[1] An entertainment company and an arts curator have unveiled a life-size statue of late kung fu legend Bruce Lee at his childhood home in Hong Kong. This event marked the 85th anniversary of his arrival in the city. Organisers hmvod and curator Heiman Ng said the statue, unveiled last month, had been permanently installed at the Prudential Centre on Nathan Road in Jordan. The building is on the site of the residential block where the Lee family lived on their return to Hong Kong in 1941, not long after he was born. It has since been demolished.
[2] An exhibition titled “Bruce Lee: Homecoming – 85th Anniversary Exhibition” will run until the end of May. It will showcase a collection of previously unseen photographs and rare posters. “Apart from the statue on the Avenue of Stars, we have installed this sculpture at his childhood doorstep to reflect his more philosophical ‘be like water’ side,” Ng said. “This is a timely reminder for us to stay calm in the turbulent [times] of Hong Kong.”
[3] The bronze statue depicts a shirtless Lee with his hands folded in front of his chest, themed around his signature saying: “be like water”. The phrase originates from a scene in the 1971 television series Longstreet, which highlights the adaptability and fluid nature of water in overcoming life’s obstacles.
[4] The monument, announced last year, is part of the “Bruce Lee Way” memorial trail, which joins six other locations established in 2013 to commemorate the star’s local roots. The Prudential Centre stands on the site of the former Katherine Building, a residential block where Lee lived for the longest period of his life. This was after his family returned from San Francisco in 1941.
[5] The new installation provides fans a unique insight into Lee’s childhood before he returned to the United States at 18. The photo gallery features previously unseen images of Lee as a child actor, before his fame in the US. It includes stills from The Kid (1950) and The Orphan (1960), as well as a photograph of him as a pupil at La Salle Primary School. “We hope to attract tourists from the nearby West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus and promote in-depth travel through this exhibition, which forms part of the neighbouring cultural district,” lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said.
[6] Shannon Lee, daughter of the martial artist and chair of the Bruce Lee Foundation, shared a message to mark the event. “I love that this exhibition inhabits the place where my father’s journey began in Hong Kong and offers visitors the opportunity to connect with his legacy where his roots first took hold,” she said.
[7] In addition to the mall exhibition, a red 1972 Mercedes-Benz 350SL Roadster – the same model Lee owned in Hong Kong – was displayed for a week in the driveway outside the centre, on loan from a local collector. The star spent his last years living in a Kowloon Tong mansion before his sudden death on July 20, 1973, at the age of 32.
Source: South China Morning Post, April 27
