HK – Bruce Lee, Bruised Knee (and hand, ribs)



Hong Kong is justly world-famous for many things. We could make a very long list, for example…

·         Manufacturing (as in ‘Made in Hong Kong’)

·         Global financial centre (on a par with London, New York, Tokyo)

·         Skyscrapers (the world’s most vertical city)

·         Shopping (especially fashions, electronics and brand products)

·         Food (dim sum, egg tarts, roast goose, hot pot, dai pai dong…the list is endless, a gourmet paradise)

·         Making money (in-your-face consumerism, conspicuous consumption, the most Rolls Royces per capita in the world)

 

(just a baby Porsche!)

 

·         Culture (home to a variety of visual and performing arts, including several orchestras, Cantopop and Cantonese Opera)

·         Architecture (e.g. HSBC, Lippo Centre, Bank of China, Jardine House, 2IFC, Hopewell Centre)

 



HSBC Building

Lippo Building







•    Scenery (e.g. Victoria Harbour, Star Ferry, Peak Tram, Ocean Park, Man Mo, Nathan Road)

Star Ferries in Hong Kong Harbour

·         ‘the business of luck’ (think feng shui, gambling, Cantonese numbers, wishing tree, jade, fortune telling)

·         Movie making (third largest after Hollywood and Bollywood until the 1990s decline)

·         Impressive life expectancy (third out of 198 countries for 2005-2010 according to the UN)

 …and so on.You get the idea? This is a rather special place. True, some of these perceptions are historical. For example, Hong Kong is no longer a manufacturing giant, much of its capacity has relocated to Shenzhen and mainland China. Similarly, in the last year or two, relative prices of electronic goods have increased such that Amazon UK prices now seem cheaper than Hong Kong’s main electronics chains of Fortress and Broadway (the smaller retailers still offer bargains but the risk of bait and switch, grey imports and suchlike obviously increases).

But, there is still one undiminished area of glory. Hong Kong gave the world martial arts movies and celluloid kung fu and will be forever remembered for that alone. Let’s hear it for the hometown boys, Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan and Jet Li!



Jackie Chan

Bruce Lee



 

If Hong Kong was to have a Saint, it would probably be Bruce Lee, Hong Kong’s most memorable cultural export and ambassador. He was born in San Francisco in 1940 - in both the year and the hour of the dragon - but raised in Hong Kong. In the early 1970s he pioneered mixed martial arts and popularised Kung Fu, opened Hollywood to Asian artists – particularly Asian leads - and gave enormous lift to the Chinese psyche, presaging the arrival of the Chinese superpower. He was even a cha-cha champion and is credited with pioneering break dancing!

Bruce Lee statue on the Hong Kong waterfront

While he authored 10 books and appeared in 34 films and tv shows, much of his public life was restricted to a few short years, and like many cultural icons of that era (think James Dean, Elvis, Marilyn), he died young, age 32. Even his death (of cerebral edema or swelling of the brain) is controversial and macabre conspiracy theories abound, for example, that he was assassinated by the Chinese for spying for the US, that he was killed by a secret society for revealing a confidential martial arts technique, or that was murdered in a dispute with a drugs gang.

Nevertheless, his legend lives on. He has been honoured with several statues, museums, postage stamps, parks, coverage by Time Magazine, retrospective exhibitions, countless documentaries, etc. Now, Hong Kong is staging the largest Bruce Lee exhibition ever. It’s at the Heritage Museum in Shatin until the year 2018.  

 

OK, so that’s Bruce Lee, but what was the ‘Bruised Knee’ in the title about? Well, I hate to admit it but I managed to fall over again. I bruised my knee, badly sprained my wrist (for the second time in less than two months, see 'The Grape of Wrath'), damaged my elbow and ribs. It’s been cold ice compresses, bandages, plasters, muscle sprain ointment and restless nights - what losing a fight with Bruce Lee must feel like!