Plans for Bruce Lee Museum get off the ground, finally

ICONIC movie star Bruce Lee's home in Hong Kong will become a historical site.

The two-storey mansion on Cumberland Road, which was converted into a love motel some time after the actor's death, was nearly sold last year to raise funds untill one man and his team stepped in.

That man is Hong Kong Bruce Lee Club president and chairman Wong Yiu Keung, 40, who runs a publishing company.

He told The New Paper in a recent phone interview that the 460-sq-m property in Kowloon Tong was once a rendezvous point for lovers, something which raised the hackles of the late star's fans.

Now the house he lived in till his death in July 1973 has been tentatively named the Bruce Lee Museum.

Last year, businessman Yu Panglin, the owner of the property, wanted to sell it to raise funds for charity after the Sichuan earthquake.

FORGOTTEN: Bruce Lee's home was converted into a love hotel after his death, much to fans' ire. PICTURES: APPLE DAILY, STAR CHINESE MOVIES

The government at that time had no interest in the building as it was deemed to have no architectural value. The mansion has had major alterations done over the years - a front verandah, for exmaple, had been completely removed.

But Mr Wong feels architectural value should not be the only criterion for conserving a building. 'The value lies in where Bruce Lee really spent time and that's a cultural heritage,' he said.

'To prevent the house from being sold, we started an online petition and garnered more than 10,000 signatures to preserve this historical site.

'Finally (in January this year), with us as the middleman, Mr Yu and the government began negotiating to turn the place into a museum.'

Mr Yu had bought the house for just HK$850,000 ($160,000) in the 1960s and it is now worth around HK$100 million.

Complex

Plans are being made to expand the property to turn it into a museum complex with a cinema, library and martial arts centre.

This is good news for fans all over the world, including former local TV action star Vincent Ng, 34.

When contacted by The New Paper yesterday, the martial art instructor, who bagged three SEA Games wushu gold medals in 1993 and 1997, said: 'Bruce Lee is a wushu legend who propagated the Chinese martial art across the world. How did his home end up becoming a love motel in the first place?'

Bruce, the high-kicking hero of films such as Big Boss and Fist Of Fury, is the first Asian actor to gain fame in the West. Current gongfu movie megastar Jackie Chan started his showbiz career as Bruce's stuntman.

The US-born star's death at age 32 was the subject of much speculation. It is believed that reactions to medication led to his death.

Last month, his name cropped up when action star David Carradine, 72, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. Entertainment news site Hollyscoop reported that his family believed a gongfu sect murdered him.

US actor Frank Krueger, a martial arts practitioner, told Hollyscoop: 'One of the widely held theories about Bruce Lee's death was that he was killed by one of these groups for teaching martial arts secrets.'

Additional reporting by Kwok Kar Peng

Star Chinese Movies 2 (StarHub Ch 63) is featuring his movies every Sunday this month at 10pm to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Bruce's death.

The line-up includes Fist Of Fury, The Big Boss, The Game Of Death and Enter The Dragon.