By Jessie Pang
HONG&nbsp;KONG&nbsp;(Reuters) -&nbsp;Fifty&nbsp;years&nbsp;after&nbsp;the&nbsp;death&nbsp;of&nbsp;Bruce&nbsp;Lee,&nbsp;who&nbsp;galvanised&nbsp;the&nbsp;imaginations&nbsp;of&nbsp;generations&nbsp;of&nbsp;young&nbsp;people&nbsp;worldwide&nbsp;with&nbsp;feats&nbsp;of&nbsp;kung&nbsp;fu&nbsp;immortalised&nbsp;on&nbsp;screen, it&nbsp;sometimes&nbsp;seems&nbsp;as if&nbsp;his&nbsp;legacy&nbsp;of the&nbsp;martial&nbsp;art&nbsp;he&nbsp;practiced&nbsp;is&nbsp;fading&nbsp;in&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong.
Born in San Francisco but brought up in the&nbsp;Asian financial hub which would make him famous,&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;died of brain edema aged 32 on July 20, 1973, just six days before the&nbsp;release of "Enter the&nbsp;Dragon",&nbsp;his&nbsp;most popular film.
"He&nbsp;was exceptionally talented and it's a shame&nbsp;he&nbsp;passed away at such a&nbsp;young&nbsp;age," said 60-year-old Dorothy Tam,&nbsp;whose hair is now graying, as she&nbsp;punched a sandbag in a small&nbsp;martial&nbsp;arts school covered with bamboo scaffolding in western Kowloon.
Captivated by the&nbsp;skill displayed in&nbsp;Lee's performance, Tam,&nbsp;who&nbsp;was just 10 at the&nbsp;time, became a lifelong admirer.
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But only in 2019 did Tam overcome&nbsp;her initial apprehension about&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong's male-dominated&nbsp;martial&nbsp;arts scene to start&nbsp;learning Wing Chun, the&nbsp;southern Chinese style of the&nbsp;martial&nbsp;art&nbsp;in which&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;had trained.
"I discovered it's actually a&nbsp;martial&nbsp;art&nbsp;suitable for women as well, emphasizing softness to overcome hardness," said Tam, as she&nbsp;stood beside a bronze bust of&nbsp;Lee's teacher, the&nbsp;late grandmaster Ip Man.
She&nbsp;began learning with&nbsp;her godson, but&nbsp;her classmates come from all walks of life, some working in information technology and others in business consulting. Most train at night, some still in their office wear.
"Martial&nbsp;arts are not solely about fighting," Tam added. "My instructor often emphasises that self-defense is about avoiding conflict and focusing on self-improvement."
Lee's contributions to&nbsp;martial&nbsp;arts, film, and philosophy have inspired legions of fans across the&nbsp;world, but the&nbsp;legacy&nbsp;that endured for half a century is&nbsp;sometimes&nbsp;seen as a relic of the&nbsp;past in the&nbsp;former British colony.
"BE WATER"
On&nbsp;his&nbsp;return from Hollywood in 1971,&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;made four&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong&nbsp;films in just two&nbsp;years, among them "Fist of&nbsp;Fury" and "Way of the&nbsp;Dragon".
He&nbsp;helped popularise&nbsp;kung&nbsp;fu&nbsp;through such blockbuster films and a hit American television series, "The&nbsp;Green Hornet", but Wing Chun exponents have struggled to win disciples. The&nbsp;swift pace of life in one of the&nbsp;world's most expensive cities often conflicts with the&nbsp;time and effort required to master the&nbsp;traditional&nbsp;martial&nbsp;art, while soaring rents make it tough to set up schools.
"The&nbsp;rent is very expensive, and student tuition fees are not enough to cover that," said Dennis&nbsp;Lee, chairman of the&nbsp;Ving Tsun Athletic Association, where Tam practices.
"How can you make it your career?"
The&nbsp;association holds classes, social events and arranges annual tomb-sweeping ceremonies for Ip Man, under&nbsp;whom&nbsp;Bruce&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;studied at the&nbsp;age of 13. But of late, attendance at the&nbsp;rituals has been dropping off.
Set up in 1967 by seven&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong&nbsp;disciples of&nbsp;Lee's influential teacher, the&nbsp;association&nbsp;functions out of a flat bought to serve as its&nbsp;headquarters, staying mostly unchanged for six decades, with original brown tiles still intact.
Dennis&nbsp;Lee, 52, a disciple of the&nbsp;teacher's son, was also drawn to Wing Chun by the&nbsp;example of the&nbsp;actor, and eventually set up&nbsp;his&nbsp;own school, though it has not been easy.
Kung&nbsp;fu&nbsp;is "an&nbsp;art, and&nbsp;art&nbsp;is lifelong", added&nbsp;Lee,&nbsp;who&nbsp;runs a logistics firm on the&nbsp;side to supplement&nbsp;his&nbsp;income as&nbsp;he&nbsp;balances the&nbsp;pace of modern life with the&nbsp;dedication required for mastery.
Even so, some enthusiasts, such as Iranian-Australian Nima King, trained by another student of Ip Man, have sought to reshape the&nbsp;teaching style.
The&nbsp;curriculum of&nbsp;his&nbsp;school, opened in 2008, is more modernised to target an international clientele, including children.
"I like&nbsp;kung&nbsp;fu," said 3-1/2-year-old Sebby Peng, one of a group of pre-schoolers wearing purple and white uniforms&nbsp;who&nbsp;sparred in a brightly-lit studio.
Still,&nbsp;Bruce&nbsp;Lee,&nbsp;who&nbsp;developed&nbsp;his&nbsp;own&nbsp;martial&nbsp;arts form, "Jeet Kune Do", has not entirely been eclipsed in the&nbsp;Chinese-ruled city.
One of&nbsp;his&nbsp;most famous maxims, "Be water, my friend," from an interview in 1971, inspired 2019's pro-democracy movement.
It provided a template for months of wildcat protests citywide against Beijing's tightening grip of&nbsp;Hong&nbsp;Kong,&nbsp;which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Even though&nbsp;he&nbsp;has been dead for 50&nbsp;years,&nbsp;Lee&nbsp;indirectly influenced King's career, the&nbsp;instructor said.
"It's not just about the&nbsp;movies. We respect that spirit. And that's why we've got to work hard to keep preserving it,"&nbsp;he&nbsp;added. "That's&nbsp;Bruce's&nbsp;legacy."
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Jessie Pang, Tyrone Siu and Joyce Zhou; Editing by James Pomfret and Clarence Fernandez)

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Fifty years on, Bruce Lee's legacy squares up to modern life in Hong Kong