BEIJING,
Nov. 30 -- A theme park with a statue and memorial hall will be built at Bruce
Lee's southern Chinese ancestral home of Shunde, Guangdong Province. The park
will also contain a martial arts academy and conference centre, said Wong
Yiu-keung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Bruce Lee Club.
Wong said he couldn't confirm details of a report on
Monday in the Apple Daily newspaper that said the park was budgeted at 25.5
million U.S. dollars and was expected to be completed in three years.
Wong said he attended the laying of the theme park's
foundation in Shunde, near Hong Kong, on Sunday. He said Lee's younger brother,
Robert Lee, and actress Betty Ting Pei also attended.
The newspaper said Ting donated a set of nun chucks a
weapon consisting of two sticks joined by a chain or rope that Lee once used.
Lee, who was born in San Francisco 66 years ago on
Nov. 27, died of an oedema, or swelling of the brain, in Hong Kong in 1973. He
was 32. His action films included "Fists of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon."
Tuesday marked the birth of legendary
Chinese-American icon Bruce Lee (1940-73). Known as a lean, mean fighting
machine who single-handedly popularized the martial arts movie genre, Lee also
revolutionized fight choreography in film with his lightning-fast kicks and
mastery of the nun chucks.
But he was more than a movie star. Lee was also a
philosophical and innovative martial artist with an original approach to
traditional martial art styles.
He fought against Chinese tradition by teaching Kung
Fu to Westerners, and trained with champions from a variety of fighting systems.
This cultural mix led to the invention of his own
martial art, Jeet Kune Do, in which Lee embraced the philosophical idea of
"being like water."
By mimicking the flexibility of water, he avoided set
forms and fluidly adapted the most effective elements of as many fighting
techniques as possible an inspiration to modern mixed martial arts.
This, in combination with his extraordinary physical
feats and killer physique, inspired many fans to label Bruce Lee as "the
greatest martial artist of all time."
(Source: China Daily)
