Bruce Lee's 70th birthday marked in Hong Kong

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Bruce Lee's 70th birthday marked in Hong Kong

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01 April,2010 03:49 pm

Bruce Lee's 70th birthday is marked with an exhibit in Hong Kong and an upcoming film, while his ancestral town hopes to attract tourists with monuments honouring the kung fu legend. A Hong Kong exhibit unveiled by his wife and daughter is only one of many projects aiming to revive the superstar's legacy, decades after his death. The exhibit, entitled Bruce Lee 7010, includes Bruce Lee films, personal items, seminars and a newly launched publication Bruce Lee Lives. Bruce Lee was a unique person, as a person, as a man, then as an actor or martial artist. He was a very unique person and I think that is what people have recognised -- that there's much more to him than just being an actor or martial artist, said Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell. Lee became a a source of Chinese pride by portraying characters that defended the Chinese and the working class from oppressors in films like Return of the Dragon. He died in Hong Kong in 1973 at the age 32 from swelling of the brain. My father really worked extremely hard, I mean, he trained for hours and hours everyday, he pushed himself and he was really passionate and driven to be the best at everything he tried to do, said his daughter, Shannon Lee Keasler. While Lee is renowned the world over as a martial arts legend with a slew of action films to his name, back in his father's Chinese hometown, where many share the Lee name, his legacy remains low-key. In the sleepy town of Xiacun in southern China, elders doze and children play along little dragon alley, which winds its way to the ancestral home of the kung fu star. The small, grey-brick courtyard house contains old photos of Lee on the walls, an altar, a musty bedroom and a wooden dummy used for martial arts training, but visitors are few and far between. Other projects commemorating the town's most famous son are also off the tourist radar. Town officials, however, realise the potential to cash in on Lee's legacy, as his admirers are still legion. Modern martial arts practitioners like Wang Hongxin, who is a master of nunchuka sticks, a martial arts weapon which Bruce Lee excelled at, said the star continues to embody China's struggle to stand up to the West. When Bruce Lee was abroad, it was a time when foreigners discriminated against Chinese. Bruce Lee won his reputation in foreign countries with his fist. The greatness or smallness of your capability decides your viability. Under those circumstances the only way to prove your kung fu skills is to fight, Wang said. Millions have been invested in a park called Bruce Lee Paradise, filled with lakes and rare birds, which authorities in Shunde and nearby Foshan hope will become a major tourist draw. But the park, nearly 90 minutes by car from Guangzhou along dusty highways, is off the beaten tourist track. A 12-meter high (39-foot) bronze statue of Lee remains half-finished. A museum filled with Lee's weapons, books, posters and other memorabilia is virtually deserted. But a Bruce Lee craze could be brewing, with films about him in the works, including Ip Man 2, chronicling the life of his teacher. Bruce Lee is already a standard. He's like Confucius, you know, he is a standard. He is part of our culture that we will embrace for the restand so on, said Kung Fu film star, Donnie Yen, who plays Ip Man in the movie. Through his entire life of studying, you know, first of all he never stopped progressing as a martial artist. He was in search of the higher level all the way until his death, Yen said. Hong Kong arthouse director Wong Kar-wai is also working on an Ip Man film. There are also plans to convert Lee's old house in Hong Kong, now used as an hourly love motel, into a museum, and to build a commemorative one in Seattle, where Lee studied and taught martial arts.