Bruce Lee Statue @ the Cultural Plaza

During our recent road trip to LA in which the main goal was to visit the newly reopened Velveteria, I had a list of places to see and or/visit...

As you can see, we pretty much hit up most of them. Anal much? Why yes!!!  That's how I roll...

Wandering Chopsticks mentioned that there was a Bruce Lee statue somewhere in Chinatown so of course we wanted to check it out...

LA's Chinatown is a bit more spread out than San Francisco's and it's not on steep hills either. There are lots of little businesses, some selling trinkets/tourist items, medicinal shops, as well as fish markets, eateries, and restaurants.  We thought their crosswalks had a nice design...

I read that the statue was near the Grand Star Jazz Club...

When you see the sign above, look west and you will see a parking lot and this mural, plus in the distance, brightly colored and "stereotypical" buildings with curved roofs.

Walk through the lot and you will see the Bruce Lee statue poised  with one arm out and the other holding nunchuku (also known as 'nunchuks').

Did you know that the guy who taught Bruce Lee how to use nunchuks was Filipino? Dan Inosanto, a former student of Bruce Lee, and also one authorized to teach Jeet Kune Do, is a Filipino American martial arts instructor now based in Stockton, CA. Bruce Lee's mastery of the nunchuks can be seen in his last movie, "The Game of Death". Nunchuks are a traditional Okinawan martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks connected by a short chain. They're difficult to use and if you don't know what you're doing, you could seriously injure yourself!




More info on the Bruce Lee statue here:
www.brucelee.com

Articles:
"Bruce Lee statue unveiled in LA's Chinatown", LA Times, June 16, 2013
AngryAsianMan blog, June 16 2013
"Bruce Lee statue...could be LA's new iconic photo opportunity", Huffington Post June 17, 2013

Here he is in action with Dan Inosanto himself:

If you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies, you will notice that Uma Thurman's yellow jumpsuit with the black strip in "Kill Bill Part 1) is a direct homage to Bruce Lee's costume in "The Game of Death".

The statue was pretty cool but apparently the city is trying to find a permanent home for it. Hopefully it can remain in Chinatown.