A FIVE-YEAR exhibition featuring kung fu star Bruce Lee will open in Hong Kong on July 20, the 40th anniversary of Lee’s death.

    Titled “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu • Art • Life,” the exhibition to be held at the Heritage Museum will present more than 600 precious relics and memorabilia items related to Bruce Lee, on loan for display. They include more than 400 relics from the Bruce Lee Foundation, the largest number of artifacts that the foundation has ever loaned out. Its items include notes showing Lee’s handwriting and drawings, a replica of his application form for a U.S. citizenship’s return certificate from when he was a baby, costumes and nunchaku he used.

    In addition, the Hong Kong Film Archive under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has provided more than 100 items selected from its collection for display in the exhibition. Through these collections, the exhibition will be able to review the life story of the legendary Lee, from the perspectives of his profile, his movies, his martial arts and his development as a cultural phenomenon.

    The exhibition will also include a collector series of which the theme will be changed regularly to show the precious collections of different collectors, with an aim of introducing the cultural significance and the influence of Lee through collectors’ eyes.

    The first exhibition in the collector series will feature more than 100 products related to the TV series “The Green Hornet,” provided by internationally acclaimed U.S. collector Perry Lee.

    The largest Bruce Lee exhibition yet staged in Hong Kong could become permanent if fans or acquaintances of the late kung fu star come forward and donate enough mementos, according to HK LCSD director Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee.

    “What we have is not enough,” Fung said. “Thus we hope that this exhibition can become a platform that arouses people’s interest to make donations.”

    The exhibition was organized after plans fell apart to convert Lee’s former home, a two-story house at 41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, into a museum.

    The plan emerged in 2008 when landlord Yu Panglin offered to donate the house, but only on condition that it could be expanded into a full-fledged museum. The idea was scrapped in 2011, after Yu and the government could not agree on the conditions.

    But the exhibition had already started to take shape and it eventually grew into its current form. The museum expects to receive 2.5 million visitors during the five-year run of the show, which received HK$24.8 million (US$3.2 million) in funding from Hong Kong’s legislative council.

    A series of talks will be held to coincide with the exhibition, and the Tourism Commission will promote it overseas. Online bookings begin July 4.

    (SD-Agencies)