You might not be able to kick above your head like Bruce Lee, but you can sit at the same table where he ate his favorite dishes.
Oyster sauce beef and shrimp with black bean sauce will be your favorites, too, after a meal at Tai Tung in Seattle’s International District.
The lunch is a highlight on the Bruce Lee tour by Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience.
The 3-hour walking-talking-eating tour is an intimate look at the kung fu legend’s five years in Seattle. It includes the “Do You Know Bruce? Breaking Barriers” exhibit at the museum, where you can stock up on magnets, mugs, nunchucks and yellow onesies at the gift shop.
Lee fans come from all over the world, and the site brings it home. “It’s a connection for them to the Seattle story,” said Wing Luke tour coordinator Maya Hayashi.
The tour around the district explores Lee’s path from rebel teen to humble greatness.
Step into the shoes of the rowdy 18-year-old from Hong Kong determined to seek success. See the door that led to his first studio. At the museum, take a selfie with a cardboard cutout of the handsome man with soulful eyes and six-pack washboard abs.
Sure, he’s known for the TV character Kato in the “Green Hornet” and for his yellow jumpsuit and kick flicks. The tour is a look at the person behind the persona.
“The people who knew him as just Bruce,” Hayashi said. “People who knew him before he was a martial arts superstar.”
Lee’s mother was part German and his father was a Chinese opera star. He was born in San Francisco during one of his dad’s performance tours in 1940, the year of the dragon, and during the hour of the dragon.
“He was a double dragon,” Hayashi said.
As a boy growing up in Hong Kong, he bounced around so much he was nicknamed Mo Si Ting — which means “never sits still.”
He studied kung fu and as a teen he got in a lot of fights because of his fiery passion.
He came to Seattle in 1959 to work at Ruby Chow’s restaurant. Chow, a community leader and powerhouse, needed charismatic waiters. Lee fit the bill.
Seattle is where Lee charmed diners, studied philosophy at the University of Washington and met his wife, Linda, a Seattle native. Their first date was at the Space Needle.
In Seattle, he was more than a hunk with a mean one-inch punch. He would teach martial arts to whoever wanted to learn, including women, which was unheard of at the time. He brought martial arts into the 20th century and branded his art with personal expression and mystique. His style was different than the other fighters at the time.
Lee was discovered by a TV producer after he moved to California with Linda in 1964.
The Wing Luke exhibit, the second in a three-year series, shows Lee’s importance in the media and film industry.
“It focuses on him as the artist and other aspect of his Renaissance man-ness,” Hayashi said. “As a guy who is really intelligent, he’s not just the fighter. He has this beautiful philosophy as well.”
Lee died in 1973 at age 32 from a reaction to a pain medicine. He and his son Brandon, who died in a freak accident on a movie set in 1993, are both buried in Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery, which draws a steady stream of fans.
The museum exhibit includes items people have left at the grave, such as jewelry, Buddhas, letters and a New Jersey martial arts First Place ribbon.
Artifacts on display include “Green Hornet” collectibles, personal letters, behind-the-scene photos from the sets of “The Way of the Dragon” and “Enter the Dragon,” handwritten film notes by Lee for “Game of Death” and photos of his apartment in the University District. In streaming videos, his widow, Linda, shares details about their Seattle story.
The walking tour helps bring it all full circle, like a perfectly executed round-kick.
Lunch at Tai Tung is like dessert for the tour-goers. It’s not only the good food, it’s the Lee mojo and fellowship.
As Hayashi said: “We come to the table as strangers but leave as friends.”
If you go
The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, 719 S. King St., Seattle; 206-623-5124; www.wingluke.org
Bruce Lee Tour: 10:15 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Adults, $41.95; seniors, $35.95; students 13 to 18 or with student ID, $25.95; ages 5 to 12, $25.95; younger than 5 are free. Reservations required. Other tours include International Dumpling Crawl and Bitter &Sweet Tour, named after the novel about the Panama Hotel.
The museum will have a Lunar New Year festival starting at 11 a.m. Feb. 6, with a lion dance. Free for children and students.
Seattle’s Lunar New Year Celebration is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 13, Hing Hay Park, Maynard Avenue South and South King Street, Seattle Chinatown-International District, with lion and dragon dances, drumming, martial arts, contests and games. Free.
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