Lee Hoi Chuen's Grave, St Raphael's Cemetery

Lee Hoi Chuen (李海泉) was not just famous (in HK, at least) for being a Cantonese opera performer and comedic movie actor, he also gained significant fame in later life (well, perhaps posthumously) because he was the father of Bruce Lee.

I was told about his final resting place several years ago, but had put it on the back burner for the fact that trying to find a grave in a Hong Kong cemetery is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It wasn't until I moved to Kowloon, in the vicinity of St Raphael's Catholic Cemetery, that the Lee grave came back on the radar - largely because I was beginning to pass the place on a fairly regular basis on the bus or in a taxi.

GoogleEarth aerial image showing the location of the cemetery

Finding specific graves in HK is hard enough even when you have approximate locations, many of the big cemeteries here have thousands upon thousands of graves lined on multi-tiered terraces - HK doesn't have flat cemeteries for space and fung shui reasons. Luckily for me I was given the section and terrace number by a mad Bruce Lee fanatic friend who had visited very recently. He also had images of Bruce and family visiting the grave sometime in the early 70s.

The cemetery itself is located at the very far end of Cheung Sha Wan. That said, if you wish to get here by MTR then you need to get on the red Tsuen Wan <> Central line and alight at Lai Chi Kok station exit B1. Despite the actual area name, Lai Chi Kok MTR is closer than Cheung Sha Wan MTR by a good 5- 10 minutes walk. In the GoogleEarth image below (click to enlarge) the red cross marks the B1 exit. Turn left out of the exit and immediately left again to turn onto Tai Nan West Street.

From here the cemetery is about a 5 minute walk via Wing Hong Street, Yu Chau West Street and then Wing Ming Street. The green cross, on the image above, marks the signpost along Wing Ming Street (see image below) that points you to the cemetery. The entrance road takes you under the Ching Cheung Highway.

Fan Cheung...墳場

Nonchalantly walk past the gate guard and head all the way up the road to section 4. If you want to look the part you can always take along some flowers. Section 4 is all the way at the back end of the driveway but you'll still need to keep your eyes open for the stone section markers so you don't wander too far.

Lee's grave is situated on terrace III of section 4. The picture below shows a view looking up towards the terrace from the bottom of the steps. Note that it does have a small sign that says "4 III".

Can you see the rather lush fir tree behind the railings? Well, the grave you seek is next to the tree, but in case you still need guidance you can look for the grave number 8220. The number is on Mr Lee's grave picture (the one at the top of this post) and it is also on the stone incense holder at the base of the grave. Bear in mind that my images were taken way back in 2013, and it looks as though the foliage around the grave has been cut down (see this image on Findagrave.com).

It's a fairly nondescript grave for someone who was reasonably wealthy and quite famous, but compared to the standard urn slot most people end up in, this is positively extravagant. It looks like it is looked after quite well as well - the engraved characters looked newly painted in 2013 - but I'm not sure if there are any family members left in HK to look after it?

I was lucky and visited this place on a rather fine day - perhaps a tad too warm - but as you can see, the vantage point gives a pretty good view out over Kowloon. Most of those high-rises are relatively recent additions and back in 1965 (and probably into the 80's) the view would have been very open.