To millions of fans in the West Bruce Lee is remembered for his washboard abs and trade-mark howl.

In China the martial arts actor is revered as a symbol of national pride and a kung fu legend.

Now the country is to pay homage to the US-born actor with a television epic about his life and early death that will be be broadcast in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The Legend of Bruce Lee, a 40-part series made by the state broadcaster China Central Television, will cost an estimated $6.5 million (£3.3 million) to produce and will be ainmed at an international audience, especially Chinese living abroad. The series will be filmed on location in the United States, Hong Kong and mainland China, featuring the places where Lee worked and lived before his death in 1973.

The production is only the latest example of the “Bruce Lee fever” that is suddenly raging 34 years after the actor died mysteriously at the age of 32, allegedly of oedema, or a swelling of the brain.

Lee, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents in 1941, shot to stardom in the 1970s with his intense style of martial arts and Chinese Robin Hood heroes that had him fighting for the rights of ordinary Chinese, which made him an enduring hero for people around the world.

In 1941 his family returned to Hong Kong where Lee — whose father was an opera singer — learnt to dance and took up martial arts to protect himself from bullies at school. When he was 18 he moved back to the US to study philosophy at the Univeristy of Washington.

He became a martial arts tutor to big name stars such as Steve McQueen and James Coburn but his own Hollywood career faltered, prompting him to return to Hong Kong.

There he made three movies with the new Golden Harvest studio that established his individual fighting style. He died two weeks before his fourth film, Enter The Dragon, was released. The film became a box office success, cementing Lee’s status as a martial arts legend. The title role in the CCTV series will be played by Chen Guokun, a star of Chinese action comedies with a martial arts theme, including Kung Fu Hustle. Chen said that Lee had been his role model since he was a child.

“I’m nervous and also excited,” he said, “but I will do my best.”

Filming for the television series got under way in Lee’s ancestral hometown of Shunde, in souther China. The town already has a Bruce Lee museum and has named a street after the actor even though he is known to have paid only one fleeting visit at the age of five.

Shunde also plans to open a Bruce Lee theme park in time for the Olympics, complete with a rollercoaster that emits the kung fu star’s howl. Bruce Lee-mania is growing fast, with at least two other film projects planned in the US.

In addition, David Hwang, an American director, is attempting to produce a Broadway musical about Lee, and the star’s family has a series of film projects, including an animated feature film and a live-action TV series.

In 2005, the China featured the martial art master’s face on a postage stamp and a life-sized statue was erected in of all places, Mostar, Bosnia. In November Timemagazine Asia put Lee on a list of 56 heroes who helped Asia to “rise from poverty to powerhouse, from imitator to be imitated”. A chain of restaurants in China is using Lee’s image to sell fast-food, Lee’s widow and daughter have set up Concord Moon, a Los Angeles partnership that owns the rights to Lee’s name, likeness and works. It recently opened branches in Hong Kong and Beijing to manage image rights in China.

Big names at the box office

Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1954, and was named “Chan Kong-sang”, or “born in Hong Kong”. He studied at the China Drama Academy and stars in the Rush Hour films

Jet Li was born in Beijing and studied martial arts at the Beijing Amateur Sports School from the age of 8. He has appeared in Lethal Weapon 4, Shaolin Temple, and Romeo Must Die

Chow Yun-Fat grew up in a Hong Kong fishing village. Since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon he has made several Hollywood films and will star in the third Pirates of the Caribbean

Gong Li was born in 1965 in Shenyang. One of China’s biggest domestic stars before gaining main roles in Memoirs of a Geisha and Miami Vice. Served on the 1997 Cannes festival jury

Lucy Liu was born to Chinese immigrant parents in New York City. She studied Chinese Language and Culture at university and has since starred in Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill

Source: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Gong Li official websites; Temple of Chow website; IMDB

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