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Enid Tsui

Bruce Lee, whose mantra was “be water”, is everywhere this summer in Hong Kong.
Anti-government protesters have adopted it as the slogan for their guerilla strategy and it is popping up on lamp posts, buildings and hundreds of “Lennon Walls” across the city.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Kung Fu star’s former home in Kowloon Tong is about to demolish the mansion, prompting a fresh outpouring of grief from fans and those who feel it could have been saved as a monument to Hong Kong’s most famous son.
And then there’s the new dance tribute.


The Odyssey of Little Dragon is the brainchild of Dominic Wong Dick-man, assistant artistic director of Hong Kong’s City Contemporary Dance Company, who developed the show with dramaturge Patrick Lee (no relation).
It uses “be water” as a recurring motif, according to Patrick Lee, an award-winning Chinese-American journalist whose day job is a producer on 60 Minutes for CBS News and who has worked both in Hollywood and a New York community theatre group.

“One day, after a heavy rainstorm in New York, I went home and saw water dripping down from the ceiling. I called the [building superintendent] and he said, there’s no telling where the source was because water could go anywhere. That’s when I realised what Bruce Lee meant. ‘Be water’ meant the ability to go anywhere,” he says during a visit to Hong Kong.
His personal interest in Bruce Lee springs from shared experiences –like the actor, he moved from Hong Kong to the United States when he was a teenager, and was frustrated in Hollywood. Patrick Lee struggled to get meaningful work after leaving film school, just as Bruce Lee had a hard time getting meaningful roles outside Chinese-language cinema.
He also appreciates how Bruce Lee single-handedly reversed the Orientalist stereotype of the weak, feminine Chinese man and established a global following for Hong Kong kung fu films.
While researching for an earlier CBS documentary, Patrick Lee realised with sadness that Bruce Lee’s status in Hong Kong stood in sharp contrast to his obscurity in the US during his lifetime.
“I was so sure that I’d find footage of his funeral in Seattle in the CBS archives, which is enormous. But I couldn’t find anything of Bruce Lee at all. He was a nobody in the US and his fame and recognition in the West was achieved only after his death,” he says. “In Hong Kong, however, he was a superstar.

When he died at the age of 32, huge crowds came out to mourn him [in Hong Kong]. In Seattle, his funeral was a very small gathering and there was no coverage.”
The two funerals will be the starting point of The Odyssey of Little Dragon, which Patrick Lee says will mostly relate the late star’s life through the eyes of his widow, Linda.
“I was in touch with Linda while I wrote the show’s structure and I have always been interested in their relationship. People think they already know everything there is to know about Bruce Lee and so I deliberately chose a different kind of storytelling,” he says.
I wasn’t interested in the project just because he was a famous figure, but because his life was uniquely relevant to an Asian-American’s experience
Patrick Lee, writer of The Odyssey of Little Dragon
The dance drama will be wrapped around Linda’s memory of Lee, as well as dream sequences. In one scene, Bruce Lee has a eureka moment about the power of water while watching buns steam in a China Town restaurant. In another, the martial arts legend and his younger self touch their nunchucks, crossing time and space, to signify the merging of his Eastern and Western identities.
Hong Kong is a fitting setting for The Odyssey of Little Dragon, he says, not just because it is his and Bruce Lee’s birthplace, but also because the city has always been where East meets West.
“I wasn’t interested in the project just because he was a famous figure, but because his life was uniquely relevant to an Asian-American’s experience,” he says.

The music and live accompaniment will be provided by Ng Yin, a local singer, sheng player and composer, and Bruce Lee will be played by various dancers on stage.
The Odyssey of Little Dragon, City Contemporary Dance Company, Sha Tin Town Hall, August 16-18. Tickets are now available on Urbtix.


How Stephen Chow and Donnie Yen reinvented Bruce Lee’s classic Chen Zhen in their own ways

Thrilling Bruce Lee dance show explores Hong Kong star’s life and career

Bruce Lee celebrations can spur efforts to preserve his cultural legacy

Hong Kong extends martial arts star Bruce Lee’s memorial trail with new monument

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee mantra ‘be water’ inspires  modern dance production in Hong Kong

Hong Kong modern dance production The Odyssey of Little Dragon will celebrate martial arts legend Bruce Lee’s “be water” mantra.

A Post-it note with "Be Water" written on it, seen on one of the many "Lennon Walls" in Hong Kong. Anti-extradition law protesters have adopted Bruce Lee's famous mantra to represent their guerrilla strategy.

View of Bruce Lee's former mansion which is under demolition, 41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong. 19JUL19 SCMP / Felix Wong

Portrait of Patrick Lee, an Emmy-award winning American Chinese playwright who has written a musical and dance tribute to Bruce Lee, to be performed in August by the City Contemporary Dance Company in Hong Kong. 18JUL19 [FEATURES] SCMP / Jonathan Wong

How Bruce Lee-inspired series Warrior gave Hong Kong actor Jason Tobin a second life

Hong Kong actor Jason Tobin said playing Young Jun in Warrior is a dream role for a Bruce Lee fan. Photo: Antony Dickson

Jason Tobin.

Handout image shows Hong Kong actor Jason Tobin and his mother Penny Wai in Franschhoek, South Africa. [21JULY2019 FEATURES POST MAGAZINE] CREDIT: Jason Tobin

Jason Tobin in the Warrior.

Actors from the independent film "Better Luck Tomorrow," from left, Sung Kang, Jason Tobin and Parry Shen, are shown in this undated promotional photo. The film is being screened on college campuses to generate word of mouth, and mass e-mails are being sent to Asian groups to explain that, if enough people watch it on opening weekend, distributor MTV Films will expand it's release nationwide. (AP Photo/MTV Films)

Jason Tobin and his father.

Bruce Lee's legacy leaves a family divided

Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon with a poster promoting her father's memorial exhibition at the Heritage Museum in Sha Tin. Photo: AP

Bruce with his mother and siblings in the late 1950s in Kowloon. Photo: Getty

Robert Lee

Phoebe Lee, Bruce's elder sister, at the Heritage Museum exhibition. Photo: Reuters

Shannon and her mother Linda Lee Cadwell at an exhibition in Tokyo in 1998. Photo: AP

Wife Linda with Brandon and Shannon at Bruce's funeral. Photo: SCMP

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The Odyssey of Little Dragon celebrates the spirit of the actor and martial arts legend through the memories of his widow, Linda
Performed by City Contemporary Dance Company, its starting point is the contrasting funerals held for Lee in Hong Kong and Seattle



The Odyssey of Little Dragon, commissioned by the City Contemporary Dance Company, celebrates the spirit of the actor and martial arts legend through the eyes of his widow, Linda.


Performing arts in Hong Kong