--- description: Fans and family hope the house, in the city's affluent Kowloon Tong suburb, can be converted into a museum but its fate is unknown title: Bruce Lee's Former Hong Kong Home Faces Uncertain Future image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83f22a91eee8726d/6988627d0b72e3c5576e5b24/rtx11q5k.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Hong Kong](/tag/hong-kong/) ## Hong Kong Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Bruce Lee's Former Home in Hong Kong Faces an Uncertain Future ## Video: 10 Most Iconic Movie Props Ever Sold [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Most Iconic Movie Props Ever Sold](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6TcJ3ReX.m3u8) (2:48)  _Published 2014-03-21. With Premiere Props Hollywood Auction Extravaganza XIII set to sell some impressive Hollywood memorabilia, TIME looks back on how much some of the most iconic movie props have fetched._ by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 8, 2015 7:03 AM CUT  A general view is seen of the the former house of the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, which has turned into a love hotel at Hong Kong's Kowloon Tong district on July 18, 2013 A general view is seen of the the former house of the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, which has turned into a love hotel at Hong Kong's Kowloon Tong district on July 18, 2013Bobby Yip—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 8, 2015 7:03 AM CUT Until his sudden death in Hong Kong in 1973, at the age of 32, martial-arts icon Bruce Lee lived in Kowloon Tong or “Nine Dragon’s Pond”— a quiet neighborhood on the Kowloon peninsula. He inhabited a property that is modest looking by international standards but in densely populated Hong Kong, where land is at a premium, is considered positively palatial, tucked away in an affluent part of town, inland from the lights of the island’s dazzling skyline. Lee is as iconic to Hong Kong as that glistening string of skyscrapers, but unlike, say, Elvis Presley’s Graceland, this fallen king’s castle is no monument to his legacy. Mainland Chinese philanthropist Yu Panglin quickly bought the property in 1974 and allowed it to be used as a love hotel: a place where rooms are rented out by the hour to couples, some on illicit trysts, to be sure, but others harried spouses, looking to escape cramped marital quarters — often shared with extended family — for a modicum of privacy. Yu died in May, leaving the fate of Lee’s Cumberland Road home up in the air. Yu’s grandson Peng Zhibin recently [told](http://www.scmp.com/news/article/1856039/future-bruce-lees-hk100m-hong-kong-home-hangs-balance-after-tycoon-owner-yu "undefined") the _South China Morning Post_ that his grandfather’s estate was “finalizing the legal procedures,” without specifying to what end. Meanwhile, Lee’s fans and family are rallying to preserve the house as a landmark to the late martial arts superstar. “Fans all over the world hope Lee’s former residence can be preserved and made a gallery to commemorate our beloved star. But there’s very little we can do,” Wong Yiu-keung, who chairs fan group the Bruce Lee Club, told the _Post._ “Only the landlord and the government can make things happen.” It would be a milestone event for Lee’s fans in Hong Kong, a city that seems to have forgotten its “No. 1 son,” as he is known to some here. Several years ago, Yu tried to work with the local government to donate the house as a Bruce Lee museum. When that plan fell through in 2011, Yu then unsuccessfully [tried to sell](http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1068705/bruce-lees-kowloon-tong-residence-go-sale "undefined") the house for around $23 million, and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum opened a Bruce Lee exhibit as a sort of consolation prize to his fans. In 2005, on Lee’s 65th birthday, the city unveiled a statue of him on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront — a gesture that only came about, Wong said, at the behest of Lee’s fans around the world. Curiously, the same thing happened that year [in Mostar](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4474316.stm "undefined"), a small city in Bosnia. (“We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” a Bosnian youth leader told the BBC at the time. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”) Lee’s daughter, Shannon, has spoken out in general favor of the preservation of her childhood home as a memorial to her late father, though she is not party to the estate negotiations. “I wish I had the answer to how to go about preserving the house,” she told the _Post_. “Perhaps with the success of the exhibition at the Heritage Museum, the government or a civic-minded individual will step back in to reopen discussions with the family. I hope so and would lend my full support.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/"},"headline":"Bruce Lee's Former Home in Hong Kong Faces an Uncertain Future","datePublished":"2015-09-08T07:03:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:44:34.776Z","description":"Until recently, the home was being used as a seedy love motel, renting out rooms by the hour","url":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/","keywords":["Hong Kong","Hong Kong topic","China","Hollywood","real estate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83f22a91eee8726d/6988627d0b72e3c5576e5b24/rtx11q5k.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83f22a91eee8726d/6988627d0b72e3c5576e5b24/rtx11q5k.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"General view is seen of the former house of Bruce Lee, which has turned into a love hotel, in Hong Kong","caption":"General view is seen of the former house of Bruce Lee, which has turned into a love hotel, in Hong Kong","creditText":"Bobby Yip—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/hong-kong/","name":"Hong Kong"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/","name":"Bruce Lee's Former Home in Hong Kong Faces an Uncertain Future"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Most Iconic Movie Props Ever Sold","description":"With Premiere Props Hollywood Auction Extravaganza XIII set to sell some impressive Hollywood memorabilia, TIME looks back on how much some of the most iconic movie props have fetched.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6TcJ3ReX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-21T23:59:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6TcJ3ReX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/","duration":"PT2M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4024582/bruce-lee-hong-kong-home-museum/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```