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The former Bruce Lee mansion in Hong Kong being about to be demolished to make way for a Chinese study center in two weeks, a fan club of legendary kung fu has launched an international petition to urge the government to preserve its home. the owner of the building does not object.
Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of the Bruce Lee Club, said at a press conference Friday: "The building symbolizes our collective memory of Bruce Lee, which should be cherished by people in Hong Kong and around the world. I hope the Hong Kong government will keep track of this influential actor, martial artist and philosopher. "
If the government does not listen to the fans' voices, the club said that it would also consider funding by crowdfunding the money needed to purchase the site, where the martial arts master spent his last years with his family.
The club estimated that the restoration of the property of 5,699 sqm would amount to about HK $ 100 million (US $ 12.8 million), while the price of the site would be estimated at HK 300-400 million.
"I will not say [crowdfunding] 500 million HK $ would be impossible, but I am not very confident that this will happen in the short term. "
The block at 41 Cumberland Road in Kowloon Tong is owned by the Yu Panglin Charitable Trust, founded by billionaire philanthropist Yu Pang-lin, who died in 2015.
Last week, trust told the To post he would start demolishing the house in two weeks to make way for a Chinese study center, marking a change of heart on the part of the trust, which had pledged to keep the property intact and to improve it. He cited a consultant's badessment to justify further reflection, saying that structural problems with the building made maintenance difficult.
In the online petition, the fan club suggested preserving the residence as "Bruce Lee Memorial Hall", as a unique international tourist attraction. This idea was raised for the first time by Wong in 2008 and has not aroused any reaction.
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Joey Lee Man-lung, vice president of the Charitable Trust, said Friday that he subscribed to the fan club's requests to the government to preserve the building, with two generations of the Yu family also making the same appeal.
"The Bruce Lee Club's wish was once ours, so we are not opposed to the club raising the demand for preservation," Lee said. "If the government responds positively, we would like to sit down and discuss better suggestions."
But the development bureau said on Friday that it had not received a proposal to preserve the building's owner.
Yu Pang-lin bought the house in 1974 for about HK $ 1 million. At one point, according to historians, the building was used as a love hotel for a short stay.
Yu had planned to sell it in 2008 to raise funds for earthquake victims in Sichuan, but he dropped the idea when fans urged him to preserve the property and restore it.
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That same year, Yu Pang-lin offered to donate the property to the government as a Bruce Lee museum. But after a two-year discussion, the plan was dropped as they did not reach an agreement on Yu's request to increase the maximum allowable floor area for the land.
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