Bruce Lee Day aims to honour the San Francisco-born martial arts legend as a cultural bridge and Asian-American icon.

Martial arts icon Bruce Lee will become the first Chinese American in California history to be honoured with an annual namesake day.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on Tuesday afternoon, officially designating May 17 as Bruce Lee Day.

Lee was born in San Francisco in 1940 and returned to the city on May 17, 1959, aged 18, after spending his childhood in Hong Kong.

His daughter, Shannon Lee, CEO of the Bruce Lee Foundation, said the honour reflects her father’s enduring legacy as a bridge between cultures.

“From young people who found confidence and possibility in his philosophy, to families who finally saw themselves represented on screen, to athletes who still draw on his teachings of discipline and inner strength, his reach is profound,” she said in a statement.

State Assembly member Matt Haney, who represents San Francisco, called Lee the “epitome of the best of California”.

“At a time when Asian Americans were too often absent from or stereotyped on screen, Bruce Lee helped generations see themselves represented with strength and dignity,” he said.

The Bruce Lee Foundation and Asian-American groups hope Bruce Lee will be celebrated each year with voluntary activities, including cultural exhibits, public events and classroom lessons.

Born to Chinese parents touring the US with an opera, Lee held birthright citizenship. He moved to Hong Kong as an infant, became a child actor, and studied Chinese kung fu before returning to the US in 1959.

He enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1961, but dropped out to teach martial arts.

In the 1960s, Lee appeared in Hollywood, most notably as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet, but said studios typecast him in racist roles and paid him less than white actors.

He returned to Hong Kong and starred in martial arts films, including The Big Boss and Fist of Fury.

Lee died tragically in 1973 at the age of 32 after an allergic reaction to pain medication.

His name and likeness remain widely popular.

Fans gather on his birthday, and a treatment he wrote for a television series inspired the HBO Max show “Warrior”.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday fired two members of the state’s clemency board after they spoke out against his controversial decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters – an election denier whose sentence was cut in half by the outgoing Democratic governor in May.

Azra Taslimi and Hannah Seigel Proff told CNN they were fired after speaking out publicly, including in a New York Times article in June, in which they revealed secret details about the clemency process and criticized the governor for overruling the board. They told the Times the clemency board twice voted unanimously behind closed doors to reject Peters’ application for an early release from prison.

Polis’ decision in May to release Peters came after President Donald Trump waged a long pressure campaign against Colorado to free her. Peters – who was released from prison in June – was the last Trump ally still in prison for 2020 election-related crimes.

In letters to Taslimi and Proff obtained by CNN, Polis said the two members breached confidentiality by speaking out.

“Specifically, you breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging Board members’ votes pertaining to a clemency application which you obtained only through your official position on this Board,” Polis wrote in the letters.

The two women told CNN they are disappointed they were fired — but not surprised.

“I’m not upset that he overrode our decision. I think what’s upsetting is that we understand why he did it, which is that you know Tina Peters had a powerful ally behind her,” Taslimi said. “She had political pressure applied in her name, and the governor capitulated to it, and that is what makes this unfair, and that is why I call it selective mercy, because you are giving her the benefit that you don’t give or apply to anyone else.”

Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for the governor, told CNN in a statement Wednesday, “Publicly disclosing board recommendations and how members vote on any case threatens the credibility of the board, colors future deliberations by the board and breaks clearly stated confidentiality policy articulated in the Executive Order which establishes this board.”

Proff, who served on the board for nearly eight years, said she understood the state rules around the closed-door clemency recommendation process “more as the confidentiality to protect the people who apply for clemency, not to protect the governor.”

The governor primarily justified his decision to release Peters by citing a recent Colorado appeals court ruling that found the trial judge violated Peters’ First Amendment rights by improperly punishing her for her protected speech about the 2020 election.

“It was a straightforward decision because, after reviewing the facts, and reading the Appeals Court decision, I concluded that her sentence was simply too long,” Polis wrote in a Substack post, where he condemned Peters’ crimes.

Now that they’ve been terminated, Proff worries there will be less transparency.

“I worry now that we’ve been terminated from the board what comes of this is that people are less likely to speak out … that politicians will go unchecked on these sort of decisions,” Proff said.

On 18 March 1959, Hawaii was brought into the United States of America as the 50th state with the passing of the Hawaiian Admission act.

Five months later, on 21 August it was officially proclaimed the 50th state by President Eisenhower.

Former governor of Hawaii, John Waihe’e, tells Jen Dale his memories of statehood and why Hawaii’s history with America means it has become a divisive issue.

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(Photo: President Eisenhower signs the proclamation admitting Hawaii as the 50th state. Credit: Getty/Bettmann)