Enter the Bruce Lee Theme Park
The president of the Bruce Lee fan club of Hong Kong announced Monday that a theme park honoring the martial arts legend would be built in Shunde, in China’s southern Guangdong province. The theme park will include a museum telling the history of Bruce Lee, a statue, a conference center and a martial arts training academy. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper reported that the theme park will cost $25.5 million and will take three years to construct. The father of mixed martial arts died of an edema, or swelling of the brain, at the age of 32 in Hong Kong. And the only thing stranger than his death may be the location of his new theme park. While Lee is of Chinese descent, his father Chinese and his mother half-Chinese, the Bruce Lee theme park will be built in a place that has little to do with the life or history of Bruce Lee. Shunde, China, the place where his theme park will be, is merely where his ancestors are from. It would be like if my theme park were built in some Polish village. Lee was born in San Francisco and grew up in British-run Hong Kong and spent most of his adult life in California. He had minimal ties with mainland China. I suppose he’s been dead long enough now that China can rightfully take some credit for him. And make some money off him.
•AP: Bruce Lee Theme Park To Be Built