A bronze statue of Lee will be unveiled, the city's first permanent memorial to The Star who died 32 years ago after a brief but bright career as the high-kicking hero of Hong Kong movies like Big Boss and Fist of Fury.
"This is long overdue. We've waited long enough," says Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of the Bruce Lee Club, a fan organization that has been instrumental in getting - and paying for - the 800,000 Hong Kong dollar (US$100,000) statue.
"We have asked the government to establish something for Bruce Lee for many years but had little response," Wong adds. "For a long time, we haven't had anything in Hong Kong to remember him, so we are very happy that we finally got something."
The unveiling of the statue on the Avenue of the Stars, Hong Kong's harbor-side equivalent of Hollywood's famous Walk of Fame, will be the highlight of a week-long Bruce Lee Festival organized by the club and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Tellingly for some, Hong Kong has been beaten to the punch by Bosnia, where a life-sized bronze statue of Lee will be placed in the southern city of Mostar on Saturday as a symbol of battling ethnic division.
"We initiated this long before Hong Kong. I am sure they did not have as many problems as we did in securing the permits ... but it all turned out well," Nino Raspudic of the Urban Movement of Mostar said, as youths there delighted in claiming to have erected the world's first monument to Lee.
Despite his fame and undisputed status as the ultimate kung fu master, the city where he made his name and with which he is so closely associated has until now done little to commemorate Lee's legend.
The international success of Lee, who died at the age of 32 on July 20, 1973, helped popularize then largely unknown martial arts in the West and opened the door to Hollywood fame for other Asian stars including Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
"It is about time! The Hong Kong government should be ashamed of their lack of action over the years and their lack of vision in not realizing what an icon he is around the world," says Anders Nelsson, who played a small role alongside Lee in 1972's The Way Of The Dragon.
"It is important that future generations remember him as one of the first Chinese to achieve international fame.
"He was instrumental in getting more respect for Chinese and general Asian roles in Hollywood films. Before him, most roles were rather demeaning servants of the 'Charlie Chan' type with pigtails and funny accents."
And the local industry also has something to thank him for.
"Bruce Lee took kung fu to the West. He made Hong Kong films famous and helped the industry to thrive," says Tony To, publicity manager of Golden Harvest, the company that made some of Lee's most well known films.
"Not only has he made a significant contribution to the film industry, he was also a great athlete and created his own style of martial arts, that's why everyone says he's the king of kung fu fighters.
"We should have had a statue in the 70s after he died. We've also talked about having an exhibition about him but nothing ever materialized. For the contribution he's made, it's definitely worth recognizing him."
Born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940, Lee's family moved to Hong Kong where he received his early education and kung fu training and during the 1950s made several films in the then-British colony as a child actor.
The son of a Chinese opera actor, he made his first break in the United States when he was cast as Kato in the 1960s television series, "The Green Hornet".
However, his hopes for bigger acting roles did not materialize so Lee returned to Hong Kong in 1971 with his family in search of fame and fortune.
His efforts finally paid off in 1973 when he starred in his most celebrated and the first Hollywood-backed kung fu film, Enter the Dragon.
Lee unfortunately never saw his most famous film debut in the US. He collapsed and died from an edema - a swelling of the brain - two months before the movie was first screened.
He died in the flat of his mistress, Taiwanese actress Betty Ting. Mystery surrounds Lee's death, with the coroner describing his passing as "death by misadventure".
Press reports said that Ting gave Lee a single tablet of Equagesic, a strong aspirin-based drug after he complained of a headache. He then went to sleep, but when she could not wake him up, he was immediately taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Doctors also found traces of marijuana in his body.
Lee had reportedly tried to end their affair a few months before his death. There were unsubstantiated rumors that Lee did not die in Ting's flat but was killed elsewhere and his body taken there afterward.
On the eve of the inaugural weeklong festival, the star's brother Robert Lee and sister Phoebe Lee as well as hundreds of fans from around the world are expected to fly into Hong Kong to pay tribute.
The Bruce Lee Club will unveil the 2.5-meter (eight foot four inch) 600 kilograms (1,323 pounds) statue before friends and family, who will speak about their memories of the kung fu icon.
Fans will be able to see a free showing of some of Lee's rarely seen movies and documentaries, including "The Kid", "Dragon Since 1973" and "A Son is Born".
Local tours, called "Bruce Lee's Footsteps Tours", have also been organized for fans to visit the star's schools, homes and the studios where he made his movies.
Wong of the Bruce Lee Club, a 36-year-old magazine publisher who has put his career and family on the sidelines for the festival, worked full time over the past six months to get the festival running. But he says that it has been worth it.
"People have big hopes and goals and want to make a lot of money. I am happy to live a life like this. I don't need to make money to reach my goal," he says.
"I've already reached them. If I died today, I would be a very lucky, happy man," he adds.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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