia is getting

1131
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:41,720
Speaker 2: a cheese plate. You know, the investment. I don't feel

1132
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:43,439
Speaker 2: like the payoff was worth the investment, but I guess

1133
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 2: you have to throw that much stuff at the wall

1134
00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:47,919
Speaker 2: to see where sick.

1135
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:50,480
Speaker 1: And maybe they even start with low level because they're like, well,

1136
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:52,840
Speaker 1: you'll get promoted one day and you'll already be in

1137
00:57:52,840 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 1: my pocket. But I imagine that was maybe the idea,

1138
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 1: and they didn't realize they were dealing with somebody kind

1139
00:57:56,960 --> 00:58:00,200
Speaker 1: of unambitious, like you're not not trying to like I'm

1140
00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:02,000
Speaker 1: a diplomat. He's like, I just want to go party.

1141
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:07,160
Speaker 2: I didn't realize they overestimated they were working with here.

1142
00:58:07,280 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 2: I guess, so that's funny. I mean yeah, I mean,

1143
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:12,120
Speaker 2: I guess that makes sense. Like we're going to give

1144
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:15,360
Speaker 2: you a Chinese sun. You're going to really feel like that.

1145
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:19,080
Speaker 2: The more you progress here, probably the deeper we're going

1146
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:21,680
Speaker 2: to pull you in, exactly to the point where suddenly

1147
00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:25,959
Speaker 2: he's like chief ambassador to China from France and they're like, yeah,

1148
00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 2: you're basically Chinese at this point, right, And like.

1149
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 1: Even this stuff like keeping him away from Shah so much,

1150
00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 1: and like the following him on bikes and all this

1151
00:58:35,080 --> 00:58:38,200
Speaker 1: stuff might have added to it, like he would feel, oh,

1152
00:58:38,280 --> 00:58:40,360
Speaker 1: she you know, she's in real danger and I have

1153
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:44,000
Speaker 1: to do. You know, I'm assuming all of that was

1154
00:58:44,120 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 1: completely fabricated.

1155
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,800
Speaker 2: Amazing, amazing, how expensive you.

1156
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 1: Know, Oh my god, I mean, spy shit is for real,

1157
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 1: Like you say, you do so much work, you know,

1158
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:57,840
Speaker 1: to maybe get one nugget of a donation that may

1159
00:58:57,920 --> 00:58:59,240
Speaker 1: or may not ever be useful.

1160
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:02,480
Speaker 2: That's the other thing. What an embarrassing flop for Chinese

1161
00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:06,520
Speaker 2: intelligence because even even when he got caught and the

1162
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:09,400
Speaker 2: French government was like, yeah, this really was nothing. This

1163
00:59:10,200 --> 00:59:12,800
Speaker 2: is just we're only punishing you because you were so stupid,

1164
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 2: and China's like, wow, we really really kind of bungled

1165
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:18,840
Speaker 2: that one, right.

1166
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:20,160
Speaker 1: And I guess Show was like, I ain't going back

1167
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:21,160
Speaker 1: to China.

1168
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:23,600
Speaker 2: Yeah right. I wonder if Show would have been in

1169
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 2: danger back in China because maybe he revealed too much

1170
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:30,880
Speaker 2: once he got caught, you know that once the gig

1171
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:33,400
Speaker 2: was up, it was like, yeah, don't come home.

1172
00:59:33,600 --> 00:59:35,400
Speaker 1: I wondered that too, Or if he was just like

1173
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: I'm in Paris and it's like more fun. I don't know.

1174
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:42,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm making it as an opera star. True.

1175
00:59:42,520 --> 00:59:44,360
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing opera in China, And.

1176
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:47,520
Speaker 2: So that part of the story must have been true. Yes,

1177
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:49,280
Speaker 2: the butterfly story.

1178
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,120
Speaker 1: That I think was true.

1179
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 2: I guess that's the best way to build a fake

1180
00:59:54,240 --> 00:59:55,840
Speaker 2: character is you got to include a lot of truth

1181
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:56,720
Speaker 2: in there that's so true.

1182
00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 1: You got to build it around a nuggetive truth that

1183
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 1: you can have that ring of sincerity.

1184
01:00:01,680 --> 01:00:06,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, What I love is that Bernard is introducing everyone

1185
01:00:06,640 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 2: to Sha and be like, this is a man, and

1186
01:00:10,160 --> 01:00:12,760
Speaker 2: everyone else is like, yeah, that's a man. And Bernard

1187
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:16,160
Speaker 2: is the only one who thinks this guy's a woman,

1188
01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:18,560
Speaker 2: and he doesn't know he's He's the only one who's.

1189
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 1: Wrong, I know. But then I am like, okay, so

1190
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:24,960
Speaker 1: then show why bother telling the French government that you

1191
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:28,000
Speaker 1: are a woman. Of course they're gonna like did he

1192
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:30,920
Speaker 1: really think they weren't gonna make to verify that.

1193
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 2: I think he was like, oh, yeah, well you're gonna

1194
01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:36,360
Speaker 2: have to get a doctor in here, and they're like,

1195
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 2: we've actually got one outside. Yeah, And it was like,

1196
01:00:38,360 --> 01:00:40,400
Speaker 2: oh shit. In China that would have taken six weeks.

1197
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, this is France. Have you ever

1198
01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:47,440
Speaker 1: heard of impotency court? You're one looking at your genitals.

1199
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:50,440
Speaker 2: Wow.

1200
01:00:50,680 --> 01:00:53,520
Speaker 1: When Bernard was notified at the time, he was living

1201
01:00:53,520 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 1: in a French nursing home and he was notified of

1202
01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:59,840
Speaker 1: SHA's death, Bernard just said quote, he did so many

1203
01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 1: things against me that he had no pity for. I

1204
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:04,680
Speaker 1: think it's stupid to play another game now and say

1205
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:08,200
Speaker 1: I am sad. The plate is clean. Now I am.

1206
01:01:08,240 --> 01:01:11,600
Speaker 2: Free Oh wow, So I kind of think that's sad.

1207
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:14,480
Speaker 1: I mean, how long is were they together? And Bernard's

1208
01:01:14,520 --> 01:01:17,360
Speaker 1: like putting all of this time and energy and love

1209
01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:22,320
Speaker 1: into a fake, completely fake relationship and he didn't even

1210
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:25,000
Speaker 1: get to build a bond with Bertrand, which I guess

1211
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:27,040
Speaker 1: is kind of a blessing in disguise because they ended

1212
01:01:27,120 --> 01:01:30,080
Speaker 1: up not having a relationship at all. But I'm just like,

1213
01:01:30,160 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 1: man that you know, to just think this whole time

1214
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:35,280
Speaker 1: that you have someone a kid with somebody and you're

1215
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:38,640
Speaker 1: you're working so hard to keep them safe and supplied

1216
01:01:38,840 --> 01:01:42,240
Speaker 1: and comfortable and whatever, to and then be like, I

1217
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:44,480
Speaker 1: feel like a fucking moron. I'm a total patsy.

1218
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:46,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean for all the for all the

1219
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:49,080
Speaker 2: adventure that he got, Yeah, I mean to know that

1220
01:01:49,160 --> 01:01:53,480
Speaker 2: the underlying motivation for it was false. I mean, you

1221
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 2: know it was a total lie, and that you did that, yeah,

1222
01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:59,160
Speaker 2: that that you loved this person and that they clearly

1223
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:00,680
Speaker 2: did not love you back the way they told you

1224
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:03,720
Speaker 2: they did. That that hurts no matter what the circumstances.

1225
01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:06,160
Speaker 2: And then you add that it's all about like you know,

1226
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:11,080
Speaker 2: super high governmental espionage bullshit. That's just insult to injury,

1227
01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:11,920
Speaker 2: and then on.

1228
01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:15,640
Speaker 1: Top of that, the friendship wasn't even real. Yeah, so

1229
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:18,000
Speaker 1: he's like, even if you're not a woman and we're

1230
01:02:18,040 --> 01:02:21,160
Speaker 1: not in love and whatever, that was my friend. That

1231
01:02:21,280 --> 01:02:24,600
Speaker 1: was my best friend. If we recall, he said I

1232
01:02:24,640 --> 01:02:27,040
Speaker 1: could tell him things I could not tell anyone else,

1233
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:29,680
Speaker 1: Like that's how he felt about him. So just to

1234
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:32,600
Speaker 1: find out that that's completely fake would just be really.

1235
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:35,360
Speaker 2: Heartbreaking, right, And I imagine should going back to Kang

1236
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:37,959
Speaker 2: the Chinese government and just being like, well, I found

1237
01:02:37,960 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 2: out this guy used to play hoop and stick at

1238
01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:42,160
Speaker 2: his boarding school. Like I don't know, he's telling me

1239
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 2: all his secrets, but it's not like there's state secrets.

1240
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I got nothing.

1241
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:47,720
Speaker 2: How long do I have to keep doing this?

1242
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 1: Like, you know what, let's take a pregnancy. This is

1243
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:51,520
Speaker 1: going to be the thing that does it. He'll be like,

1244
01:02:51,520 --> 01:02:53,360
Speaker 1: I got to provide for my family and get a

1245
01:02:53,360 --> 01:02:56,840
Speaker 1: better job at the embassy.

1246
01:02:56,880 --> 01:03:01,560
Speaker 2: I don't know, I do wonder show. We can assume

1247
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:05,080
Speaker 2: Shaw was happy to help his government, right, I can

1248
01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:08,040
Speaker 2: assume that, yeah, but also we don't know. I mean, like,

1249
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:10,200
Speaker 2: you know, how much of this show was like can

1250
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:12,280
Speaker 2: I can I get away from this dude, is this

1251
01:03:12,280 --> 01:03:13,800
Speaker 2: really going to be my whole life is pretending to

1252
01:03:13,880 --> 01:03:15,160
Speaker 2: this guy's secret wife?

1253
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:15,680
Speaker 1: Right?

1254
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:18,400
Speaker 2: You know how long agot to keep this up for

1255
01:03:18,560 --> 01:03:19,800
Speaker 2: that's got to be frustrating too.

1256
01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:20,880
Speaker 1: I mean that's very true.

1257
01:03:20,960 --> 01:03:23,800
Speaker 2: You know, definitely not the victim here, but probably a

1258
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:29,080
Speaker 2: victim at least of you know, of government manipulation. Right.

1259
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:31,200
Speaker 1: I do have so many questions. I wish there was

1260
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:34,560
Speaker 1: a little more information about Shah yeah and his like

1261
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 1: real background, because was he placed at the embassy teaching

1262
01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:45,200
Speaker 1: the wives, you know, as like a lay in the

1263
01:03:45,240 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 1: groundwork for a honeypot thing or was he actually doing that?

1264
01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:50,280
Speaker 1: And then when he's like, oh, I made friends with

1265
01:03:50,320 --> 01:03:53,360
Speaker 1: this guy here, right, the government then was like, oh hey,

1266
01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 1: well let's use that.

1267
01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:54,520
Speaker 2: You know.

1268
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:57,000
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering what the timeline is. I wonder if

1269
01:03:57,480 --> 01:03:58,160
Speaker 1: government work.

1270
01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 2: I wonder if Shaw wasn't very good at it, and

1271
01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:04,480
Speaker 2: they were and they were like, okay, go teach embassy

1272
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:07,160
Speaker 2: wives until you make friends with an ambassador and then

1273
01:04:07,160 --> 01:04:09,040
Speaker 2: you're going to seduce him and tell him you're a woman.

1274
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:12,760
Speaker 2: And like three months in he cannot make friends with

1275
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:16,480
Speaker 2: an ambassador until this one, like loser comes up He's

1276
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:19,120
Speaker 2: like I made friends with a clerk and they're like,

1277
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:23,800
Speaker 2: fuck whatever, fine, take it. He's like their lowest agent.

1278
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:28,000
Speaker 2: He's like really trying to prove himself because he's bungled

1279
01:04:28,040 --> 01:04:29,480
Speaker 2: all the last three of his cases.

1280
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:30,960
Speaker 1: Damn shu.

1281
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:33,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, well this is what you get. You got your

1282
01:04:33,560 --> 01:04:35,120
Speaker 2: head in the clouds. All you ever think about is

1283
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:39,680
Speaker 2: opera and the story of the Butterfly Wild.

1284
01:04:40,280 --> 01:04:40,960
Speaker 1: What a ride?

1285
01:04:41,040 --> 01:04:43,240
Speaker 2: Yes, oh my god, he.

1286
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:45,720
Speaker 1: Was on a roller coaster this time for real. Well,

1287
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:48,160
Speaker 1: thank you again to Katie for this amazing suggestion. This

1288
01:04:48,320 --> 01:04:50,360
Speaker 1: was really fun to learn about. I wish I did

1289
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 1: have a spy here to kind of explain that that

1290
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:55,720
Speaker 1: process right, But I feel like we nailed it. We

1291
01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 1: probably got it right. But you guys, let us know

1292
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:01,480
Speaker 1: what you think. We always want to know what you

1293
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:03,760
Speaker 1: think and what other stories we should be doing, So

1294
01:05:03,840 --> 01:05:06,520
Speaker 1: reach out to us. Our email is redict romance at

1295
01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:07,520
Speaker 1: gmail dot com.

1296
01:05:07,560 --> 01:05:09,840
Speaker 2: That's right. You can find us on Instagram. I'm at

1297
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:11,120
Speaker 2: O Great, it's Eli.

1298
01:05:11,040 --> 01:05:12,920
Speaker 1: I'm at Diana Mite Boom.

1299
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:16,120
Speaker 2: And the show is at redict Romance. Follow along and

1300
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:18,720
Speaker 2: send us for your reviews and your thoughts, and we

1301
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:20,680
Speaker 2: can't wait to catch you all at the next episode.

1302
01:05:20,880 --> 01:05:22,960
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for spending time with us today. We

1303
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:23,480
Speaker 1: love you.

1304
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 3: Bye, Solong friends, it's time to go. Thanks for listening

1305
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:32,680
Speaker 3: to our show. Tell your friends, nabors, uncles, and dance

1306
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:35,400
Speaker 3: to listen to our show, Ridiculous Romance