H.K.'s tribute museum to Bruce Lee closes amid financial strain
Considered a must-see by Lee's overseas admirers visiting the territory, the Bruce Lee Club had put on display items from its collection of over 2,000 artifacts, including sculptures, decades-old magazines and precious film stills from the late star's early career.
But the club earlier said on Facebook that accumulated expenses had forced them to "rethink how to most effectively utilize our resources to sustain the flame of Bruce Lee's spirit."
The club's operators had expected a recovery after revenue was hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but "reality fell short," the Facebook post said. It is not known whether the museum will reopen.
The fan club was founded by Lee's family to "share our knowledge and closest memories" of the late superstar, who died in July 1973 at the age of 32. The itinerant archive first opened in a different location in Hong Kong in 2000, before reopening in 2019 after a years-long hiatus.
A Hong Kong-American, Lee is known for bringing Chinese martial arts, or kung fu, to Hollywood, and for developing a new school known as Jeet Kune Do.
In 2019, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were seen following the advice of "Be water, my friend" from the 1971 TV drama series Longstreet featuring Lee as a reminder to stay flexible and constantly shift their tactics in the face of a police crackdown.
The museum's last day Tuesday attracted scores of visitors, including Andy Tong, 46, a Jeet Kune Do instructor, and his son Andre, 13, who hailed Lee as a "god."
"Things related to him or his deeds in Hong Kong are getting harder and harder to come by," Tong said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
20 hours ago
- Japan Today
Japanese underground idol culture booming in China
Members of the Chinese underground idol group Transparent Classroom and Parallel Girls perform onstage in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, on May 18. By Maya Kaneko At a club in Shanghai, dozens of young people are jumping and waving glow sticks as they dance to the music, leaning in as if to touch the performers on stage. They're Chinese amateur girl groups singing in Japanese, and this is Japan's globalized idol culture. About 20 Chinese idol groups wearing colorful frilly dresses and Lolita-style outfits performed at a recent weekend music event. The emcees sometimes called out to the crowd in Japanese, with shouts of "se-no" ("All together now!") or "arigato-gozaimashita" ("Thank you very much!"). After the show, fans lined up to chat with the idols at the venue's booths. These meet-and-greet sessions are called "perks meetings." The paid service lets fans take pictures with the idols, get autographs, and chat with the girls for a few minutes. An autographed photo and a two-minute chat costs 100 yuan ($14). According to Chinese media, the number of underground idol groups in the country has skyrocketed since the end of pandemic restrictions, from about 40 in 2023 to over 250 in March this year. A male fan of the idol group "Affloret" gave his favorite group member, Rhythm, a flower bouquet for her birthday. "I really love her and have been watching her grow. I hope she becomes the No. 1 idol in China," said the man, who wore a black vest with the Chinese message: "I only watch Rhythm." The producers of Affloret, which was set up in China's biggest business hub in June last year, include people who worked at AKB48 Team SH, the Shanghai branch of Japan's famous all-girl idol group AKB48. Since AKB48 started in 2005, it has operated under the concept of "idols that fans can casually meet" through "handshake" meet-and-greet paid events at venues including a Tokyo theater dedicated to the group. Of the six women in Affloret, only Nayuyu is a full-time idol. The others are either college students or work part-time in the entertainment industry aside from their main jobs. Rhythm said in an interview that she feels "very happy and blessed" on stage and that it is great to be able to share her emotions with fans who often reciprocate with a feeling "full of energy" after watching her performances. The group members, who were chosen from about 100 candidates, sing in both Japanese and Chinese, even though Nayuyu says Japanese pronunciation is hard since most of the members have not really studied the language. Being passionate and enthusiastic about becoming an idol is more important than talent, an Affloret producer said. Even though Affloret has over 100,000 fans who follow their online content and social media, the group's main source of revenue is offline -- event tickets and meet-ups. The Affloret members said they look up to Japanese underground idol groups like AIBECK and iLIFE as role models and hope to perform with them in Japan. A Japanese man in his 40s who lives in Shanghai and follows Chinese idols said he thinks the biggest difference between Japanese and Chinese entertainment cultures is the physical distance between the fans and performers. "In Japan, there are strict rules and fans must keep a certain distance from idols, but here the atmosphere is more relaxed, allowing fans to chat with the performers more intimately," he said. Unlike a lot of Japanese groups that are made up of teenagers, most of the Chinese idols are adults who get into show business for a limited time, according to the Japanese fan. A lot of members "graduate" or quit after a year or so, presumably because Chinese youth are under more pressure to find stable jobs. The man said he got into Chinese underground idols after seeing a live performance by a group called Transparent Classroom and Parallel Girls from Changsha, Hunan Province, in 2019. The six members of the Changsha idol group are unique. They sing original songs in various genres, including rock and punk, in Chinese. This is different from the groups classified as mainstream idols, which try to evoke feelings of "moe," or enchantment with cute and innocent characters. Zhao Beichen, 31, the producer of Transparent Classroom, is known in the Chinese media as the "godmother of Chinese underground idols." After a live performance in Changsha in May, she explained that she wants to nurture "alternative" performers who are "not perfect" and can be seen as "unsophisticated." Zhao researched Japanese underground idols for her thesis at Meiji University in Tokyo, attended concerts by amateur groups and worked at an idol talent agency while she was in Japan. "China's got a huge population base, so no matter how niche the genre is, there'll always be a market as long as there are people who like it," Zhao said. "I think it'll be easier to get underground idol groups together in China than in Japan because the culture here isn't as developed." Zhao said she has never thought about having her group sing Japanese songs because the members cannot speak the language. "Underground idols should be diverse and inclusive, like a hodgepodge," she said, adding that the industry is "fun because it is based on grassroots." © KYODO
Asahi Shimbun
2 days ago
- Asahi Shimbun
NFL cheerleader-turned chef is stirring up U.S. restaurant scene
Four years after swapping her pompoms for a chef's knife, Masako Morishita earned one of the most prestigious accolades in American dining: a James Beard Foundation Award. In 2024 she was honored in the Emerging Chef category, winning what amounts to an Academy Award of cooking. Born and raised in Kobe, Morishita's journey was anything but conventional. As a teenager studying abroad in the United States, she discovered cheerleading for the first time. Enthralled by the energy and athleticism it requires, she returned to Japan determined to master the sport. She spent more than a decade in grueling training. After multiple auditions, Morishita achieved her dream when in 2013 she earned a spot on the cheerleading squad for Washington's NFL team–now known as the Commanders. By her fifth season she had made history as the team's first overseas-born captain. When she eventually hung up her uniform, Morishita poured that same relentless energy into a new passion: food. She brought Japanese comfort cuisine to Washington, D.C., by hosting pop-ups in vacant storefronts and serving dishes like fragrant curry and pork shabu-shabu, a popular hot pot featuring paper-thin slices of premium pork. As her reputation grew, a local wine bar invited her to put her talents on a larger stage. About three years ago Morishita took a job at a Japanese restaurant, but she found the work creatively stifling. The kitchen operated on a rigid menu and relied on frozen "shumai" dumplings. She persuaded the owner to let her introduce down-home Japanese dishes with an imaginative twist. Diners loved them. Morishita's breakout creation, miso butter clams, drew inspiration from a childhood memory of her father topping a bowl of rice with miso soup and a small pat of butter, letting the flavors melt together in comforting simplicity. Remarkably, Morishita never went to culinary school. Her secret weapon, she says, is her finely honed palate that developed when she grew up in Kobe. Her family ran a sake shop with a lively standing bar. Morishita's unusual journey, blending elite athletics, entrepreneurial grit and culinary creativity, has put her in the U.S. media. The State Department tasked her with preparing a luncheon during an official visit by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Washington. Moreover, Morishita is still a rarity among American restaurateurs: female and an immigrant in a field dominated by men. She sees that uniqueness as a strength, using her visibility to challenge stereotypes about Japanese cuisine and to champion what she calls 'cultural diplomacy through food.' From the grassroots up, she is carving out her own path, one inventive dish at a time.
The Mainichi
3 days ago
- The Mainichi
Japanese underground idol culture booming in China
SHANGHAI (Kyodo) -- At a club in Shanghai, dozens of young people are jumping and waving glow sticks as they dance to the music, leaning in as if to touch the performers on stage. They're Chinese amateur girl groups singing in Japanese, and this is Japan's globalized idol culture. About 20 Chinese idol groups wearing colorful frilly dresses and Lolita-style outfits performed at a recent weekend music event. The emcees sometimes called out to the crowd in Japanese, with shouts of "se-no" ("All together now!") or "arigato-gozaimashita" ("Thank you very much!"). After the show, fans lined up to chat with the idols at the venue's booths. These meet-and-greet sessions are called "perks meetings." The paid service lets fans take pictures with the idols, get autographs, and chat with the girls for a few minutes. An autographed photo and a two-minute chat costs 100 yuan ($14). According to Chinese media, the number of underground idol groups in the country has skyrocketed since the end of pandemic restrictions, from about 40 in 2023 to over 250 in March this year. A male fan of the idol group "Affloret" gave his favorite group member, Rhythm, a flower bouquet for her birthday. "I really love her and have been watching her grow. I hope she becomes the No. 1 idol in China," said the man, who wore a black vest with the Chinese message: "I only watch Rhythm." The producers of Affloret, which was set up in China's biggest business hub in June last year, include people who worked at AKB48 Team SH, the Shanghai branch of Japan's famous all-girl idol group AKB48. Since AKB48 started in 2005, it has operated under the concept of "idols that fans can casually meet" through "handshake" meet-and-greet paid events at venues including a Tokyo theater dedicated to the group. Of the six women in Affloret, only Nayuyu is a full-time idol. The others are either college students or work part-time in the entertainment industry aside from their main jobs. Rhythm said in an interview that she feels "very happy and blessed" on stage and that it is great to be able to share her emotions with fans who often reciprocate with a feeling "full of energy" after watching her performances. The group members, who were chosen from about 100 candidates, sing in both Japanese and Chinese, even though Nayuyu says Japanese pronunciation is hard since most of the members have not really studied the language. Being passionate and enthusiastic about becoming an idol is more important than talent, an Affloret producer said. Even though Affloret has over 100,000 fans who follow their online content and social media, the group's main source of revenue is offline -- event tickets and meet-ups. The Affloret members said they look up to Japanese underground idol groups like AIBECK and iLIFE as role models and hope to perform with them in Japan. A Japanese man in his 40s who lives in Shanghai and follows Chinese idols said he thinks the biggest difference between Japanese and Chinese entertainment cultures is the physical distance between the fans and performers. "In Japan, there are strict rules and fans must keep a certain distance from idols, but here the atmosphere is more relaxed, allowing fans to chat with the performers more intimately," he said. Unlike a lot of Japanese groups that are made up of teenagers, most of the Chinese idols are adults who get into show business for a limited time, according to the Japanese fan. A lot of members "graduate" or quit after a year or so, presumably because Chinese youth are under more pressure to find stable jobs. The man said he got into Chinese underground idols after seeing a live performance by a group called Transparent Classroom and Parallel Girls from Changsha, Hunan Province, in 2019. The six members of the Changsha idol group are unique. They sing original songs in various genres, including rock and punk, in Chinese. This is different from the groups classified as mainstream idols, which try to evoke feelings of "moe," or enchantment with cute and innocent characters. Zhao Beichen, 31, the producer of Transparent Classroom, is known in the Chinese media as the "godmother of Chinese underground idols." After a live performance in Changsha in May, she explained that she wants to nurture "alternative" performers who are "not perfect" and can be seen as "unsophisticated." Zhao researched Japanese underground idols for her thesis at Meiji University in Tokyo, attended concerts by amateur groups and worked at an idol talent agency while she was in Japan. "China's got a huge population base, so no matter how niche the genre is, there'll always be a market as long as there are people who like it," Zhao said. "I think it'll be easier to get underground idol groups together in China than in Japan because the culture here isn't as developed." Zhao said she has never thought about having her group sing Japanese songs because the members cannot speak the language. "Underground idols should be diverse and inclusive, like a hodgepodge," she said, adding that the industry is "fun because it is based on grassroots."
