Statue of Bruce Lee—Made in Shiwan

The day Nov. 27th saw the 65th birthday of the late well-known kung fu star Bruce Lee. Love for this hero started up again as 9 months ago Bruce Lee Club of Hong Kong joined hands with Hong Kong Tourism Board to invite the renowned sculptor professor Cao Chong’en to build a statue for the famous star. This bronze statue reposing on the Avenue of Stars stands 25 meters high and weighs 600 kilograms. Bruce’s fans from all around the world came to attend the unveiling ceremony.

Few know that, besides the bronze statue, there are some others made of pottery. In the initial period as the bronze one was being built, Cao went specifically for Liu Zemian and his son Liu Zhaojin, masters of arts and crafts in Shiwan, Foshan city, to build another 65 more miniatures of Bruce Lee for memorizing the action hero. All these miniatures are limited editions and made of pottery.

Bruce's high reputation presented great pressure to them

Liu Zhaojin said, about three months ago, he and his father received an invitation from Bruce Lee Club and Cao Chong’en to build 65 more statues for Bruce Lee’s 65th birthday. All the 65 limited editions should be made of pottery and with a height of only 48 cm.

Liu remarked that, Bruce Lee was so famous that all the craftworks should be more than average. This brought him much pressure to do the job. He concentrated all himself on the appearance and the spirit. Another difficulty for the job was Bruce Lee’s posture was standing with both his legs splay. Without a fulcrum, the statue couldn’t stand up steadily.

Liu's great pride: the statue—redivivus of Bruce Lee

Usually, finishing a Shiwan craftwork takes no longer than a month. But this vivid one took the craftsman totally three months for the accomplishment.

During the producing process, members of Bruce Lee Club and professor Cao often came to Shiwan to give their opinions. They made comparison between Burce Lee's photos and the statue to find out differences and perfect the craftwork. "The statue is exactly the same as the real person." Liu said proudly. "

The statue was designed according to Bruce Lee's film

Liu said, as required, the pottery should be exactly the same as the bronze one located on the Avenue of Stars. All the postures were designed according to Bruce Lee's film "A Warrior's Journey" and "The Way of the Dragon".

As we could see, the kung fu posture and swift expression in the eyes added much spirit to the maroon statue.

Bruce Lee statue was standing with both his legs stretched. His left leg bent a little, like the Chinese word "gong (bow)". Both his hands posed like "Lanhua Shou (a kind of kung fu posture)". He extended his right arms and bent the left one. The two palms were facing the enemy in front of him. His lips were open, with his eyes gazing at the direction of the right hand. Blue veins showed on his neck, as if he was ready to counterattack his enemies.

The Bruce Lee statue characterized by vivid expression showed his muscles of steel perfectly through the rugged argil, for it was built without any man-made color.

Shiwan pottery: real expression of the centurial idol

Liu explained that, innovation was added to this "Star of Century". The traditional "Yiwen (pattern of cloth)" skill was used in this Shiwan pottery to shape the vivid image of Bruce Lee's elegant trousers and girdle.

Bright spot one: lying down for producing kung fu posture

According to Liu, they came across a problem during the producing process. The statue should be kilned while standing erectly, for the kung fu posture had not any fulcrum. Without support, the upper half of the statue would bend forward. Liu inaugurated a new way and kilned the statue by a lying posture. And the craftwork came out to be perfect.

Bright spot two: three days for the expression in eyes

As fans all knew that, Bruce's expression in eyes was one of the important elements that built him up. How to stress this element became the key point of the production. It took Liu Zhaojin, Liu Zemian and professor Cao Chong'en three days to make the decision and to the fans' delight they brought out a rebirth of Bruce Lee at last.

Source: www.lifeofguangzhou.com

Editor: Jessie Hwang