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Thread: Bruce Lee Statues

  1. #1
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    Bruce Lee Statues

    Anyone going to be in Guangdong soon, give me a holla. We'd love a report.

    Largest Bruce Lee Museum Opens in S. China
    2008-11-11 15:12:48

    Visitors crowd the new Bruce Lee museum that opened in Shunde, Guangdong Province on November 9, 2008.

    The ancestral hometown of Bruce Lee in southern China has finished building the world's largest memorial museum for the action legend, China News Service reported Tuesday.

    The museum, located in Shunde, Guangdong Province, was inaugurated Sunday by Bruce's sister Phoebe Lee, who traveled from San Francisco for the occasion.

    More than 1,000 items related to or used by Bruce Lee are on display, including costumes and photographs. Some letters and poems written by the martial artist are being exhibited for the first time, the report says.

    The compound also includes a sculpture park that will feature the world's tallest Bruce Lee statue when the 18.8-meter-tall artwork is finished early next year.

    Future meet-ups for Bruce Lee's fans are being planned, with which the museum's director Huang Dechao hopes to create a communication forum for worldwide fans.

    There has been a resurgent interest in China over Bruce Lee, who passed away three decades ago, thanks to a new 50-episode drama series "The Legend of Bruce Lee," produced by China Central Television (CCTV). The drama, although controversial for some bloopers found in its scenes, has become the most-watched CCTV drama in history following its initial airing in October.
    Gene Ching
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    Statue of Lee-birty

    "China's Statue of Liberty" under way
    English.news.cn 2010-08-18 10:14:15

    BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Artists in Foshan, a city in Guangdong province that bills itself as the home of Chinese kungfu, are creating a 30-meter-tall sculpture of Bruce Lee which they hope will one day become a landmark on the scale of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

    The red-painted ceramic statue depicts an eight-legged Bruce Lee, known as Li Xiaolong in Chinese, balancing world famous monuments on each foot. These include The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Bird's Nest, or National Olympic Stadium, in Beijing.

    Over 100 smaller sculptures of China's most iconic martial arts fighter will form the centerpiece of Foshan Week, which opens to the public at the Expo on Tuesday afternoon.

    Identical, except for the monuments they balance on their feet, the sculptures took 100 people six months to complete, due to the complexity and size of the ceramics.

    The Enter the Dragon star was born in San Francisco of Hong Kong heritage but has ancestral links to Foshan. Recently, the series of Yip Man movies have celebrated his teacher Ye Wan, who was born to affluent parents in Foshan.

    In reality, the city competes with several Chinese towns and provinces for kungfu bragging rights, notably the Shaolin Monastery in Henan province. But Foshan locals claim more responsibility for promoting the art internationally over the last century.

    The towering sculpture, which looks like a stop-motion capture of Lee doing one of his explosive high kicks, will not be ready for another year, according to artist Shu Yong.

    "We hope it can compete with the Statue of Liberty. But our sculpture, The Kungfu God of 1,000 Legs, is meant to symbolize Chinese wisdom, creativity and health," he said.

    "We are taking it to the Guggenheim Museum (in Manhattan) next year as part of a grand world tour," he said.

    While the neoclassical Statue of Liberty was an international gift of friendship from France, Shu and cohorts hope an epic 10-year world tour will suffice.

    One of the criticisms of Expo 2010 Shanghai is that it has not celebrated the debut of any breakthrough monuments like the Statue of Liberty, parts of which appeared at two World Expos in the late 20th century. In their place, the Shanghai-hosted event offers dazzling pavilions, many designed by world-famous architects such as the UK's Thomas Heatherwick.

    Qiu Dailun, director of the exhibition commemorating Foshan Week, said the Bruce Lee sculpture was designed to "help China communicate with the world on an artistic level".

    "During China's recent development, much has been made of our shortcomings and problems, but our strengths and skills have been largely forgotten by the rest of the world," he said. "We hope, through cultural exchanges like these, to restore a sense of balance."

    The sculpture also shows how it is "possible to use the least amount of resources during the act of construction for the benefit of all", he said. Foshan produces 25 percent of the world's construction ceramics, 60 percent of which is used in China, officials said.

    The exhibition, located inside the Urban Best Practices Area in Puxi, also features a replica of one of the world's oldest ceramics kilns. It was built in Foshan in 1506.

    As such, organizers said they plan to give away 100 prizes of 1,506 yuan ($220) to visitors who can best emulate Lee's martial arts prowess by assuming difficult poses over the course of the week.

    The little dragon in bright CCCP red (and a clown shoe?)

    China creating eight-legged Bruce Lee sculpture to compete with Statue of Liberty

    Beijing, Aug 18 (ANI): Chinese artists in Foshan, a city in Guangdong province, are creating a red painted 30-meter-tall and eight-legged sculpture of legend Bruce Lee, which they hope would eventually be recognised as a landmark very much like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.

    According to China Daily, the ceramic statue depicts an eight-legged Bruce Lee, known as Li Xiaolong in Chinese, balancing world famous monuments on each foot. These include The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Bird's Nest, or National Olympic Stadium, in Beijing.


    "We hope it can compete with the Statue of Liberty. But our sculpture, The Kungfu God of 1,000 Legs, is meant to symbolize Chinese wisdom, creativity and health," an artist Shu Yong, said.

    It took 100 people six months to complete the sculpture, because of its complexity and size of the ceramics.

    Lee, the Enter the Dragon star, was born in San Francisco but has ancestral links to Foshan.

    The towering sculpture, which looks like a stop-motion capture of Lee doing one of his explosive high kicks, is expected to be ready by next year.

    "We are taking it to the Guggenheim Museum (in Manhattan) next year as part of a grand world tour," Yong added. (ANI)
    Gene Ching
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    BIG Little Dragon

    I'd love to visit this someday....
    Giant Bruce Lee statue welcomes kungfu fans
    English.news.cn 2010-10-27 10:17:28


    The statue in Bruce Lee Paradise is a new landmark of Jun'an, hometown of the kungfu master.(Source: China Daily)

    BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- At 18.8 meters tall, the world's biggest Bruce Lee statue is ready to greet global kungfu lovers in the master's hometown in Jun'an town, Foshan in Guangdong province.

    Created at a cost of nearly 2 million yuan and requiring about two years of effort, the bronze is the latest masterpiece of Cao Chongen, one of the nation's top sculptors.

    It is likely to become a superstar itself at Bruce Lee Paradise after it is inaugurated on Nov 28, the day after the 70th anniversary of Lee's birth.

    The title King of Kungfu is carved in the towering statue's foundation along with a summary of Lee's life and the list of donors and sponsors.

    While Lee is renowned around the world as a martial arts star in action movies and the one who brought the word kungfu into English dictionaries, his legacy remained low key back in his hometown in China until the local government recently invested millions to build his namesake park.

    The government hopes it will become a major tourist draw and further promote kungfu culture.

    The area now home to Bruce Lee Paradise, which began operation in 2005, was first developed as an ecological park in 1998.

    It has about 2 square kilometers of scenic beauty with lakes, mountains and rare birds.

    The park is also home to a museum filled with Lee's weapons and books, posters and other memorabilia related to him.

    Bruce Lee Ancestor's House less than a 1 km from the park is another stopover for Lee's fans despite its humbleness and sparse furnishings.

    Built by his grandfather, Lee lived in the house for only a short time.

    The residence is typical of the local style with gray bricks and black roofing tiles. A bedroom, hall, kitchen and yard together cover only 51 square meters.

    More hotels and a convention center are also planned. "We are ready to welcome more friends from around the world to pay a visit here," said a tour guide at the Bruce Lee Paradise.
    Gene Ching
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    18-meter little dragon

    That's nearly 60 ft in American.
    Tallest bronze sculpture of Bruce Lee marks hometown
    15:54, November 24, 2010


    The 18-meter-bronze sculpture of Bruce Lee at Shunde, Guangdong Province.

    The 2010 Bruce Lee Culture Festival was officially opened at Bruce Lee Park at Shunde City to south of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province on Nov. 23 to mark the 70 anniversary of Lee's birth date. On the day, an 18-meter-tall bronze sculpture of Lee, which is also the tallest sculpture of him in the world, was unveiled, according to Guangzhou Daily.

    Shannon Emery Lee, Bruce Lee's daughter, and Wren, Bruce Lee's granddaughter, also showed up at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Bruce Lee Culture Festival, and they started a series of programs to memorialize Bruce Lee yesterday.

    This is the first time that Wren has come back to her grandfather's hometown. Apart from joining the activities of the Bruce Lee Culture Festival, the most important goal of coming China for the 7-year-old Wren is paying her tribute to her grandfather and ancestors with her mother.


    Shannon Emery Lee, Bruce Lee's daughter, and Wren, Bruce Lee's granddaughter.

    Maybe it is hard for a 7-year-old little girl to understand the whole deep meaning of paying tribute and those ceremonies, but one short trip to her grandfather and mother's birthplace and the friendship from local people are enough for her to fall in love with this place, and she actually does like it.

    After the opening ceremony of the Culture Festival, Shannon Emery Lee told reporters that Bruce Lee Park here was very beautiful and a good place to memorialize her father. She was touched by the respect and warm feelings toward her father from local people.

    She also said that she and the Bruce Lee Fund would love to cooperate with Shunde's government on better protection and development of Bruce Lee's brand and to make sure more people in the next generation will know about him. She said she will bring back more things belonging to her father for exhibition in appropriate ways.

    Bruce Lee's 18-meter-high bronze sculpture was finished by Cao Chong'en, a famous sculptor, and it is the tallest sculpture of Bruce Lee in the world. The sculpture is in the shape of Bruce Lee's famous fighting stance.


    A foreigner is playing nunchakus by the sculpture of Bruce Lee.

    By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online
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    Bruce Lee Statues

    ...There's a new one in LA

    Bruce Lee becomes a fixture in Chinatown
    A 7-foot statue of the martial-arts film icon is unveiled in Central Plaza. Though he was a native of San Francisco, he had strong ties to L.A.'s Chinatown.


    Bruce Lee fans take photos of the film icon's statue, which will not be permanently installed until business leaders can raise $150,000 to put in seating and a concrete plinth. (Julia Wall, Los Angeles Times / June 15, 2013)

    June 17, 2013

    Officials in Chinatown unveiled a 7-foot bronze statue of Bruce Lee to a crowd of several hundred in the historical Central Plaza on Saturday night.

    The unveiling caps a five-year effort to bring the statue to Chinatown, said Shannon Lee, Bruce's daughter and the president of the Bruce Lee Foundation. The statue, created by an artist in Guangzhou, China, is the first such statue of her father in the United States, Shannon Lee said.

    Though the statue will not be permanently installed until business leaders can raise $150,000 to put in seating and a concrete plinth, the timing was right for the unveiling, she said. This year is the 40th anniversary of her father's death, as well as Chinatown's 75th year. And Saturday was the day before Father's Day.

    "Seeing it there in its permanent spot with the night sky of Chinatown ... it really struck me," Shannon Lee said.

    Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco's Chinatown, lived in Oakland and opened several martial-arts schools in Seattle's Chinatown. But he was a fixture in Los Angeles' Chinatown in the 1960s, opening a school on West College Street and working out at the Alpine Recreation Center. Lee stood out, jogging energetically around a neighborhood where almost no one did, Shannon Lee said.

    "It was the best place to be for Chinese food and to speak to people in his own language," she said.

    Actor James Hong used to manage a theater near Lee's studio and recalled seeing him around the neighborhood. Hong, a prolific actor with more than 400 film and television credits to his name, including "Kung Fu Panda," said he admired Lee's patience and perseverance.

    "I learned from him to keep a level head," Hong said in between taking pictures with his fans. "That's why I'm still around after all these years."

    In Los Angeles, Lee took a role as Kato in a television adaptation of "The Green Hornet" that launched a short film career that influenced cinema and pop culture even beyond his death at age 32 in 1973. His films inflamed the imagination of a generation of teenagers who grew up seeking black belts and plastering posters of him on their bedroom walls.

    John Kreng, 44, staked out a spot with his friends hours before the statue's unveiling, trading Bruce Lee stories and reminiscing. Growing up half Thai and half Chinese in an all-white neighborhood in Maryland, he was inspired by Bruce Lee's films, Kreng said.

    "Here's this hero who looks like me on the screen," he said.

    Kreng grew up at the tail end of the Vietnam War and "got beat up a lot." Then he saw "Way of the Dragon" and took up martial arts. Lee inspired him to become a stuntman and fight choreographer, Kreng said.

    "Seeing him on the screen gave me hope," said Kreng, who has watched "Enter the Dragon" at least 60 times. "I would not be here today if it wasn't for Bruce Lee."

    Art Camacho, another fight choreographer and stuntman, was also inspired by Lee. He grew up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in East Los Angeles, saw "The Chinese Connection" in 1972 and promptly took martial-arts classes.

    "Bruce Lee changed my whole outlook," said Camacho, who said he once hired one of Bruce Lee's co-stars just to get his autograph on a movie poster.

    When the crowds thinned after the unveiling, Kreng and Camacho took up a stance beneath the statue. They turned sideways, clenched a first, and assumed expressions somewhere between grimaces and grins.

    The moment captured, the two self-described Bruce Lee nerds laughed and exchanged high-fives.

    Camacho said he's a tough guy "when I do my stuff, but when I see Bruce Lee, I'm a little kid again. This is just awesome. I'm a 16-year-old sitting in that theater again."
    We should list a directory of where all the big Bruce Lee statues are located in the world.
    Gene Ching
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    We really should map all of these.

    Another Bruce statue
    Bruce Lee Museum Exhibition to Launch in Hong Kong
    2:56 AM PDT 6/27/2013 by Clarence Tsui

    Forty years after his death, the late martial arts star will be celebrated as “the pride of Hong Kong” in a multi-media show at the city’s Heritage Museum.

    HONG KONG – For years, Bruce Lee aficionados visiting Hong Kong could only pay tribute to their idol by taking pictures of his statue at the city's harbor-side Avenue of Stars. Rejoice now, kung fu fans: a full-fledged, officially-endorsed exhibition about Lee will soon open its doors in the master's hometown, 40 years after his death.

    Unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday, the government-run Hong Kong Heritage Museum’s “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu * Art * Life” exhibition is slated to feature 600 Lee-related artifacts, including loans from the Bruce Lee Foundation and the Hong Kong Film Archive. Among them will be 100 items related to The Green Hornet TV series, in which Lee played Kato.

    The exhibition will also include the showing of a 75-minute documentary, The Brilliant Life of Bruce Lee, produced by the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, and a 3-D hologram animation from local artist Shannon Ma showcasing the star’s trademark nunchaku moves and flying kicks. A new 11.5-foot statue statue will be unveiled as well -- the work of local sculptor Chu Tat-shing

    Meanwhile, the exhibition – which is slated to run for five years at the museum – will be supplemented by a series of extra-curricular activities, with the first program being a talk by the actor’s daughter and former actress Shannon Lee, in July.

    The exhibition will begin on July 20, the 40thanniversary of Lee’s death -- a rather belated celebration, which should help conclude years of local debate over how the action star should be honored in the city where he grew up and shot to stardom with films such as The Kid, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.

    While the U.S.-born star has been revered by the Chinese diaspora as their hero and also by filmgoers worldwide as a pioneering martial arts expert -- with tangible commemorations ranging from statues in the Bosnian city of Mostar, to a museum in the southern Chinese city of Shunde -- efforts to establish a permanent memorial to Lee in Hong Kong have been repeatedly thwarted by red tape, entangled finances, and moral posturing by politicians over Lee’s personal life.

    In 1999, the city’s Urban Council approved plans to establish a memorial gallery dedicated to Lee in the then under-construction Hong Kong Film Archive building, but it was never brought to fruition after an official report deemed the addition of such a gallery as running against official safety concerns. (There was no room for the councilors to revamp the plan: the Urban Council was abolished at the end of that year.)

    It was understood that the decision was partly down to high-ranking officials’ doubts about the circumstances of Lee’s death: the fact that he passed away at the home of actress Betty Ting Pei -- the official line was that the pair were working on a script together -- has fuelled much speculation over the decades about the martial arts actor’s personal life, as well as endless speculation over what actually brought about the cerebral edema that killed him in 1973.

    More recently, plans were afoot in 2008 to transform Lee’s former two-story home in Kowloon Tong -- a building which has since become a love motel, and stands just blocks away from where he died -- into a museum. The conversion never materialized as the current landlord and the Hong Kong government failed to agree on the terms on which the project could be greenlit.

    Lee’s legacy has since been sanctioned whole-heartedly by the authorities: the exhibition is set to be part of “Hong Kong: Our Home”, a large-scale official campaign designed to call for social harmony just as the city bubbles with widespread anger against what has been perceived as flawed governance since a new chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, was installed on July 1 of last year.

    In the exhibition launch on Wednesday, Leisure and Cultural Services Department director Betty Fung described the actor as “the pride of Hong Kong” and said that his influence “continues to cross the boundaries of region, race and even age”. It remains to be seen whether Lee, 40 years after his death, can become that sort of political and cultural unifier for the city – but at least Lee's global fans will finally have an appropriate destination for a kung fu pilgrimage.
    Bruce Lee show could grow into permanent exhibit
    Heritage Museum hopes fans will come forward with mementoes to bolster its collection
    Thursday, 27 June, 2013 [Updated: 5:22AM]

    The largest Bruce Lee exhibition yet staged in Hong Kong could become permanent if fans or acquaintances of the late kung fu star come forward and donate enough mementoes.

    Introducing "Bruce Lee: Kung Fu * Art * Life" at the Heritage Museum yesterday, director of Leisure and Cultural Services Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee said it was "not impossible" for the government to set up a permanent show. But the collection needed more than its current 600 pieces, Fung said.

    "What we have is not enough," she said. "Thus we hope that this exhibition can become a platform that arouses people's interest to make donations."

    The five-year exhibition opens on July 20, the 40th anniversary of Lee's death.

    Its items include notes showing Lee's handwriting and drawings, a replica of his application form for an American citizen's return certificate from when he was a baby, costumes and nunchaku he used.

    More than 400 pieces are on loan from the exhibition's co-organiser, the Bruce Lee Foundation, a public benefit corporation run by Lee's widow Linda Lee Cadwell and daughter Shannon Lee.

    The exhibition was organised after plans fell apart to convert Lee's former home, a two-storey house at 41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong, into a museum.

    The plan emerged in 2008 when landlord Yu Panglin offered to donate the house but only on condition that it could be expanded into a full-fledged museum. The idea was scrapped in 2011 after Yu and the government could not agree on the conditions.

    But the exhibition had already started to take shape and it eventually grew into its current form. The museum expects to receive 2.5 million visitors during the five-year run of the show, which received HK$24.8 million in funding from the Legislative Council.

    The Sha Tin museum's approach to the show was different from what it had used previously and proved challenging, said the museum's curator for history, Jeremy Hui.

    "For past exhibitions, we told stories through a timeline and a narration through [the subject's] life events, such as the Roman Tam exhibition. But Lee had such a rich life, albeit a short one. He played different roles, from being a superstar to a martial artist and even a philosopher," Hui said.

    "We wanted to tell a story about his life journey from different perspectives by putting it into Hong Kong's cultural context."

    A series of talks will be held to coincide with the exhibition, and the Tourism Commission will promote it overseas. Online bookings begin on July 4.
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    The Bruce Lee They Knew

    The 40th anniversary and everyone is cashing in.
    New book recalls memories of Bruce Lee by those who worked with him
    New book reveals another aspect of kung fu icon as told by those who loved, and feared him
    Monday, 15 July, 2013 [Updated: 9:01AM]
    Amy Nip amy.nip@scmp.com


    Chaplin Chang‚ who worked on two of Bruce Lee's films and has now published a book about him, alongside the star's statue in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: ****son Lee

    In the 40 years since Bruce Lee's death, the kung fu star has achieved almost god-like status among fans the world over.

    Like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, Lee left a legacy and an idealised image of who he was. Yet he was all too human - he swore at his boss, boasted about his prowess and threatened to kill those who challenged him.

    He was also a charismatic character well-respected by old school friends and fellow cast members, said Chaplin Chang Ching-peng, assistant director on Enter the Dragon and production manager for Way of The Dragon.

    "He would utter all those mother-related swear words in the face of [producer] Raymond Chow," Chang said.

    It was anecdotes like this that prompted Chang to publish a book, The Bruce Lee They Knew, this month. Together with Lee biographer Roger Lo Chun-kwong, Chang has put together 11 interviews from people who worked with or befriended he star.

    The interviews were done together with Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse in 1987. Clouse used parts of the interviews to write his own book in English about Lee, while Chang had the copyright to publish a Chinese-language book - which he had not exercised until now.

    Now 87, Chang has decided to publish the interviews in full. "As time passes, memories fade or become distorted. People gave more accurate accounts about Lee 20 years ago. Now fans glorify him," he said.

    Some people quoted in the book have already died.

    Actor Roy Chiao Hung said Lee once threatened to kill his Enter the Dragon co-star Robert Wall after Wall failed to drop a broken bottle as planned during filming and injured Lee with it.

    Lee pointed a knife at Big Boss director Lo Wei after he dropped the star from casting, the director recalls in the book. About 10 days later, Lee died.

    Others give accounts of how the young Lee would often fight with foreign students in his neighbourhood, how he was severely short-sighted and feared large dogs.

    Recalling his time with Lee, Chang describes him as energetic, full of ideas and boastful: "He would ask people he'd just met to hit his muscular chest."

    The kung fu master was kind to stunt doubles, showing them a great deal of respect and sometimes paying them higher salaries than agreed. But in the face of his superiors on the job, especially producer Chow, he was another man.

    Their hostile relationship may have had something to do with how profits from movies were allocated: Lee told Chang that Chow gave him only 5 per cent of the profits from the blockbusters The Big Boss and Fists of Fury.

    Nevertheless, Chang said that the movie mogul and Lee had a father-and-son relationship - they didn't quite get along, but Lee was dependent on him.

    The star continues to be a worldwide icon - fans still write to Chang, and filmmakers who worked with Lee are held in awe. Chang said it was a pity that the government failed to help build a Bruce Lee museum at his former home in Kowloon Tong.

    "Hong Kong is where Bruce grew up and was educated. It was his base for his films," said Chang.
    Gene Ching
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  8. #8

    Not quite a memorial . . .

    . . . but who else could this be.



    The Garden of Heroes & Villains is spread across Iconoclastic multi-millionaire Felix Dennis' property. It is one of the largest sculpture collections in the UK featuring over 50 life-size bronze statues of characters both real and fictional that the rich poet personally commissioned. It is opened to the public once a year during the National Gardens Scheme charity event.

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    what the heck is that guy in the top hat doing to that tortoise?!?!

    Someday, I must compile the Bruce Lee statue locations around the world and make a new thread just dedicated to that.
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    More on the Hong Kong Heritage Museum's Bruce Lee: Kung Fu, Art, Life

    Visit the Bruce Lee: Kung Fu, Art, Life exhibition in Hong Kong
    Cindy MacDonald
    Escape
    January 05, 2014 12:00AM

    IF Australia had just one favourite son to hold up to the world, who would it be?

    The great Donald Bradman springs to mind - a man whose achievements extended far beyond the boundaries of a cricket pitch, and whose very existence buoyed the national psyche for decades. A man worthy of his own museum, in the NSW town of Bowral, where devotees can gather to worship amid memorabilia, facts and photographs.

    Just as we have The Don, Hong Kong has its own national hero. His name is Bruce Lee.

    To mark the 40th anniversary in July of the untimely death of the martial artist and movie star, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum opened the Bruce Lee: Kung Fu, Art, Life multimedia exhibition.

    This homage to the highly disciplined and single-minded artist, which is scheduled to run for five years, has brought together more than 600 items of his short but colourful life. Supported by the Bruce Lee Foundation and the actor's family, it offers a comprehensive look at the man, the kung fu master and the legend.

    On display are everything from photos of Lee performing cha-cha moves as a teenager, to the famous mask he wore as Kato in the American TV series The Green Hornet, to his written pledge to become the "highest paid Oriental super star in the United States", to his kung fu costume for the 1973 martial arts classic Enter the Dragon.

    The exhibition also features the documentary The Brilliant Life of Bruce Lee, a 75-minute tribute to his legacy.

    Born the son of a celebrated Cantonese opera singer and his wife in San Francisco in 1940, Lee returned with his family to Hong Kong as a baby before heading back to the US in 1959 to complete his education.

    There he married Linda Emery and had a son, Brandon (who followed his father into acting and also died tragically young), and a daughter, Shannon.

    In 1971, Lee returned to Hong Kong a TV star and very quickly became an action-movie cult figure. But while shooting the fight scenes for The Game of Death in July 1973, which he had written and planned to direct himself, he suffered a fatal cerebral oedema. He was just 32.

    When Bruce Lee: Kung Fu, Art, Life was launched, the director of Hong Kong's Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Betty Fung, called Lee "the pride of Hong Kong" and described his influence as crossing "the boundaries of region, race and even age".

    As with Bradman, revered in Australia and on the subcontinent, Lee's enduring appeal transcended ethnicity.

    The writer was a guest of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.


    Bruce Lee exhibition Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Source: Supplied
    Hold the phone - the HK Tourism Board is hosting writers to report on this? Dang, I should go. I could get a lot more eyeballs on this than an Oz newpaper...maybe not as local, but still....Gotta get their number.
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    Bruce disappears

    Major bummer. But where *is* Bruce? We could put that on our roof.
    Where's Bruce? Giant martial arts hero disappears from Highland Park restaurant
    John Rabe | January 13th, 2014, 11:49am


    Bruce Lee, Chinese martial arts hero, adorning now defunct Japanese restaurant.

    Many months ago, I posted an Instagram and Facebook photo of Bruce Lee that got a lot of attention.

    Eight feet high, Bruce was poised as you see him here, impossibly abbed and nun-chucking on top of a new Japanese restaurant at 4017 North Figueroa Street in LA's Highland Park neighborhood.

    You see the problem already: Bruce Lee was of Chinese descent. Born in San Francisco in 1940, raised in Hong Kong, taught by the famous Yip Man. He's iconic, he's beautiful, but passers-by could probably sense that something wasn't quite right.

    That restaurant is now gone - replaced by Pasta Fresca Italian Grill - and so is Bruce. Anna Urvina, who was behind the counter this morning, says she doesn't know where Bruce went, and she also smiled at the incongruity.

    Pasta Fresca has the usual pasta and sandwich fare, but Anna promises a pizza oven is coming soon. Anna, just a hint: it wouldn't take much to raise the bar for pizza delivered to this part of town. Make a solid pizza and get it to us in 45 minutes and it won't matter if you have a statue of Karl Marx or Sam Yorty on the roof.

    Meantime, will the owner of the Bruce Lee statue please identify themselves?
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  12. #12
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    Statue moving

    Bye bye Bruce Lee: exit the dragon man
    By Maria Galinovic
    Aug. 28, 2014, 7:05 a.m.


    Bye bye Bruce: some have loved it, many have hated it, but the statue is off to a new site. Picture Chris Lane.

    BRUCE Lee is leaving — and some might say none too soon.

    The life-size statue of the Chinese martial arts legend caused somewhat of a furore when unveiled at Kogarah Town Square in March 2011, with protests, petitions and threats of vandalism because Lee had no real connection to Kogarah.

    But many believed Town Square was a better option than other suggested sites, such as Kogarah Park with its war memorial and sporting walk of fame, or Carss Bush Park, a heritage-listed site of historical and cultural significance.

    The statue was a gift from Shunde, one of Kogarah's "friendship" cities which has an ancestral connection to the US-born Lee, who died in 1973.

    At the council meeting on Monday (August 25), following a notice of motion from Nickolas Varvaris, the council decided to give Bruce a new home — at least they made a decision to create a new park in which the statue will be the focal point.

    The council will apply to the Geographical Names Board of NSW for permission to rename South Street Reserve, on the corner of South Street and Montgomery Street (near the entrance to St George Private Hospital) as Shunde Gardens, to commemorate the "friendship city" relationship between Kogarah and Shunde.

    The park will be upgraded to "a standard befitting the significance of this relationship", with a Chinese garden theme.

    "He was a gift from our sister city and in honour of that relationship we will move Bruce Lee to his own park," mayor Stephen Agius said.

    Former Kogarah councillor Anne Field said many residents thought that the statue should never have been placed in the Kogarah Town Square in the first place.
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    "Now that Bruce Lee is moving there is an opportunity to acknowledge someone from Kogarah's past," she said.

    She suggested Joseph Carruthers, a premier of NSW or Peter Herrmann, a Kogarah mayor who built the now-demolished Griffith House.

    What do you think of the statue? What would you like to see in its place?
    I kept meaning to cut all the statue posts from this thread to make a new thread. I almost did it just now but it seemed like too much work for today.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  13. #13
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    Just like I should pull the statues and museums out for indie threads...

    ...I should pull out Bruce Lee products. It's on my 'to do' list....



    25/11/2014 Tue 12:25 in Hong Kong by Matt Eaton
    Bruce Lee, the brand, to front new line of instant drinks

    The Bruce Lee name is synonymous with Chinese Kung Fu, but over the past several years his Daughter Shannon Lee has sought to revive his legacy through a series of licensing deals from clothing to accessories and even a partnership with Diageo.

    Bruce Lee LLC, the licensing company behind the legendary martial artist and actor, has struck a deal with Balanced Lifestyle and Beverages to take on the competitive, but lucrative, instant drinks market.

    At a press conference in TST yesterday, Shannon Lee fronted the launch of Bruce Lee Instant Drinks, a series of products which takes on several beverage categories from instant coffee, milk tea, honey lemon tea and instant drinking chocolate.

    Currently the instant and powdered drinks market is dominated by Nescafe and Kraft, which command around 90% of sales, according to Balanced Lifestyle and Beverages CEO Daniel Bergbaum.

    This is the first time the Bruce Lee name has been used to front a FMCG launch and Bergbaum is confident that innovation and a focus on a younger demographic will give them a strong point-of-difference.

    “We don’t want the crumbs, we want the cake,” Bergbaum said.

    “Being new, being different and being an innovator with a localised offering is something we can offer.”

    And, of course, there is the Bruce Lee name, which commands powerful PR leverage.

    More than 50 reporters turned up for yesterday’s launch, according to the PR firm MSLGROUP, and local media swarmed to interview Lee after the official ceremony.



    Lee added that she had worked closely with the company on all aspects of product development, including sales and marketing.

    “I worked closely with the Balanced Lifestyle group in order to make sure that this product captures my father’s essence and his pursuit of excellence.

    “It is also a way for us to keep promoting a healthy lifestyle and well being in his name,” she said.

    A wide range of gifts and marketing tools will be used as promotional material, including action figures, mugs and other items to get people moving.



    The products will be available in various retail stores, including Wellcome Supermarket, online and will soon be available in 759 stores.
    You know we all gotta try this...

    Here's the official website.
    Gene Ching
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  14. #14
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    I cobbled this new thread from Memorials

    All the posts up to here were moved out from the Bruce-Lee-Memorials which is why several of them say that I'll move them to this thread some day. That doesn't make much sense for archival sake unless you get as far as this post.

    The post below has a cute vid if you follow the link.
    BRUCE LEE'S HUGE BRONZE STATUE TURNS INTO A MECCA IN L.A.'S CHINATOWN (VIDEO)
    BY LIZ OHANESIAN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 | 1 DAY AGO

    Bruce Lee Mecca: An L.A. Statue of the Martial Arts Master Draws the Devout from Voice Media Group on Vimeo.

    The pilgrimages begin shortly after dawn, when members of the early-early crowd who use Chinatown's Central Plaza for jogging and cycling tap the rising sun to snap selfies next to an icon as famous for discipline as he was for kicking cinematic butt.

    Sweaty and disheveled, the revelers take a few seconds to stare at a statue of Bruce Lee that stands more than 7 feet tall and weighs an estimated 1,595 pounds. Rendered in bronze, the late star of films including Enter the Dragon and The Big Boss (aka Fists of Fury) appears ready for battle. His muscles ripple. His pants wrinkle as though he is in action. One hand clutches nunchaku. The other is posed with the palm facing outward.

    At the intersection of two pedestrian walkways, poised between the Grand Star Jazz Club and the building that once housed punk-music joint Madame Wong's, Lee's likeness is more god than celebrity.

    In June 2013, the sole Bruce Lee statue in North America was unveiled in Los Angeles. This might seem to be an odd city for the monument — Lee was born in San Francisco and buried in Seattle — but he did live in Los Angeles for a time. (Before his movies became a phenomenon, Lee played Kato in TV series The Green Hornet.)

    In fact, Lee had a martial arts studio on College Street, a few blocks from Central Plaza.


    Bruce Lee’s bronze statue in L.A.’s Chinatown stars in selfies.
    Photo by Shannon Cottrell

    L.A. Weekly previously reported that the bronze, similar to one in Hong Kong, would be up only temporarily, and that the intention was to return it to storage until Los Angeles Chinatown Corporation and the Bruce Lee Foundation could raise the funds to permanently install it. To date, it has remained in place, surrounded by a small barricade and a couple traffic cones.

    While the caretakers have yet to raise enough money for the planned permanent installation, that might happen soon. Since 2015 marks the 75th anniversary of Lee's birth, the foundation's goal is to complete the project by year's end. In the meantime, this bronze Bruce Lee has become a mecca of sorts, and with Chinese New Year coming up, the new landmark will draw even more admirers.

    For the Chinatown Corporation, a group comprising the descendants of the neighborhood's original developers, the biggest issue is keeping people from getting too close to this mammoth version of the screen icon. Larry Jung, president of the group, seems a little awestruck when he mentions the incidents where people try to climb on Bruce Lee, and the lines that form around the statue during neighborhood events.

    "It's funny," he says by phone. Perhaps it's a little unexpected, too. There are plenty of statues in L.A. It's all but impossible to imagine one with a line.

    Because I live in Chinatown and DJ at the Grand Star, I've seen the throngs of people come to pay tribute to the film star by taking a selfie. From stroller-pushing parents to uniform-clad Cathedral High School students to late-night bar crawlers, everyone wants a shot with Bruce Lee. Even LAPD isn't immune to the statue's star power. Once, police officers hopped out of a squad car for the minute it took to pose like martial arts masters.


    Bruce Lee still inspires mimics.
    Shannon Cottrell

    Nearly everyone tries to imitate Lee's stance, but sometimes the smallest day-trippers need a little coaxing. On a recent Saturday afternoon, a long-haired woman crouches as she points her camera toward a toddler. She tries to direct the little boy to pose like Lee, but he is content to do his own thing. "That's not what he's doing," she says as the child bends at the waist and grins. "Say 'hi-yah.'?"

    While adults are prone to exclaiming, "It's Bruce Lee!", the kids often are oblivious. They're still a few years away from Saturday afternoon martial arts movie marathons. Their parents, though, really want those shots.

    Los Angeles residents Veronica and Jose Duenas were raised on Bruce Lee films. Their kids weren't. Veronica points to her elementary school–age son and mentions that he asked her, "Who's Bruce Lee?"

    Oftentimes, this 3-D rendition of Bruce Lee comes as a surprise to visitors. It's located on the Broadway side of the plaza, hidden from view of the well-traveled souvenir shoppers and diners. Dora and Ernie Gonzales were in Chinatown looking for shoes when they stumbled upon it.

    A photo opportunity was a must. They're fans of the actor and had even visited Lee's grave on a trip to Seattle. The two have memories of watching his films on Kung Fu Theater, the program that aired endless martial arts films on Channel 9 in Los Angeles in the 1980s. "Even the fake Bruce Lees," Ernie says, "I used to watch them."

    When Bruce Lee tragically died in 1973, he had reached the peak of his popularity. In the years that followed, a number of movies capitalized on that fame and often featured actors with similar names. However, Lee's influence extended beyond the imitators, inspiring blatant homages such as the Bride's yellow and black jumpsuit in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Today's video games, featuring a succession of "boss battles" that increase in difficulty, mirror the structure of Lee's films.

    Later on in the day, three 20-something guys from Santa Clarita ogle the statue. Dave Bund, 27, who studied martial arts for 15 years, says, "It depicts him perfectly."

    The friends banter back and forth about the films they remember seeing on cable as children, such as the posthumously released Game of Death, which featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Way of the Dragon, which co-starred Chuck Norris. "They're the stuff of legend," Bund's friend, Alex Shefton, says.

    Bund remembers when his dad hipped him to The Big Boss. "He's as skinny as you," Bund recalls his father saying. "You can stand up for yourself. Bruce Lee could do it."

    Bund touches on a possible reason for Lee's sustained popularity: He was the kind of action star that doesn't exist anymore. Lee's slim frame was quite the opposite of the hulking heroes that emerged in following decades. Those who lacked brawn could relate to him. Moreover, Lee didn't rely on heavy artillery to get through fight scenes.

    His power was in his quick reflexes, keen observational skills and intelligence in fighting.

    But even when his characters won their fights, the films didn't necessarily end in victory. Take The Big Boss. When Lee's character, Cheng Chao-On, beats the film's primary nemesis, the event isn't followed by a parade or an onslaught of praise. His character is arrested.

    Even when violence is used to take out one of the "bad guys," the Bruce Lee message was that there are consequences. In today's action-packed movie world, Lee's films stand in stark contrast to the mess of explosions and cheers for good guys who kill that we see virtually every weekend.

    Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon, will be in Chinatown for the 37th annual Firecracker 5/10K on Feb. 28, In a statement to the Weekly, she says that she often receives photos from friends visiting the statue.

    "It's really a dream realized, to have been able to help place the first statue of my father in the U.S., and L.A. Chinatown's Central Plaza is the perfect place." she writes. "It does my heart good to see so many people enjoying the statue and celebrating my father's legacy!"
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  15. #15
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    Told ya we should map all of these...

    Bruce Lee's last stand: statues honour the kung fu star around the world
    The kung fu and jeet kune do master has been made larger than life around the planet, but he hasn’t always been popular
    PUBLISHED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 12:28am
    UPDATED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 9:11pm
    Daniel Moss daniel.moss@scmp.com


    Bruces around the world: L-R: Hong Kong Bruce, China Bruce, US Bruce, Australia Bruce, and another China Bruce. Photo: SCMP Pictures

    Kowloon, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

    The northern side of Victoria Harbour has a statue of Bruce Lee on the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, erected in 2005, a fitting tribute for the actor who lived in Kowloon Tong before he died, and in Nathan Road when he first moved to the city. The city was under fire for not honouring its pioneering film star in a meaningful way and the statue is still considered to be only partly meeting expectations.


    Tourist pose like Bruce Lee in front of hit statue at the Avenue of Stars. Photo: SCMP Pictures

    Los Angeles Chinatown, California

    His birthplace was in San Francisco and he lived in Seattle as a teenager, so Bruce Lee’s second home was in California and the US west coast. His acting career began in Hollywood and he had his first major break there with the Green Hornet in 1966. He also taught kung fu at a school in Los Angeles to stars like Steve McQueen and James Coburn, among others.

    WATCH: Shannon Lee unveils her father’s statue in Chinatown, LA


    Mostar, Bosnia

    A “new symbol of unity” was erected in the ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar on November 26, 2005 — a not-quite-lifesized golden statue of Bruce Lee. The town chose the Hong Kong star as he was worshipped equally by Muslims, Serbs and Croats and was seen as a symbol that could mend ties after the town was ripped apart in the Balkans war in 1993-94. The Mostar Urban Movement youth group in Mostar agreed they needed a symbol of justice, mastery and honesty — virtues upheld by the late Chinese-American actor, they said. It was vandalised shortly after it’s unveiling and after a display in the Croatian capital, Zagreb it reappeared in 2013 in a different Mostar park. The German government funded the statue.


    Bosnian Kung Fu practitioners applauded a newly unveiled bronze statue of Bruce Lee, martial arts master, in a typical fighting pose during a ceremony in Mostar November 26, 2005. Photo: Reuters

    Shunde and Foshan, Guangdong Province

    By far the largest statue to Bruce Lee’s memory is in Shunde, the ancestral homeland of his family. The statue is about 20-metres high at the Bruce Lee Paradise theme park. The tile manufacturing region seems the perfect fit for making a grand ceramic statement to remember one of its distant sons. In nearby Foshan, artists created a clutch of high-kicking, glossy-red Bruce Lees for a 2010 Shanghai expo. Interestingly, due to restrictions on cultural imports to China in the 1970s Bruce Lee was not well known there while he was making films. The connection is tenuous, as the San Francisco-born, Hong Kong-raised actor’s distant relatives lived in Foshan, but the mega-star did not.


    The big Bruce. Photo: SCMP Pictures
    continued next post (for 2nd video)
    Gene Ching
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