Bruce Lee fan Yu Panglin has given billions to the needy
Billionaire philanthropist Yu Panglin, the man behind the proposed Bruce Lee museum in Kowloon Tong, has a life story that could be made into an action movie.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post at his Shenzhen Panglin Hotel, he talked about his three-year stint in a thought-correction centre in Shanghai and how he arrived in Hong Kong penniless but managed to build a successful property empire after starting as a labourer. Now in his twilight years, the 86-year-old is working just as hard to give his money to charity.
Ranked at the top of a list of China's leading philanthropists by the Hurun Report for the past three years, he made charitable donations of 3 billion yuan (HK$3.43 billion) last year after giving away 2 billion yuan in each of the previous two years.
Despite his generosity, Mr Yu is perhaps best known as owner of properties leased as love hotels in Kowloon Tong, including the last home of martial arts legend Bruce Lee who died in 1973.
Mr Yu last month announced his intention to transform the love hotel into a museum commemorating the life of Bruce Lee, easing public concern that the building could be torn down. Mr Yu had earlier put the 5,699 square foot house on Cumberland Road on the market for HK$100 million, with the proceeds to have helped victims of the Sichuan earthquake.
Mr Yu was born in 1922, the third of six children, in Changsha, Hunan where his father ran a small grocery store. In 1954, he tried to seek his fortune in Shanghai but found himself working as rickshaw puller and hawker. He was later arrested and accused of coming from a wealthy family, a serious charge in the early days of the Communist political movement. After three years in a thought-correction camp, he was released and obtained permission to travel to Hong Kong in 1958.
