 In a separate but lengthy article published in "The New York Times Magazine" in 1993, titled "The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love with a Shadow," Wadler reveals in intimate detail how Boursicot came to believe the fiction that Shi Pei Pu was a woman despite having first come to know him socially and in a close friendship as a man.Boursicot related through Wadler that Shi first told him the story of an opera about a Chinese girl who swaps clothing with her brother so she may be educated.She falls in love with another student but is called home to participate in an arranged marriage.