Скачать или смотреть In memory of the Bruce Lee Statue in Mostar, Bosnia

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Where is the world's first bronze statue of Bruce Lee located? Is it the one on the East Tsim Sha Tsui Harbourfront in Hong Kong? It turns out that a bronze statue was unveiled in Bosnia one day earlier than the one in Hong Kong.

Bosnia is a small country that emerged after the split of the former Yugoslavia. Mostar is a picturesque mountainous city in Bosnia. Bosnia declared independence after the Yugoslav war in 1992. Since then, tensions flared between the country’s ethnic groups: the Croats, Bosniaks, and Serbs, causing huge casualties and local destruction. During the 1970s and 1980s, a large number of pirated VHS tapes entered the country. The most popular ones were several martial arts films starring Bruce Lee. His image of justice and the concept of world unity are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, causing everyone to accept this heroic figure on the screen regardless of their religious background or political orientation. In 2004, a local youth group proposed to use Bruce Lee's spirit to impact domestic divisions and help put the country on the road to unity. The idea is to create a Bruce Lee statue to be placed in a certain city to act as a symbol of solidarity for a city that has deep-rooted divisions.

After much effort and coordination, finally on November 26, 2005, the day before Bruce Lee's 65th death anniversary, a bronze statue of Bruce Lee was unveiled in Mostar for people to enjoy. The statue, which stands at 1.68 meters, slightly shorter than Bruce’s actual height of 1.72 meters, its shape is based on the posture of Bruce Lee holding nunchucks in "The Way of the Dragon", and was placed in the Spanish Square—which lies between the city’s Croat and Bosniak areas. It seems that some people do not agree with the above-mentioned concept. Days after the statue was unveiled, it was vandalized. After the restoration, an endless stream of locals and tourists came to Mostar to worship the Bruce Lee statue, which indirectly boosted Bosnia's tourism industry.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 virus ravaged the world, someone put a medical mask and surgical gloves on the Bruce Lee statue to show that Bruce Lee and the people were fighting the epidemic together.

On March 4, 2024, someone notified the police that the Bruce Lee statue had been stolen. A week later, the police successfully arrested the thief involved, but the recovered Bruce Lee statue had been dismantled and part of it had been sold. Unexpectedly, the Bruce Lee statue, a symbol of harmony and unity, would end up like this. A government official told the media that the government would try to restore the Bruce Lee statue. This information made Bruce Lee fans around the world extremely excited. iBruceLee hopes that the Bruce Lee statue can be seen again as soon as possible to continue its “mission” in Bosnia.