Chinatown’s “native son” Bruce Lee to be honored with statue

By Aneela Brister, AsAmNews intern

The Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) unveiled plans for a statue commemorating action star and martial arts pioneer Bruce Lee at the CHSA museum today.

Located in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a stone’s throw from the Chinese Hospital where Lee was born in 1940, the museum is currently showing the We Are Bruce Lee exhibit, which showcases Lee’s original artwork and documents. 

The statue will honor Lee’s legacy of promoting racial inclusion, said Justin Hoover, Director of Special Projects at the CHSA.

“Bruce Lee was a unifier,” Hoover said. “He was a visionary, a philosopher, a thinker, and an athlete. But more importantly he was a champion of embracing unity. This will be an artwork for all Americans.”

The announcement was made by a joint panel of officials from CHSA, the SF Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Rose Pak Community Fund, and other community leaders. 

The project kicks off with a $50,000 seed grant from the Rose Pak Community Fund and will tap into private donors to raise the additional $200,000 that the organizers envision will be the total cost. They have set their sights on Chinatown’s Portsmouth Square as the site of the larger-than-life bronze statue. However, the location is not yet confirmed. 

While Hoover did not disclose the particular pose of Lee they have chosen, he promised it would be an iconic one recognized by all. “It will show that energy that he had, that connectedness inside his body, that potent power through his eyes and his frame,” he said.

The sculptor chosen for the Lee statue is Arnie Kim, an artist whose sculpture of Christopher Reeve as Superman has become legendary. 

The project is supported by the Bruce Lee Foundation and Lee’s only surviving child, Shannon Lee. Mark Young, co-founder of Stand With Asians read a letter by her that thanked Chinn for his dedication to her father’s legacy. 

The Chinatown Lee statue is the next chapter in the years-long effort by CHSA to bring Lee’s legacy to life for a new generation. The Lee memorabilia displayed at the exhibit was donated by Jeff Chinn, docent and collector who displays thousands of Lee artifacts gathered over a period of decades at his San Francisco home. 

Chinn spoke about what Lee’s success as an iconic Hollywood leading man meant to him as a young Chinese American boy growing up in Chinatown in the 1970s, faced with negative stereotypes that made him ashamed of his heritage. He described an “unforgettable event” when he watched his first Lee movie, as part of a multiracial audience who were all enraptured by Lee’s charisma. 

“The most important part was the man on the screen looked like me,” Chinn said, getting emotional. “He made it cool to be Chinese.”

Chinn offers personal tours at the Lee exhibit two days of the week. 

“In 1973, during the ‘kung fu craze’ me and my friends all wanted to be like Bruce Lee, dress like him, swing nunchucks like him,” Chinn said in an interview after the event. “My friends outgrew Bruce Lee, but my association with him was very deep. I made a promise to share his life and legacy in any way that I can.”

Chinn’s exhibit has been loaned to other museums around the world, in Hong Kong, Japan, etc. He stressed that Lee’s story was universal. 

“Bruce Lee considered himself a human being,” Chinn added. “He said that under the sky there is but one family.”