Written by Administrator
written by Yip Chun, son of Bruce's Wing Chun instructor Yip Man, and detailed a battle that had taken place between Bruce and another youth named Yeung Yat Fung during the 1950's. The basic gist of the story is that Bruce had challenged Yeung to a fight and after a suitable location was decided Bruce and Yeung squared off to fight. After a long pause Bruce threw out a straight punch at Yeung, which missed Yeung completely, this gave Yeung an opening and he threw a strike back, which put Bruce down. Bruce quickly got to his feet and without saying a word, turned and walked away. On March 17th , the Hong Kong based English newspaper The Star published the first of a four part article, entitled "The Bruce Lee Story" by Yip Chun, the first three parts dealt with some of the past events involving Bruce and his instructor Yip Man, however the fourth instalment on March 20th had the sub-heading "The day Bruce was floored with one blow".
As soon as Bruce read the article he called Yip Chun and demanded an explanation, Yip was very apologetic, but pointed out that he had nothing to do with the article. He admitted that he had approached by The Star and had given them some stories for the first parts of the serialization, however he had not told them of Bruce being knocked down by Yeung; besides he wasn't even in Hong Kong during the supposed time of the battle, Yip therefore assumed The Star had made the whole thing up. Bruce immediately called up The Star and spoke to Law Chi Ping the Editor in Chief, he demanded a front page apology in The Star for the next three days and also HK$10,000 to be paid to the local community trust, otherwise court action would be taken.
After discussing the matter with his boss, Law decided that the story was genuine and denied Bruce his apology and would happily meet Bruce in court. At this time Bruce had just released Way of the Dragon in Hong Kong and was also preparing to shoot Game of Death, Golden Harvest the production company for both films saw the case as a fantastic opportunity for free publicity and took up the whole-matter. Raymond Chow (Head of Golden Harvest) had his lawyer draw up a legal document to be sent to The Star, he then went to speak with Yip Chun. Chow asked Yip, to draft a letter denying all involvement with the story, of which he sent a copy to The Star. The Star now knew that unless they found a witness to substantiate the story the were going to be in a very compromising position, so they set out to find the one person who could witness the fight, Yeung Yat Fung himself.
The Star sent out a reporter to track down Yeung and eventually he was found, however he could not recall the events of the battle, subsequently The Star's only hope of a reprieve had failed. Rather than see Bruce in court, and face all the legal charges involved as well as face public humiliation The Star had no choice but to offer Bruce an out of court settlement, however as Bruce would not meet any of The Star's employees a mediator had to be found.
Tang Sang was a retired Hong Kong policeman and the chairman of The Wing Chun Sports Council, and as someone whom Bruce could trust, an ideal candidate. However Bruce still refused to meet, and a court appearance seemed imminent. After a few weeks The Star received a letter from Bruce Lee's lawyers, stating that their client wished to settle the matter peacefully and was not going to prosecute, Bruce declined all offers of a cash settlement and was happy to accept a deserved apology from The Star.