Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France. The idea of a beautiful exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy made her name synonymous with the femme fatale. Her story has served as an inspiration for books, films, and other works.
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were an American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to be executed during peacetime. Other convicted co-conspirators were sentenced to prison, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, Harry Gold, and Morton Sobell. Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist working in Los Alamos, was convicted in the United Kingdom.
David Henry Hwang is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays FOB, Golden Child, and Yellow Face. Three of his works have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
"Madame Butterfly" is a short story by American lawyer and writer John Luther Long. It is based on the recollections of Long's sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband, a Methodist missionary. It was first published in Century Magazine in 1898 and adapted for the stage in 1900. Giacomo Puccini based his 1904 opera Madama Butterfly on the play.
M. Butterfly is a 1993 American romantic drama film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay was written by David Henry Hwang based on his play of the same name. The film stars Jeremy Irons and John Lone, with Ian Richardson, Barbara Sukowa, and Annabel Leventon. The story is loosely based on true events which involved French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu.
Yang Xiong is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Superior to Guan Suo", he ranks 32nd among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the first third of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
Shi Xiu is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Daredevil Third Brother", he ranks 33rd among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the first third of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
The Government of China is engaged in espionage overseas, directed through diverse methods via the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the United Front Work Department (UFWD), People's Liberation Army (PLA) via its Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department, and numerous front organizations and state-owned enterprises. It employs a variety of tactics including cyber espionage to gain access to sensitive information remotely, signals intelligence, human intelligence as well as influence operations through united front activity targeting overseas Chinese communities and associations. The Chinese government is also engaged in industrial espionage aimed at gathering information and technology to bolster its economy, as well as transnational repression of dissidents abroad such as supporters of the Tibetan independence movement and Uyghurs as well as the Taiwan independence movement, the Hong Kong independence movement, Falun Gong, pro-democracy activists, and other critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The United States alleges that the degree of intelligence activity is unprecedented in its assertiveness and engagement in multiple host countries, particularly the United States, to which various US officials contend economic damages, prosperity and stolen innovations have resulted in $US320-445 billion annually since its inception and activities.
Fu Jian, originally named Pu Jian, courtesy name Jianye (建業), also known by his posthumous name as the Emperor Jingming of Former Qin (前秦景明帝), was the founding emperor of the Di-led Chinese Former Qin dynasty.
Bernard Charles Newman was a British writer of 138 books, both fiction and non-fiction. His works have been translated into over 20 languages including Japanese and Braille. A historian, he was considered an authority on spies, but also wrote books concerning travel and politics. His fiction included mystery novels, plays, science fiction and children's books.
Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese opera singer from Beijing. He became a spy and obtained secrets from Bernard Boursicot, an employee in the French embassy, during a 20-year-long sexual affair in which the performer convinced Boursicot that he was a woman. He claimed to have had a child that he insisted had been born through their relations. The story made headlines in France when the facts were revealed.
Joyce Judith Wadler is a journalist and reporter for The New York Times, as well as a writer and humorist.
Major general Lo Hsieh-che was the head of the electronic communications and information department in the Republic of China Army until his arrest in early 2011 on charges of spying for the People's Republic of China. Lo is reported to be the highest-ranking officer arrested for allegedly spying for China, and thus represents Taiwan's worst espionage case in 50 years. Taiwan military court sentenced Lo to life imprisonment on 26 April 2012.
Despina Storch or Despina Davidovitch Storch was an Ottoman Greek woman who was alleged to be a spy for Germany and the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Storch was later immortalized as "Turkish Delight", "Turkish beauty", and a "modern Cleopatra" in spy literature.
M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera Madama Butterfly, is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Beijing opera singer. The play premiered on Broadway in 1988 and won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play. In addition to this, it was a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist in 1989.
Sexpionage is the involvement of sexual activity, intimacy, romance, or seduction to conduct espionage. Sex, or the possibility of sex, can function as a distraction, incentive, cover story, or unintended part of any intelligence operation.
Chuanqi is a form of fictional short story in Classical Chinese first formed in the Tang dynasty. The term often refers specifically to fictions written in the Tang dynasty, in which case the fictions are also called Tang chuanqi or chuanqi wen. Chuanqi originated from the Zhiguai xiaoshuo of the Six Dynasties, was first formed in Early Tang dynasty, became popular in Middle Tang and dwindled in the Song dynasty. Chuanqi has four main themes: love, gods and demons, xiayi and history. Well known works of chuanqi include The World Inside a Pillow and Renshi zhuan by Shen Jiji, Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen, The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu by Jiang Fang, The Tale of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian, The Governor of Nanke by Li Gongzuo, Chang hen ge zhuan by Chen Hong, Hongxian zhuan by Yuan Jiao and The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest by Du Guangting. Unlike general Biji xiaoshuo and Zhiguai xiaoshuo, most chuanqi stories have a complicated plot with twists and detailed descriptions and are meaningful literary creations instead of mere recordings of factual events. They are some of the earliest Chinese literature written in the form of short stories and have provided valuable inspiration plot-wise and in other ways for fiction and drama in later eras. Many were preserved in the 10th-century anthology, Taiping Guangji.
Pang E born Zhao E was a Chinese noblewoman of the late Eastern Han period, mother of Cao Wei politician Pang Yu. She killed the man who killed her father, in full public view in front of a government office, but after turning herself in and requesting execution under the law, she not only escaped punishment but was later commended for her virtue.
See You Again is a 2019 Chinese television series based on the novel of the same name by Sui Houzhu. It stars Tiffany Tang, Shawn Dou and Yang Shuo. It aired on Beijing TV from July 16 to August 7, 2019.
