Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Enter the Dragon with his Fist of Peace

Lee Siu Lung is better known to the world as the legendary Bruce Lee. A martial artist flim star, he caught the imagination of a worldwide audience with his genre of kungfu movies showing fist fighting minus the flourishes. His famous films have been the Chinese language Fist of Fury and the English language Enter the Dragon.

Like a blazing comet, he died at a very prime age of 32 in what was widely believed to be a sex-drug scandal with lovely HK actress Betty Ting Pei.

But his fans rather than mourn his death celebrate his memory with his brand of pseudo-Wing Chun martial art, spinoff movies and books, etc. Thus the Bruce Lee legend lives on.

And even more so today in the Bosnian city of Mostar, of all places.

Mostar has an ethnic problem among its populace, where racial conflict broke out between Muslims and Croats in 1993-1994. For the most weird reason, the Serbs, Croats and Muslims hero-worshipped Bruce Lee. They reckon he represents justice, mastery and honesty. So they have agreed to erect a new symbol of unity in a statue of Bruce Lee.

On the 30th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death his fans in Mostar will honour him as well as provide a unifying symbol for the various ethnic groups.

A German organisation has agreed to foot the bill with a 5,000 euros grant. The statue will be cast in bronze, with Bruce Lee in a typical fighting pose. I wonder whether they will incorporate an audio system a la Teresa Teng’s grave site so that visitors may hear Bruce Lee’s famous signatory “Ai eeeeeeeee-yah.” His widow Linda will be invited to attend the ceremony.

Bruce Lee’s kungfu has finally reached the most supreme level of achievement – it brings peace to a Bosnian town.

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