Among mysterious celebrity deaths, it is up there with JFK and Elvis. But the myth of Bruce Lee's (李小龍) demise in Hong Kong in 1973 may finally have been solved.
"The death of Bruce Lee, coming at such a young age and in the peak of physical fitness, has given rise to much speculation," said James Filkins, at Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago. "Almost as soon as Lee died rumors began to surface."
The official cause of Lee's death was recorded in the autopsy report as cerebral edema, or brain swelling. This was supposedly due to his hypersensitivity to a painkiller called equigesic that he had taken that day. But further research suggests the kung fu idol may have died from an epileptic condition first recognized more than 20 years after his death.
The theories began on July 20 -- the day he died -- when he had been planning to meet his producer, Raymond Chow (鄒文懷), and the Australian actor George Lazenby, of James Bond fame, to try to persuade Lazenby to appear in his new film, Game of Death. He never made it to dinner.
The official explanation has never satisfied Lee's fans.
"Like James Dean, a death of someone so young gave cult status. He was known as the fittest man alive," said Brian Harrison, head of the Bruce Lee fan club, brucelee.org.uk.
Some speculated that he had been murdered by Hong Kong triads for refusing to pay protection money or by US gangsters for refusing to work in Hollywood. A minor actress, Betty Ting Pei (丁佩), was rumored to be Lee's mistress, something she has always denied. But some suggest he died while making love to her. None of these explanations washes with Filkins. The autopsy report recorded no evidence of physical injury or street drugs in Lee's system apart from marijuana. There were low levels of the painkiller.
Filkins thinks the official explanation is also wrong. Drug reactions tend to involve an anaphylactic reaction in which the victim's neck swells, he told the annual meeting of the American Academy of Sciences in Seattle. Instead, he thinks Lee died of a condition called sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), which was only recognized in 1995.
The condition involves a seizure which stops the heart or lungs. It kills around 500 people a year in the UK, is most common in men aged 20-40 and can be brought on by lack of sleep and stress.
"Lee was under a great deal of physical and mental distress at the time," Filkins said.
Jane Hanna, director of the support charity Epilepsy Bereaved, said SUDEP was gaining recognition.
‘GRAVE CONCERN’: A critic of the government died immediately following his complaints of torture at the hands of security forces, a human rights group said Students on Friday clashed with police in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, as anger mounted at the death of a writer and government critic in a high-security jail. At least 18 police and an unknown number of protesters were injured in the clashes, authorities and witnesses said, amid international demands for an independent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. An Agence France-Presse correspondent witnessed police using batons and firing tear gas at students who staged a torchlight march calling for “justice” near the University of Dhaka. At least six students who allegedly attacked security forces with torches were detained, police said. More protests were planned
LEGAL ORDEAL: The heavy caseload involving 47 defendants and the vagaries of a Beijing-imposed security law made it difficult for the court to rule on bail requests Dozens of Hong Kong democracy advocates charged with subversion yesterday returned to court to complete a marathon bail hearing that was adjourned overnight when four defendants were rushed to hospital after hours of legal wrangling. Police on Sunday arrested 47 of the territory’s best-known dissidents for “conspiracy to commit subversion” in the broadest use yet of a sweeping National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the territory last year. The defendants represent a broad cross-section of Hong Kong’s opposition, from veteran former pro-democracy lawmakers to academics, lawyers, social workers and youth advocates. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside a courthouse on Monday for the
China, under growing global pressure over its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, is mounting an unprecedented and aggressive campaign to push back, including explicit attacks on women who have made claims of abuse. As allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang mount, with a growing number of Western lawmakers accusing China of genocide, Beijing is focusing on discrediting the female Uighur witnesses behind reports of abuse. Chinese officials have named women, disclosed medical data and information on their fertility, and accused some of having affairs and one of having a sexually transmitted disease. Officials said that the information was evidence of bad character,
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was beaming. “Today is a day of joy, emotion and hope,” he said. The source of that hope: China — a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged about 500 million doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press (AP). With just four of China’s many
RSS