Bruce Lee

The great communicator:

Channa Bandara Wijekoon

Kung Fu, the mother of all martial arts was brought down to China from India. A Zen Buddhist Monk named ‘Da Mo’ (Bodhidharma) who came from India, trained Chinese Monks, ‘18 Lohan Kung’ (18 Buddha hands) to fight the ruthless king’s soldiers.

Sho-lin Monks understood the depths of the art, which were; well being of body, mind and spirit, and practised for years with great respect but they never intended to expose the art to the outside world.

A handful of Sho-lin Monks who parted with others and mixed up with the laymen, trained some of these techniques to the latter. Chinese merchants who travelled neighbouring countries too taught these techniques to interested people. Even in our country, this art was taught as ‘Cheenadi’, few decades back.

Enter the Little Dragon

In the ‘Post World War period’, China was perceived as a Goblin Buddy of Russia and Chinese people were perceived as peasants or ‘Sick people of Asia’. There was tremendous prejudice in the western world against the Chinese.

When Bruce Lee arrived in San Francisco in 1958 at the budding young age of 18, he clearly saw this Caste system. Being unable to secure a healthy job, he did odd jobs in a small Chinese community, to earn a living. (Chinese in San Francisco were confined to small China Towns.) Later he moved to Seattle, and worked as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant.

In his leisure, Lee practised Wing Chung style he learned in Hong Kong from Yip Man. Bruce Lee was experiencing and was fully aware of the discrimination of westerners towards the Asians, especially Chinese and this stressful feeling haunted in his mind constantly.

Bruce obtained a High School Diploma from Edison and entered University of Washington to study Philosophy, his favourite subject.

He studied for three years but never graduated. Bruce also took to acting lessons. All in all, he seemed to be gathering knowledge for ‘a much focused purpose’.

Bruce married Linda Emery in 1964. In the same year, he got a rare opportunity to do a demonstration at the ‘Long Beach Tournament’ held in California led by Ed Parker. Bruce did two finger push-ups and one-inch punch (Punching an opponent with a one inch gap between Bruce’s fist and the latter’s body and making the opponent go off balance), demonstrating the ‘CHI power’ (Universal Energy) he was in harmony with.

The great Communicator and the Charismatic actor within With the frustration of living in America, Bruce flew to Hong Kong and made ‘Big Boss’, ‘Fists of Fury’ and ‘Way of the Dragon’. He became a Heart Throb of Hong Kong people.

Linda Lee would say, ‘Bruce was a Real Human Being, who communicated the truth of being humane and of his art, through his presence on screen.’ Bruce Lee’s vision and mission was on a much broader perspective.

He got the producers to write and rewrite scripts to project Chinese people as a force to reckon with, in his films. Lee projected himself as the ‘Chinaman’ who did not tolerate discrimination.

He pounded many Westerners who appeared in his films in the guise of villains without any mercy. These films made for the taste of Hong Kong audience, eventually got a worldwide distribution. Thus, Bruce Lee’s mission had set off the grounds.

Jeet-Kune-Do and Enter the Dragon

Bruce Lee developed a unique way of fighting and he called it Jeet Kune Do or ‘The way of the Intercepting Fist’; which conditions the mind and body to respond to any attack without confining to any ‘set pattern’ or ‘style’. In simple terms, it is respecting the opponent’s strength and countering it with appropriate action.

Lee has said, ‘Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is just a name used. I have not invented a new style.

It is simply the direct expression of ones feelings with the minimum movement and energy.

A good JKD man is the complement and not the opposition to his opponent’s strength.’ Lee had to stop filming Game of Death, since work of Enter the Dragon began in February 1972.

Shooting ran till April. A month before the film opened, Bruce Lee died suddenly. (There are many rumours surrounding his mysterious death.) Enter the Dragon withstood the test of time so well, because of Bruce Lee’s screen presence.

This film was his monument. Even today, after 35 years of its original release it is considered the classic Kung Fu film among all martial arts films. Lee knew how to communicate to East and West, via Cinema.

He added spice to his acting with Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee was a writer, philosopher, fighter, actor and a great communicator.

His unique insight and special brand of ‘Wisdom’ made him a cult and one of the most influential and inspiring human beings of the 20th Century.

Bruce Lee biography

* Born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940 under the birth name Lee Yuen Kam. (Lee Jun Fan)

* Mother - Grace Li, an Eurasian woman

* Father - Lee Hoi Chuen, A Cantonese Opera actor (comedian) in new York’s China Town

* Brother - Peter Lee

* Father took him to Hong Kong in 1941

* Appeared in his first major childhood movie Beginning of a boy and did 20 movies as a child, before 1946

* Commenced his studies

in Hong Kong in 1952

* Became a street fighter and a gang leader. Lost a street fight to a local gang and nearly got knocked off in 1953.

* Began studying Chinese Kung Fu (he pronounced it as Gung Fu) when he was 13

* Enroled in Wing Cheun School and studied under Yip Man for 2 years.

* Won Inter-school Boxing Championship of Hong Kong

* He was a fantastic dancer and in 1958, won Crown Colony Cha-Cha championship, shortly before he left Hong Kong.

* Got High School Diploma from Edison and entered University of Washington to study Philosophy.

* Opened his first Jun Fan Martial Arts school in 1961

* Married Linda Emery in 1964

* Attended Long Beach Tournament in 1964

* Played Kato in Green Hornet

* Warner Brothers deprived Lee of the character in Kung Fu TV serial.

* Lee started developing a unique way of fighting

* Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son was born in 1965

* Seven days after Brandon’s birth, Bruce Lee’s father died and Bruce flied to Hong Kong to attend father’s funeral.

* Returned to US in September 1965 and resided in Seattle.

* His 1st Hollywood movie debut with James Garner in ‘Marlowe’

* Daughter, Shannon Lee was born in 1969 April 19

* Went to Hong Kong again to make Big Boss, Fists of Fury and Way of the Dragon

* Warner Brothers offered the lead role of the Hollywood film Enter the Dragon, in 1972

* Bruce Lee died in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Hong Kong on 20 July 1973

* Five years after his death, Game of Death was released.