Bruce Lee turns 75: Hong Kong’s most famous son, and a legacy that won’t die
A pioneer bringing Chinese culture to the world, a man who changed cinema forever, and an inspiration to people from Snoop Dogg to Hilmalayan villagers to Ultimate Fighting Championship competitors would have turned 75 this week. What do we owe to the influence of Bruce Lee?
You could tell there was something special about Bruce Lee the first time the camera caught his eye.
Look back at him there now in 1950, in scratchy black and white, at 10 years old playing the plucky orphan in the Feng Feng-directed The Kid, and you can sense immediately that right in front of you is a star in the making.
The young Lee followed that role up with a string of competent turns across all genres but nothing could really prepare the Hong Kong cinema industry - or the world - for the man who would emerge when he returned from the United States in the mid-1960s.
Tragically cut down by a cerebral edema on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32, Bruce Lee remains the most instantly recognizable son the city had ever produced. Fans around the world today are preparing to mark what would have been the Lee’s 75th birthday, and to reflect on the man and his legacy.
Rex Tso Sing-yu knows a lot about the latter. Hong Kong’s only professional boxer is expected to fight for the city’s first world title in the new year and likes to tell a story that sums up how the world still thinks about Lee after all these years.