Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, actor, and filmmaker. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy, which was formed from his experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense—as well as eclectic, Zen Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies—as a new school of martial arts thought. With a career spanning British Hong Kong and the United States, Lee is regarded as the first global Chinese film star and one of the most influential martial artists in the history of cinema. Known for his roles in five feature-length martial arts films, he is credited with helping to popularize martial arts films in the 1970s and promoting Hong Kong action cinema.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee was introduced to the Hong Kong film industry as a child actor by his father, Lee Hoi-chuen. Lee's early martial arts experience included Wing Chun, tai chi, boxing, and frequent street fighting. He moved to Seattle in 1959, enrolling at the University of Washington in 1961. It was during this time that Lee began to consider making money by teaching martial arts, even though he aspired to have a career in acting. He opened his first martial arts school, operated out of his home in Seattle. After later adding a second school in Oakland, California, Lee once drew significant attention at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships of California by making demonstrations and speaking. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to teach, where his students included Chuck Norris, Sharon Tate, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Lee's roles in the United States, including Kato in the ABC action television series The Green Hornet, introduced him to American audiences. After returning to Hong Kong in 1971, he landed his first leading role in The Big Boss, directed by Lo Wei. A year later, Lee starred in Fist of Fury, in which he portrayed Chen Zhen, and The Way of the Dragon, which he directed and wrote. Lee went on to star in the American-Hong Kong co-production Enter the Dragon and The Game of Death. His Hong Kong- and Hollywood-produced films, all of which were commercially successful, elevated Hong Kong martial arts films to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of Western interest in Chinese martial arts. The direction and tone of Lee's films, including their fight choreography and diversification, dramatically influenced and changed martial arts and martial arts films worldwide. With his influence, kung fu films began to displace the wuxia film genre—fights were choreographed more realistically, fantasy elements were discarded for real-world conflicts, and the characterisation of the male lead went from simply being a chivalrous hero to one that embodied the notion of masculinity.
Lee's career was cut short by his sudden death at the age of 32 from brain edema, the [|causes] of which remain a matter of dispute. Nevertheless, Lee's films remained popular, gained a large cult following, and became widely imitated and exploited. He became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, based upon his portrayal of Cantonese culture in his films, and among Asian Americans for defying Asian stereotypes in the United States. Even after his death, Lee has continued to be a prominent influence on modern combat sports, including judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing, as well as modern popular culture, including film, television, comics, animation, and video games. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
Early life
Bruce Lee's birth name was Lee Jun-fan.His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was a Cantonese opera singer based in Hong Kong. His mother Grace Ho was born in Shanghai. In December 1939, his parents traveled to California for an international opera tour in Chinatown, San Francisco. Bruce was born there on November 27, 1940. His birth in the U.S. allowed him to claim U.S. citizenship due to the United States' jus soli citizenship laws. When he was four months old, the Lee family returned to Hong Kong. Soon after, the Lee family experienced unexpected hardships as Japan, amid World War II, launched a surprise attack on Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled the city for the next four years.
The ethnicity of Bruce Lee's mother, Grace Ho, is contested. The traditional opinion is that Grace Ho's father was a German immigrant, and that her mother was Chinese, as attested by biographers Robert Clouse and Bruce Thomas. Bruce Lee's wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, wrote that Bruce Lee's grandfather was a German Catholic.
A new alternative theory argues that Grace Ho's father was actually the son of a Dutch Jew, Charles Maurice Bosman, and his Chinese concubine. Charles Russo has questioned this origin story entirely, suggesting that Grace Ho's father might have been Chinese or mixed-Chinese, and that her mother might have been English. Matthew Polly concedes that Grace Ho's paternal grandfather was a Dutch Jew, but likewise asserts that her mother was English.
However, according to Doug Palmer, the claim that Grace Ho had an English mother is only speculation. Palmer also notes that family records suggest that the Dutch-Jewish Bosman family had originated from Germany, which may account for the assumption that Grace Ho was part German.
Career and education
1940–1958: Early roles, schooling and martial arts initiation
Lee's father was a Cantonese opera star. As a result, Junior Lee was introduced to the world of cinema at a very young age and appeared in several films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage in the film Golden Gate Girl. He took his Chinese stage name as 李小龍, lit. "Lee the Little Dragon", for the fact that he was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiac.At age seven, Lee began practicing tai chi together with his father. As a nine-year-old, he co-starred with his father in The Kid in 1950, which was based on a comic book character, "Kid Cheung", and was his first leading role. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in 20 films. After attending Tak Sun School, Lee entered the primary school division of the Catholic La Salle College at age 12.
In the early 1950s, Lee's father became an opium addict. In 1956, due to poor academic performance, Lee was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College. He was mentored by Brother Edward Muss, F.M.S., a Bavarian-born teacher and coach of the school boxing team.
In 1953, Lee's friend William Cheung introduced him to Ip Man. According to Cheung, Lee's European background on his mother's side led him to be rejected, initially, from learning Wing Chun kung fu under Ip Man because of the long-standing rule in the Chinese martial arts world not to teach foreigners. Cheung spoke on his behalf and Lee was accepted into the school and began training in Wing Chun with Ip Man. Ip tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions.
After a year of his training with Ip Man, most of the other students refused to train with Lee. They had learned of his mixed ancestry, and the Chinese were generally against teaching their martial arts techniques to non-Asians. Lee's sparring partner, Hawkins Cheung, states, "Probably fewer than six people in the whole Wing Chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Ip Man". However, Lee showed a keen interest in Wing Chun and continued to train privately with Ip Man, William Cheung, and Wong Shun-leung.
In 1958, Lee won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament, knocking out the previous champion, Gary Elms, in the final. That year, Lee who was also a good cha-cha dancer, won Hong Kong's Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship.
1959–1964: Move to Seattle
In his late teens, Lee's street fights became more frequent and included beating the son of a feared triad family. In 1958, after students from a rival Choy Li Fut martial arts school challenged Lee's Wing Chun school, he engaged in a fight on a rooftop. In response to an unfair punch by another boy, he beat him so badly that one of his teeth was knocked out, leading to the boy's parents making a complaint to the police.Lee's mother had to go to a police station and sign a document saying that she would take full responsibility for his actions if they released him into her custody. Though she did not mention the incident to her husband, she suggested that her son return to the United States to claim his U.S. citizenship at the age of 18. Lee's father agreed as Lee's college prospects were not very promising if he remained in Hong Kong.
In April 1959, Lee's parents decided to send him to the United States to stay with his older sister, Agnes Lee, who was already living with family friends in San Francisco. After several months, he moved to Seattle in 1959 to continue his high school education, where he also worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant. Chow's husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee's father. Lee's elder brother Peter Lee joined him in Seattle for a short stay, before moving on to Minnesota to attend college.
In 1959, Lee started to teach martial arts. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu. It was his approach to Wing Chun. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who continued to teach some of Lee's early techniques. Lee's early student group was the most racially diverse group of practitioners of Chinese martial arts until that time. During this time period, Lee invented his one-inch punch. He also became interested in boxing and the techniques of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson.
Taky Kimura became Lee's first assistant instructor and continued to teach his art and philosophy after Lee's death. Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.
Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School on Capitol Hill in Seattle.
In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington. Despite what Lee himself and many others have stated, Lee's official major was drama rather than philosophy, according to a 1999 article in the university's alumni publication. In his junior year, he took two classes in psychology and two classes in philosophy; both of these became core interests for him for the rest of his life. He socialized with wealthy young people, but lived in relative poverty and worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant.