By Assunta Ng
Billy Ray and Annette Sharp pose with Wing Luke Executive Director Beth Takekawa. They were the first to attend the exhibition. Ray and Sharp flew in from Kansas. (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)
Within months, I visited two Bruce Lee exhibitions, one in Hong Kong in July and the other on Oct. 4, at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum. For people who saw both, the reactions were similar.
“Seattle’s is small,” said Perry Lee. Lee is a long-time Bruce Lee fan, who has collected items and donated them to both exhibits. “But you can’t compare the Seattle one with Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a $3 million budget.”
Also, HK’s Bruce Lee exhibit space is filled with 600 items. The floor space is at least five times bigger than Seattle’s 1,023 sq ft, (with approximately 300 items).
Shannon and Linda Lee present a red envelope to a dragon dancer (Photo by Rebecca Ip/NWAW)
But what is unique about The Wing’s show is how it is interactive, innovative, creative, intimate… making visitors feel that Bruce was in their presence. The whole concept was brilliant, even though the Wing has a much smaller budget than the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. In a three-day period (Oct. 3-5), it brought over 1700 visitors; and over 30 million hits on its social media campaign, mainly on impressions for people wearing Bruce’s iconic yellow jumpsuit.
What is most interesting is the exhibit focuses on a crucial period of Bruce’s life–his teenage years growing up, from a single to a married man in Seattle. His Seattle experience gave him the confidence to achieve something big. He had the courage to leave Seattle and venture into Hollywood with his family without much support and finances. And he had drive, ambition, and vision, which propelled him forward on the path of stardom. His wife Linda Lee Caldwell said Bruce’s stay in Seattle was the happiest period in his life. Hence, Lee’s family has set sight on Seattle as the site for the future permanent Bruce Lee Museum. (end)