Bruce Lee statue to rival 'Liberty'

BEIJING: Chinese artists in Foshan, a city in Guangdong province, are creating a red painted 30m-tall and eight-legged sculpture of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, which they hope would eventually be recognised as a landmark very much like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.

According to the China Daily, the ceramic statue depicts an eight-legged Bruce Lee, known as Li Xiaolong in Chinese, balancing world famous monuments on each foot. These include the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Bird's Nest, or National Olympic Stadium, in Beijing.

"We hope it can compete with the Statue of Liberty. But our sculpture, 'The Kung Fu God of 1,000 Legs', is meant to symbolize Chinese wisdom, creativity and health," an artist Shu Yong, said.

It took 100 people six months to complete the sculpture, because of its complexity and size of the ceramics.

Lee, the star of the 1973 cult hit 'Enter the Dragon', was born in San Francisco but has ancestral links to Foshan. The towering sculpture, which looks like a stop-motion capture of Lee doing one of his explosive high kicks, is expected to be ready by next year.

"We are taking it to the Guggenheim Museum (in Manhattan) next year as part of a grand world tour," Yong added.

Foshan, the city in Guangdong province where the sculpture is being made, bills itself as the home of Chinese kung fu. In reality, it competes with several other Chinese towns and provinces for kung fu bragging rights, notably the Shaolin monastery in Henan province.

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