How Bruce Lee influence in Hong Kong

  Bruce Lee began training in the art of Wing Chun at Master Ip Man’s Studio. Martial arts became Bruce’s life, and he spent every waking moment practicing, but he didn’t necessarily stop getting into street fights. After an arrest when he was 17, his parents told him it would be safer for him to go to San Francisco.

  During his time in America, Bruce continued his studies in drama and philosophy, met and married his wife Linda Emery and became the proud father of two children – Brandon and Shannon. He also began teaching martial arts and developed his own philosophy and martial art he named Jeet Kune Do.

  A martial arts exhibition in Long Beach in 1964 eventually led to the invitation by William Dozier, an American film producer, to star in a new television series titled The Green Hornet. Dozier cast Bruce as a crime fighting martial-art expert named Kato. The show, only produced for one series, ended up making Bruce a star back in Hong Kong.

  Bruce returned to Hong Kong in the mid-1960s. Producer Fred Weintraub had advised Bruce to return to Hong Kong and make a feature film that he could showcase to executives in Hollywood.

  Back in Hong Kong, Bruce starred in five feature films that ended up putting Hong Kong cinema on the map. Notably, these films were The Big Boss (1971); Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Bruce; Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers’ Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978).

  Bruce’s kung fu films forever changed the way fighting was presented on screen. Before Bruce, fights were disorderly fisticuffs. After Bruce, most films with fight scenes incorporate kung fu movements – fights have become dances with acrobatic jumps and circus tricks

  The release of Enter the Dragon (after Bruce’s premature death in 1973) catapulted Bruce to international superstar status. The film exposed many Westerners to the idea of martial arts for the first time, and many sought out martial arts instruction as a result of this movie. The film’s impact helped the Hong Kong film industry eventually grow to become the third largest in the world behind India and the United States.

  Today, Hong Kong commemorates the life and legacy of its most famous son with a 2.5-metre bronze statue of Bruce Lee erected along the Avenue of Stars, a Hong Kong attraction near the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.

2.5-metre bronze statue of Bruce Lee erected along the Avenue of Stars