Fans flock to Hong Kong to mark 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death
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Chinese actor Mei Zhiyong performs a flying kick in front of a bronze statue of gongfu legend Bruce Lee in Hong Kong on Thursday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HONG KONG – Fans from Hong Kong and around the world gathered at the feet of a Bruce Lee statue on Thursday to pay tribute to the late gongfu legend on the 50th anniversary of his untimely death.
Standing in front of the life-size bronze statue with Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour behind them, a stream of fans snapped pictures, bowed and laid down flowers.
Others performed moves from Lee’s own brand of gongfu, Jeet Kune Do, and threw nunchucks – a chained double truncheon weapon that was popularised by Lee in several films.
Those who travelled to Hong Kong for the anniversary included people from Asia, including mainland China, and Europe.
“I have loved Bruce Lee since I was very young,” said Mr Bruce Shin from South Korea who sported a brush cut and large framed sunglasses, imitating Lee.
“His body and figure were so mysterious. I wanted to be like him and did weight training for 50 years,” Mr Shin added while making high pitched yelps and unleashing rapid-fire punches.
Lee, who was born in San Francisco but raised in Hong Kong, died at the age of 32 on July 20, 1973, from a brain swelling, just days before the release of his global blockbuster movie Enter The Dragon.
Lee’s contributions to martial arts and popular culture have inspired legions of global fans. But some see his legacy as a relic of the past in the former British colony.
The Wing Chun style of gongfu that Lee learnt from his former grandmaster Ip Man, is still taught in a number of schools, but it has been a struggle to win new disciples in the high-octane, skyscraper stacked metropolis.
One of Lee’s most famous maxims, “Be water, my friend”, from an interview in 1971, inspired Hong Kong’s 2019‘s pro-democracy movement.
Bouquets of flowers offered by fans for the late gongfu legend Bruce Lee are laid on a bronze statue of him in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: REUTERS
It provided a template for months of wildcat, city-wide protests against Beijing’s tightening grip of the global financial hub, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
“Could you have ever imagined that after half a century, one person could be remembered all around the world?“ said Mr Wong Yiu-keung, the chairman of the local Bruce Lee Club.
Ms Sophie Uekawa, from Japan, said Lee transcended any one place.
“He’s Chinese but he’s cosmopolitan, he’s not bounded by a border. He is a human being under the sky ... We have to tell the new generation about him and we have to carry on his spirit”. REUTERS
