Bruce Lee

From MartialTalk Online Martial Arts Encyclopedia Project

Image:Bruceflex.jpg Bruce Lee (November 27 1940 — July 20, 1973) was a Chinese American martial artist and martial arts actor who is widely regarded as one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century. Lee's movies, especially his performance in the Hollywood, California|Hollywood-produced Enter the Dragon, elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity, paving the way for future martial artists and martial arts actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chuck Norris.



Contents

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Birth names

  • Lee was named Lee Jun Fan which in Cantonese literally means invigorate San Francisco, paying homage to the Chinese name of his birthplace, San Francisco, California.
  • At birth, Lee was given the English name Bruce by nurses at the hospital, a name he retained.
  • Lee's mother initially gave him a different name, since Lee's father was away on a Chinese opera tour at the time. When Lee's father returned after some months, the name was abandoned due to a conflict with the name of Lee's grandfather; in Chinese culture, it is considered a taboo to give a child a name that is the same as an ancestor's. Lee was then renamed Jun Fan.
  • Lee was also given a feminine name throughout his early childhood, Sai Feng literally Slender Phoenix, a typical feminine name, commonly used to hide the child from evil spirits.
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Screen name

Bruce Lee's screen name was Lee Siu Lung in Cantonese or Li Xiao Long in Mandarin which literally means Lee Little Dragon, first named by a director in the 1950 Cantonese movie that Lee performed in.

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Biography

Bruce Lee was born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco, California to his Chinese father, Lee Hoi-Chuen and mother Grace Lee. He received his early education and Kung Fu training in Hong Kong. Because of his father's fame as a Chinese opera actor, Lee had the opportunity to appear in several Chinese movies as a child. He studied the Wing Chun style of martial arts at a young age and picked up the languages of English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

In 1959, Bruce Lee went to Seattle, to complete his high school education. He received his diploma from Seattle Community College District-Edison Technical School and enrolled at the University of Washington as a Philosophy major. It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife, Linda Emery, whom he would marry in 1964. Lee has two children- a daughter, Shannon, and a son, Brandon, who was tragically killed during a film set accident.

Although he made only a handful of films and television shows, Bruce Lee has become an iconic figure as a personification of a Asian man who became the epitome of what many see as the mental and physical perfection in martial arts, fitness, and health.

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Acting career

Due to his father's entertainment industry connections, Bruce Lee was a child actor in several 1950s Hong Kong movies.

After graduation from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Bruce Lee headed to San Francisco and then Hollywood. Lee went on to star as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet, which ran from 1966 to 1967 and afterward opened up his own Jeet Kune Do school.

In 1971, unable to find acting roles and faced with stereotypes regarding Asian actors, Lee returned to Hong Kong with his family. There, he starred in martial arts movies, earning $30,000 for his first two feature films and cementing his fame.

Yuen Wah, a member of the Seven Little Fortunes, and later to become a well known actor in his own right (notably starring in 2005's Kung Fu Hustle), was Lee's stunt double in Lee's last few films.

An important moment happened in the careers of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in 1964 at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Norris met the soon to be famous Bruce Lee. The Karate black belt champion was introduced by Lee, portraying one of Lee's opponents in Return of the Dragon, aka Way of the Dragon. The fight with Chuck Norris in the Colosseum is widely regarded as the best martial arts fight ever filmed.

But while Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris were publicly friendly, contrary to what many, including Norris himself states, they were not close friends. Bruce Lee had repeatedly humiliated Chuck Norris during a mock sparring session in the hotel hallway at the Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964. And Norris had offended Lee when he publicly claimed to be a better fighter than Lee. When word got back to Lee, he called Norris and openly challenged him, threatening to drive to his martial arts dojo to fight. Norris was teaching his black belt class at that time. According to eye witnesses, Lee made Norris hold the phone receiver up and shout in front of his black belts, "Bruce Lee is a better fighter than me!" Later, Norris wrote an apologetic letter to Lee; the original letter is currently in the care of Lee's student, Dan Inosanto. Yet despite these conflicts, the two managed to set aside any differences in pursuit of their mutual film aspirations and develop a friendly public persona toward one another.

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Martial Arts Training and Development

Bruce Lee's revolutionary break from traditional martial arts doctrines is nowadays seen as the first step into the modern style of mixed martial arts.

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Wing Chun

Bruce Lee began his formal martial arts training at a young age in Wing Chun style of Kung Fu under Hong Kong Wing Chun master Yip Man. Like most martial arts schools at that time, Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking student. The highest ranked student under Yip Man at the time of Lee's training was Wong Shun Leung.

Bruce Lee's first formal, organized bout came as a teenager at his Catholic school in Hong Kong. He was to fight a young British boxer, a reigning two-time boxing champion. Bruce knocked his opponent out with repeated strikes, using the Wing Chun jik chung chuy.

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Jeet Kune Do

It would not be until his arrival in the United States, however, that Lee began the process of creating his own style, which he would later teach at the martial arts schools he opened first in Seattle starting with judo practitioner Jesse Glover as his first student who later became his first assistant instructor, and the first person authorized by Lee to teach aspects of Bruce Lee's gung-fu, and then in Oakland and Los Angeles, California (named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute). After becoming dissatisfied with existing schools of martial arts, he later modified his martial arts style, which consisted mostly of elements of Wing Chun, with elements of Western Boxing, Fencing, and other martial arts and named it Jun Fan Gung Fu. Lee expanded this style over time, including elements from Muay Thai, Indo-Malay Silat, Panantukan, Sikaran, Bando, Catch Wrestling, Karate, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, and other martial arts styles. It would be much later that he would come to describe his style as Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist, a term he later regret because Jeet Kune Do implied a style.

The reason why Bruce Lee later regretted giving a name to his fighting style, Jeet Kune Do was because Lee believed it made it a single "martial art style" and therefore had limitations. Instead Bruce Lee calls his fighting style, the style of no style, or the art of fighting without fighting which implies no limitations. Lee saw loyalty to a particular martial arts style as having limitations. This and Lee's other ideas about martial arts and his teaching of Chinese martial arts to non-Asian students gave Lee many enemies in the martial arts community, culminating in many challenges by other martial artists which Bruce Lee poignantly answered.

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Beyond Jeet Kune Do

It took a violent confrontation to start Bruce Lee's adaptation of his art. Bruce Lee was issued a challenge by Chinese elders in the region in response to his teaching Asian "secrets" to westerners. A contest was scheduled between him and another popular martial artist in the area to settle the dispute. The popular take on that fight was that the fight lasted a total of three rounds, most of which consisted of Lee chasing the man around the room until finally submitting him. The instructor who fought Bruce was Wong Jack-man and he didn't want to be in the fight but was unable to get out of it without losing face. According Michael Dorgan, writing in Official Karate, in the July 1980 issue, there are conflicting views on the fight. The numbers of people who attended the fight ranged from 8 to 13. Wong remembered the fight as being more than 20 minutes and he was on the defensive and Bruce Lee was the aggressor. According to William Chen, a Taichi teacher who attended the fight, he considered the fight a tie. Most accounts of the fight have Lee being the better fighter that day.

Although he won, Bruce was forlorn, thinking that the fight had taken too long and that he had failed to live up to himself. At this point he decided to start training hard: weights for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, plus many other methods of training, which he constantly adapted as he grew as a martial artist.

During this time Lee developed his own combat techniques as well as the famous one inch punch, which comes from Wing Chun, which he demonstrated during a Karate tournament at Long Beach.

Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two living instructors, Dan Inosanto and Taky Kimura (James Yimm Lee had passed away in 1972), to dismantle his schools. He no longer wished to call his art Jeet Kune Do or have his students associate what they were learning as Bruce Lee's style. His last wish was that Dan Inosanto never use the name JKD or Jeet Kune Do again. Though there are many who claim to teach Jeet Kune Do around the globe, Inosanto, following Lee's request, still refers to the Bruce Lee curriculum taught at his school as Jun Fan Gung Fu.

Perhaps a reason for Lee himself later regretting even giving a name to his philosophy/fighting style was that it became just another "martial art style." Lee saw loyalty to a particular martial arts style as having limitations. This and Lee's other ideas about teaching martial arts made him many enemies in the martial arts community of the 1960s/70s.

There were three certified instructors: Dan Inosanto received the highest certification in Lee's art (a notable exception is Taky Kimura, senior most instructor in Jun Fan Gung Fu) and is widely regarded as the most senior JKD instructor. All other instructors (again except Taky Kimura and the late James Yimm Lee [no relation to Bruce Lee]) are certified under Inosanto, even Bruce's other original students. Kimura, to date, has certified only one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu, his son and heir, Andy Kimura. James Yimm Lee, a close friend of Lee's, never certified anyone before his untimely death. Inosanto often serves not only as the leading instructor and historian of Jeet Kune Do Concepts; he also teaches and practices other styles such as Kali, Silat, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jujitsu, some of which were already incorporated into the Jun Fan system.

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Physical Training, Fitness, and Nutrition

Bruce Lee cared deeply about his physical fitness and tracked the evolution of his training in personal notes and diary, which have been recollected and published in The Bruce Lee Library by John Little, a "martial arts historian" from The Bruce Lee Estate. Bruce Lee used every known technique and resource in aiding his physical fitness. One of the techniques he used was electric current as an aid to strength training, because of the leanness the muscles gained in working against themselves. However, this muscle stimulator was only one of many pieces of equipment and exercise routines Lee used to achieve his on-screen physical appearance.

Of all the muscles Bruce Lee developed, his abdominal muscles were among the strongest: rock solid, deeply cut, and highly defined. Lee believed the abdominals muscles were one of the most important muscle groups for a martial artist since virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work. Perhaps more importantly, the "abs" are like a shell, protecting your ribs and vital organs.

Bruce Lee felt many martial artists of his day lacked the necessary physical fitness to back up their skill. In his book Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he wrote "Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation."

Bruce Lee's washboard abs did not come from mere abdominal training; he was also a proponent of cardiovascular conditioning and would regularly run, jump rope and ride a stationary bicycle. A typical excercise Lee would perform would be to run covered a distance of two to six miles in 15 to 45 minutes.

Lee's student, Herb Jackson, remembers another, more unorthodox method Lee used to increase his muscle definition. According to Jackson, Lee would wear a type of sauna belt when riding his stationary bicycle because he believed the belt focused heat on his abdominal muscles and helped reduce fat.

Another element in Lee's quest for abdominal definition was nutrition. According to Linda Lee, soon after he moved to the United States, Bruce Lee started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest in health foods and high-protein drinks. "Several times a day, he took a high-protein drink made up of powdered milk, ice water, eggs, eggshells, bananas, vegetable oil, peanut flour and chocolate ice cream," who claims Bruce's waist fluctuated between 26 and 28 inches. "He also drank his own juice concoctions made from vegetables and fruits apples, celery, carrots and so on, prepared in an electric blender."

Bruce Lee ate lean meat sparingly and consumed large amounts of fruits and vegetables. In later years, he became very knowledgeable about vitamin supplements, and each day apportioned himself exactly the right quota of vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.

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Upper Body

In the same Long Beach event he also performed a so-called "one inch punch", the description of which is as follows: Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair placed behind the partner to prevent injury.


  • The weight training programme Lee used during a stay in Hong Kong in 1965, indicated bicep curls of 80 pounds and 8 repetitions for endurance. This translates to an estimated one-repetition-maximum of 110 pounds, placing Lee in approximately the 100th percentile for the 121 to 140 pound weight class.
  • Lee typically exhibited a very lean and muscular appearance in his films, particularly in his upper body.
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Death

Bruce Lee's death was officially attributed to cerebral edema.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, due to have dinner with former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife, Linda, Bruce met producer Raymond Chow at 2 pm at home to discuss the making of the movie Game of Death. They worked until 4 pm, and then drove together to the home of Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress who was to also have a leading role in the film. The three went over the script at her home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.

A short time later, Lee complained of a headache, and Ting Pei gave him a tablet of analgesic. At around 7:30 pm, he laid down for a nap. After Lee didn't turn up for the dinner, Chow came to the apartment but could not wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent 10 minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong. However, Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital. There was no visible external injury; however, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams. Lee was 32 years old. On October 15, 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee was allergic to equigesic, one of the three ingredients in the pain-killing medication, whose generic name is Flunixin Meglumine.

Although he made only a handful of films and television appearances in his adulthood, Bruce Lee has become an iconic figure as an Asian man who became the epitome of what many see as the mental and physical perfection in martial arts.

Bruce Lee sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of Bruce Lee's movies have forever changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in America, China, Hong Kong, and the rest of the world.

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Philosophy

Although he is best known as a martial artist and actor, Lee majored in philosophy at the University of Washington. His philosophy often mirrored his fighting beliefs, though he were quick to claim that his martial arts were solely a metaphor for such teachings. His influences include Taoism and Buddhism.

See Wikiquotes for quotes by Lee.

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Awards and Honors

  • With his ancestral roots coming from Gwan'on in Seundak, Guangdong province of China, a street in the village is named after him where his ancestral home is situated. The home is open for public access.
  • Bruce Lee was named TIME Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the Century and as one of the greatest heroes & icons and among the influential martial artists of the 20th century.
  • In 1958, Lee was the Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. He worked part time as a Cha Cha instructor for a short time when he returned to San Francisco in April 1959.
  • The 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a fictionalized biography of his life.
  • In 2001, LMF, a Cantonese hip-hop group in Hong Kong , released a popular song called "1127" as a tribute to Bruce Lee. The lyrics include: "We only want you to become a Chinese you can be proud of. Learn from others; Need not copy. Use your heart to digest the knowledge of others. Try asking why there are so many failures here who do not support each other and always pretend to be like the other. [Chorus] We had Bruce Lee teach us we are not the disease of Asia. Though having yellow skin, we can still be ourselves. Do not follow, copy, and be like the other. Do not look down upon ourselves.... The spirit of Bruce Lee will never die and the Chinese will never forget that."
  • In 2004, UFC president Dana White credits Bruce Lee as the "father of mixed martial arts".
  • In September 2004, a a BBC story stated that the Herzegovinian city of Mostar was to honour Lee with a statue on the Spanish Square, as a symbol of solidarity. After many years of war and religious splits, Lee's figure is to commend his work: to successfully bridge culture gaps in the world. The statue, placed in the city park, was unveiled on 26 November 2005(One day before the unveiling of the statue in Hong Kong, below).
  • In 2005, Lee is to be remembered in Hong Kong with a bronze statue to mark his 65th birthday. The bronze statue, to be unveiled in November, will honour Lee as "Chinese film's bright star of the century". [1]
  • Lee is one of the very few actors to have commercially released computer and console videogames named after themselves, not after a character they played. These games are as follow:
    • 1984
      • Bruce Lee, by Datasoft, for Commodore 64, PC Booter, and Apple II.
      • Bruce Lee, by Ocean Software, for ZX Spectrum.
    • 1989
      • Bruce Lee Lives: The Fall of Hong Kong Palace, by The Software Toolworks, for DOS.
    • 1993
      • Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Acclaim, for SNES and Game Gear
    • 1994
      • Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Atari, for Atari Jaguar.
    • 1995
      • Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Acclaim, for Sega Master System.
    • 2002
      • Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon, by Universal Interactive Studios, for Xbox.
    • 2003
      • Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend, by Vivendi Universal Games, for Game Boy Advance.
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Characters based on Lee

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Anime and Manga

  • Lee Bailong (Lee Pai-Long) in Shaman King, essentially the manga's version of Bruce. The character was killed so that his body could be made into a Hopping corpse|Jiang Shi in service to the Tao family.
  • Rock Lee from Naruto (manga), resembles and is a tribute to Bruce Lee (as does his teacher Gai). In the anime and manga, the character is a martial arts master with a similar fighting style as Bruce Lee. Rock Lee is a very spirited taijutsu specialist who is the paragon of hard work and his hobby is hard work. Rock Lee also shares Bruce Lee's birthday of November 27.
  • The Pokémon Hitmonlee was named after Bruce Lee and uses primarily kicks. Similarly the Pokémon Hitmonchan was named after Jackie Chan and uses primarily punches.
  • Spike Spiegel from the anime Cowboy Bebop uses the quote "be like water" and fights in a fashion similar to Lee's movie characters. Spike uses the nunchaku as Lee does and shares similar fighting stances. Cowboy Bebop incorporates many elements of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do philosophy. Spike's innate fighting abilities and martial arts style (Jeet Kune Do) were borrowed from martial artist Bruce Lee, whose influence is seen many times in the series. The name of the bounty in the second episode is Abdul Hakim, borrowed from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death that co-starred Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played a character called "Hakim." On two other separate occasions, Spike also makes mention of both Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon, two more Bruce Lee films. The creator of Cowboy Bebop stated that Cowboy Bebop was a tribute to Bruce Lee.
  • Kenshiro from the manga and anime Fist of the North Star got the same famous "cat screech" noise and "atatatah" battle cry whenever Kenshiro is punching his enemies. The creator Tetsuo Hara admits that he is a big fan of Lee's movies and his character Kenshiro is a tribute to Lee.
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Video games

  • Many fighting games have characters based on Bruce Lee, enough that it has become an archetype within the fighting game genre. Notable examples include:
    • Fei Long in the Street Fighter series.
    • K' (K Dash) and Kula Diamond from King of Fighters 2000/2001, the characters use Bruce Lee's fighting stance and even have a move that imitates Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch, the move is named One Inch.
    • Marshall Law and his son Forest in the Tekken series. In the early Tekken games, one of Marshall's outfits was a yellow jumpsuit.
    • Kim Dragon in the World Heroes series.
    • Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat series. In the game Mortal Kombat: Deception he fights with the style Jun Fan. Also he uses nunchakus as his weapon.
    • Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance uses both nunchaku and Jeet Kune Do. He's also known for being a great martial artist and a movie star. His clothing in Deadly Alliance resembles Bruce Lee's clothing.
    • Jann Lee in the Dead or Alive (video game)|Dead or Alive series shares many similarities with and is closely modeled after martial artist Bruce Lee. The character have the same body type as his real-life counterpart; that is, "steely" abdominal muscles. In fact, their personas and attires are almost identical. Also, Jann Lee often yells and whoops in a Bruce Lee-like high pitched voice. The most obvious connection is their actual fighting style. "Light feet" play heavily, with neither staying motionless for more than a second a time. Jann Lee is one of the fastest striking characters in the Dead or Alive (video game)|Dead or Alive video game, with quick, intricate, string combos as well as sudden, hard hitting, jab moves.
    • Maxi in the Soul Calibur series uses Bruce Lee's style of nunchakus and have a similar fighting stance as Bruce Lee.
    • Ling Tong in Dynasty Warriors|Dynasty Warriors 5 uses a Nunchaku, moves quickly, and has similar physical characteristics and movements as Bruce Lee.
    • Fei Fong Wong in Xenogears has a similar fighting style, techniques, and stance as Bruce Lee. Fei Fong Wong also wears simlar pants Bruce Lee wore in many of his movies.
    • Reiji in Kakuto Chojin fights using Jeet Kune Do. Reiji's physical appearance also resembles Bruce Lee and wears sunglasses similar to Bruce Lee's
    • In Double Dragon, Billy and Johnny Lee are a tribute to Bruce Lee (the surname Lee is a big give away). In the remake Double Dragon Advance, there are Bruce Lee posters during the China Town level and in the cutscenes Billy and Jimmy looks similar to Lee when angry.
    • When Dante Sparda wields his three-pronged Nunchaku in Devil May Cry 3, his shouts emulate Lee's famous whoops and howls.
    • Jacky Bryant in Virtua Fighter has Jeet Kune Do, listed as his fighting style.
    • In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories a set of clothing you unlock is the jump suit he wore in Game of Death.
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Movies

  • Stephen Chow, Hong Kong actor and director, is a fan of Lee and has played and directed roles which are reminiscent of Lee, such as:
  • David Carradine, American actor, played the characters written for Lee in the 1978 version of The Silent Flute.
  • Lee from Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 was named after Bruce Lee and has a similar fighting styles to Bruce Lee.
  • In the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill, Uma Thurman's yellow jumpsuit is a tribute to Bruce Lee from the movie Game of Death.
  • In the film No Retreat, No Surrender, Bruce Lee's ghost trains a young Bruce Lee enthusiast.


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List of people influential to Lee's career

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Filmography

Lee starred in a leading role in a total of five major films, two of which (Enter the Dragon, Game of Death) premiered after his death.

Released # Chinese and English title of original release U.S. title Note
19711The Big Boss Fists of FuryPlays Chen, fights druglord "The Big Boss" in Thailand.
19722Fist of FuryThe Chinese ConnectionPlays the character Chen, (not relevant to "The Big Boss"). Fights against Japanese tyrants in Shanghai.
19723Way of the DragonReturn of the DragonFought crime in Rome, Italy. Released after Enter the Dragon in the U.S. hence the title.
19734Enter the DragonsameFought a drug lord in Hong Kong to avenge his sister.
19795Game of Death samePieced together. He was only in the film for about 11 min, the rest is pieced together after his death.

Note: The U.S. titles for the first two films were swapped by the U.S. distributor. The title The Chinese Connection (a play on the then-recently-released The French Connection) was originally intended for The Big Boss due to the drugs theme of the story.

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Footnotes

  1. ^  Chinese Hospital [2] - Radiology 845 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94133.
  2. ^  Lee, Linda. 1989. The Bruce Lee Story Ohara Publications, California. (p.70)
  3. ^  Hatfield, Fredrick C., Ph. D. 1993. Fitness: The Complete Guide. International Sport Sciences Association, California. (p.119)
  4. ^  Wathen, Dan. 1994. Load Assignment. In Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Human Kinetics, Illinois. (p.436)
  5. ^  MobyGames [3]
  6. ^  Dorgan, Michael. Bruce Lee's Toughest Fight [4]. (1980 July). Official Karate (the neutrality of this article is debatable).
  7. ^  Pieced together with the few shots that were filmed before Lee's death in 1973.
  8. ^  Wickert, Marc. 2004. Dana White and the future of UFC. kucklepit.com. See Wikiquotes for the text.
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Books

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External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
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