For a lot of, Bruce Lee is the primary identify that involves thoughts when pondering of San Francisco’s most iconic figures. Now, the town’s Chinatown is honoring that legacy with a statue.
A bronze Bruce Lee statue shall be erected in San Francisco’s Chinatown, his 1940 birthplace, following a proposal by memorabilia collector Jeff Chinn to the Chinese language Historic Society of America.
The 6ft (2-meter) statue will depict Lee in a prowling stance, able to strike; the South Korean artist Arnie Kim will design and create the piece. The Rose Pak Neighborhood Fund has pledged $50,000, and the historic society is fundraising a further $200,000. Justin Hoover, the group’s director of particular tasks, stated the mission displays a a lot bigger sentiment felt by the neighborhood.
“This story is a narrative, not solely of what it means to be Chinese language in America, it’s a story of mutual assist. It’s about serving to one another,” stated Hoover throughout the mission’s launch occasion final week. “It’s about solidarity, and a narrative that’s about not solely the Chinese language in America, however as a Chinese language American story that’s a narrative about all Individuals.”
The statue comes at a time when Asian Individuals, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders stay involved in regards to the spike in violence lately, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic.
A nationwide survey by Cease AAPI Hate, a US-based coalition targeted on combating discrimination towards Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders, discovered that 49% of AAPIs within the US skilled some type of race-based hate in 2023. Asian Individuals account for about 34% of San Francisco’s inhabitants.
“This statue mission combats Asian and Asian American hate by uplifting togetherness and unity,” stated Janice Pettey, the chief director of the Chinese language Historic Society of America.
Lee starred in simply 5 movies earlier than dying at 32 from an allergic response to a painkiller. Regardless of dying at a younger age, he turned a legendary Asian American motion hero, all whereas defying Hollywood’s racial stereotypes on the time. He famously rejected roles that required him to put on a queue, or braided pigtail, or embody the servile, desexualized tropes usually compelled onto Chinese language males.
In an period when it was typical for white actors to painting Asian characters by donning prosthetics and slanted-eye make-up, Lee misplaced out on main roles, considered one of which was a Shaolin monk in Kung Fu, which solid white actor David Carradine over him.
“An usually unseen aspect of Bruce Lee was his place in civil rights advocacy as a practitioner of kung fu,” Pettey stated. “In opposition to cultural custom, he welcomed individuals of all backgrounds to his studio, together with Black American, Caucasian and different Asian American college students.”
“Bruce Lee was a unifier who embraced individuals of all races and genders, and spotlighted them in his personal martial arts movies, together with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,” Pettey added. The NBA basketball star Abdul-Jabbar educated underneath Lee and appeared in his movie Recreation of Dying in 1972.
The statue of Lee can also be a part of broader efforts to spice up appreciation of the Bay Space’s Chinese language heritage. In Oakland, a brand new proposal is on the desk to vary the identify of the Lake Merritt Bart station to “Oakland Chinatown”, however the funding supply for the estimated $750,000 mission stays unclear.
The statue in San Francisco will depict Lee going through off towards Han, the one-handed crime boss from Enter the Dragon, Lee’s most iconic movie, which he by no means lived to see. He died a month earlier than its launch.
“Having a public statue to coach others about his San Francisco Chinatown roots and his Chinese language American heritage will function a dwelling tribute to his unimaginable story as a martial artist, filmmaker, thinker, businessman and loving father and husband,” Pettey stated.
With birthright citizenship hanging by a thread within the US, Pettey stated the group will proceed to amplify San Francisco voices comparable to Lee’s and Wong Kim Ark, who supplied the interpretation of the 14th modification’s birthright provision.
Pettey referred to as them “heroes that we’d appreciatively amplify to make sure that the narrative of the Chinese language in America is shared and explored”.
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