The rundown house at 41 Cumberland Road in Hong Kong’s quiet district of Kowloon Tong might escape the notice of passers-by if it weren’t for a sign signaling that it is a “love hotel.”
Rooms are offered for rent by the hour, with a discount rate of HK$205 (US$25) buying amorous couples three hours in a tatty room off a narrow hallway decorated with a poster of a topless blonde.
It is a far cry from when the building was the home of kung fu icon Bruce Lee (李小龍) in the years before his untimely death in 1973 at the age of 32.
PHOTO: AFP
“The house has definitely been altered,” said Shannon Lee, the actor’s daughter, who recalled snickering when she learned about the home’s love hotel status in her mid-teens.
In glaring contrast to its current appearance, the now 40-year-old Lee remembers a Japanese-style pond out front, pets running around and plenty of exercise space for her father.
“I have very fond memories of it — my father definitely valued his privacy and there was space for him to work out and the kids to run around,” she said.
The fact that guests walk in the footsteps of the kung fu star might have faded into the mists of time had it not been for fans who rallied behind a plan to turn the hotel into a Lee memorial.
Following a public uproar, billionaire owner Yu Pang-lin (余彭年) agreed to cancel plans to sell the property, which he says is worth HK$100 million and instead donate it to honor Lee’s legacy.
Yu has said the home should be renovated to include a museum, a library, a cinema and martial arts area. Others, including Bruce Lee Club chairman Wong Yiu-keung (黃耀強), want the original floor plan preserved so visitors can imagine how it looked when the actor lived there.
“It should be a memorial house. After all it’s his former residence,” Wong said.
Lee — who was credited with catapulting the martial arts film genre into the mainstream with films including Fists of Fury and the posthumously released Enter the Dragon — died after a severe reaction to pain medication.
His widow, now living in the US, has provided a rough blueprint of the home’s original layout to help restoration efforts.
“My mom is definitely behind it,” Shannon Lee said.
“I’m really in favor of [the memorial]. It could be great for Hong Kong and great for my father and his legacy. I think the primary goal should be to preserve the house as much as possible to its original condition,” she said.
“The draw of this space was that it was his home,” she said. “That makes it very unique.”
A local design contest ended last month, but the memorial’s final look, building costs, who will pay them and when it opens remain unclear.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia