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Cole Horibe as Bruce Lee in Kung Fu. Photo: Gregory Costanzo

City scope: just for kicks

Rong Xiaoqing in New York

Ask anyone who has seen the play , at the Signature Theater in Manhattan, and they will likely tell you that it was hard for them to stay in their seat. The vibrating music, the trippy lights and the physical power exuded from the stage all make one want to dance, in a kung fu style.

Since its opening, on February 24, the show has gained broad attention from critics and audiences. This can be partly attributed to the talent of its playwright, Tony award-winning David Henry Hwang. But, Hwang admits, the person who inspires the audience most is Bruce Lee, the lead character, played by Japanese-American actor Cole Horibe.

may be all dancing but it isn't, thankfully, all singing. Horibe takes us through the late martial-art legend's story - his transformation from insignificant boy to international star amid racial bias in both Hong Kong and the United States. But he also gets to display the beauty of martial arts in what Hwang, who practises karate and yoga, calls a "dancical".

"Fists fly with all the fury an action fan could want," says of the show, which has been extended until April 6.

Away from the bright lights of off-Broadway, however, things are not quite as rosy.

Kung fu master Wing Hong Yip, 63, opened his school, Dragon Style Kung Fu, in Chinatown six months after Lee's sudden death, in 1973. The fervour for the art was such then that, even as an unknown, Yip signed up more than 60 students almost immediately.

After Lee, kung fu stars such as Sammo Hung Kam-bo, Jackie Chan and Jet Li kept the profile of martial arts high and movies such as and attracted people to it. Each produced their own spike in interest but none did so like Bruce Lee or .

These days, dwindling numbers of students and skyrocketing rents have made it prohibitive for anyone who wants to open a school and even the established ones have been struggling. With the rent of an 800 sqft space in Chinatown having almost tripled in the past 20 years, to US$2,500 to US$3,000 a month, only half of the eight schools that existed in the 1990s remain open.

Yip himself has had to move, into the meeting room of a community organisation run by friends, who charge him only minimal fees.

Despite his reincarnation on stage, there may not be another real-life Lee. But the kung fu schools of New York's Chinatown don't necessarily need one. What they do need, according to Yip and other kung fu masters, is for everyone to work together on a strategy to promote the martial art, as has happened for karate and yoga.

That may seem like a tall order, given the traditions were all about defeating adversaries for your clan, but as we've been shown in Wong Kar-wai movie , bitter rivalries can occasionally be put aside for the greater good.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Just for kicks
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