Statue of Bruce Lee
A statue of Bruce Lee was unveiled on Saturday, November 26, 2005, in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by sculptor Ivan Fijolić. Located in the City Park of "Zrinjski," the life-sized statue stands 1.68 meters tall, shorter than Bruce Lee's actual height of 1.72 meters,and is a symbol of solidarity in the ethnically divided city.The statue was the first public monument to Bruce Lee unveiled in the world, with a statue in Hong Kong being revealed one day later marking what would have been the Chinese star's 65th birthday.
The project of the statue was spearheaded by Mostar Urban Movement, a youth group headed by Nino Raspudić and Veselin Gatalo, who saw the statue as "an attempt to question symbols, old and new, by mixing up high grandeur with mass culture and kung fu." Bruce Lee was chosen as a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions. Lee, who was an American of Chinese descent and famous martial arts actor, represented to the residents of Mostar a bridging of cultures. "One thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee."
In a city with a reputation for violence, the dynamic movie star was a symbol of "loyalty, skill, friendship and justice."
The unveiling ceremony of the statue saw the attendance of local Bruce Lee fans, representatives of the German government, which had bankrolled the project, as well as Chinese officials. Martial arts is popular among the youth population in Herzegovina, especially competitive Mixed Martial Arts where Croatian Mirko Filipović is an international star.
Shortly afterward the sculpture was vandalized, removed for repairs and brought back at the end of May 2013. Bosnians and Croats had complained that the statue was a provocation because it was oriented towards their area in a fighting stance.
Life of Bruce Lee
Lee Jun-fan (Chinese: 李振藩; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973), known professionally as Bruce Lee, was a Hong Kong and American actor, film director, martial artist, martial arts instructor, philosopher and founder of the martial art Jeet Kune Do. Lee was the son of Cantonese opera star Lee Hoi-chuen. He is widely considered by commentators, critics, media, and other martial artists to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time,and a pop culture icon of the 20th century. He is often credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.
Lee was born in Chinatown, San Francisco, on November 27, 1940, to parents from Hong Kong and was raised in Kowloon, Hong Kong, with his family until his late teens. He was introduced to the film industry by his father and appeared in several films as a child actor. Lee moved to the United States at the age of 18 to receive his higher education, at the University of Washington, at Seattle and it was during this time that he began teaching martial arts. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in the US, Hong Kong and the rest of the world.
He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Golden Harvest's Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse. Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films. He trained in the art of Wing Chun and later combined his other influences from various sources, in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist). Lee held dual nationality in Hong Kong and the US.He died in Kowloon Tong on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32.