Lynette Wong; because she’s hotter than Bruce Lee |
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I went back to Kowloon Tong for the first time in ages. It’s a surprisingly low rise area in the craggy shadow of Lion Rock. There is a sleepy residential area just to the west of Waterloo Road where Hong Kong’s most famous film star, Bruce Lee, used to live.
These days, though there are still a few residences, most of the well appointed buildings have been converted to kindergartens or love hotels. Bruce Lee’s old house, 41 Cumberland Road, is the latter - discretely named Ross Hotel.
I had stayed here numerous times in the past. I was having an affair with a married woman. Her husband was away on business half the time and while she didn’t really care what the neighbours thought she did enjoy the conspiratorial thrill of sneaking away for a clandestine fuck. The leafy avenues of Kowloon Tong, with names such as Rutland Quadrant, were the perfect backdrop.
We both knew the history of the house even then but since neither of us were movie buffs we didn’t give it much more thought.
41, Cumberland Road |
This was all some years ago but I do get gentle reminders of her occasionally. There has been talk for some time about turning the building into a Bruce Lee museum, cinema and martial arts complex. The current owner, billionaire Yu Panglin, has agreed to foot the bill providing the government re-write the planning regulations to protect the site. It’s an offer that has been welcomed by Lee’s family and fans alike.
Apart from a rather cheesy statue on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront Hong Kong has nothing to commemorate the man who single handedly dragged Hong Kong cinema onto the international screen. But so far the government has remained tight-lipped.
Kowloon Tong is one of the few low rise areas left in Hong Kong. It was built that way for the sole reason that is was directly under the flight path of aircraft making the famously tricky final approach to the old Kai Tak International Airport.
Kowloon Tong. The old runway is visible in the top left corner |
Kai Tak has bee closed for some years and building height restrictions are a thing of the past. But as you look down on the area from ‘the rock’ the first thing that springs to mind is the same thing that would spring into the mind of any self respecting financial secretary or property developer.
It was still the same Sikh doorman that had worked there years ago. He was the soul of discretion until I shook his hand and bellowed “long time no see!”
“Is this really Bruce Lee’s old house?” enquired my guest, a Chinese-American lady who was in Hong Kong visiting friends. They had mistakenly thought I would be a safe person to leave her with while they went to work. The doorman beamed and nodded. “This is sooooo cooool” she said as we climbed the stairs.
See also: Mongkok
See also: Wanchai