Museums to Honor Kung Fu Icons Chan and Lee

Posted by J.L. Sosa (jorge@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 12, 2008

The Associated Press reports that a great travesty might finally be redressed.

The travesty in question? Minnesota’s largest ball of twine has its own museum, but Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan do not. Since when does a big-ass ball of twine merit more respect than two of the wickedest motherfuckers in all of Hong Kong — nay — world cinema? Since never, that’s when. But, I’m ready to forgive and forget.

Construction on Jackie Chan’s museum just kicked off in Shanghai, with the Drunken Master’s blessing. It’s scheduled to finish in October 2009, and the museum will chronicle Chan’s career from its earliest days through his present super-stardom. It will feature props and costumes from his movies, photos and other memorabilia.

Bruce Lee’s museum is — at this point — just a twinkle in Hong Kong billionaire Yu Pang-lin’s eye.

Pang-lin is a developer and philanthropist who owns a home Bruce Lee lived in from 1972 to 1973. The Associated Press reports he planned to sell the home but “changed his mind after fans of the late martial-arts star expressed worries about the building’s possible destruction.”

Instead, he’s asking the Hong Kong government to set up a trust to pay for a Lee museum on the site. Pang-lin offered to donate the property, valued at more than $13 million.

I have no idea why, but all this calls to mind an ancient Chinese proverb: “Man who fart in church sit in his pew.”

Read more articles by J.L. Sosa