I want to make it clear to you that I am not a Bruce Lee
fan. I never liked his movies (or any other Hong Kong action movie for that
matter) with their elaborately choreographed fight scenes, silly sound effects,
wooden sets, and predictable plots. What impresses me is the amazing physical
talent that he had, which other martial artists have rarely been able to
duplicate. Aside from his talents, he has an important place in history; he was
probably the first Chinese instructor to make Kung Fu available to Americans.
This book draws from Lee’s own writings, along with
secondhand accounts and expert theories. First comes his weight training
regimen, for which he kept a detailed journal. He carefully charted his weight
training exercises, which may have been a sign of obsessive behavior. The
author believes that Lee’s entry into California sparked his interest in weight
training, because California (especially LA) has a culture of fitness and
health food going back to the 1920’s. This weight training regimen was
alternated, with cardio on one day and weights on the next day. Lee wrote that
he found it monotonous, but it was the routine that guaranteed results. We see
in this book some photos of his journals, written in perfect cursive; no small
asset in terms of mindfulness.
Bruce Lee was a philosopher as well as a martial artist. He
incorporated a huge amount of scholarship into his work, and not just the
Confucius or Sun Tzu volumes that were available at the local public library.
In the chapter titled Making Your Own Path, he incorporated multiple fighting
styles, comparing US and European boxing, along with Indian Yoga. The use of
only one fighting discipline was, in his eyes, to constricting, and he regarded
the style fusion the way he did with philosophy, always learning new things.
There’s a humorous letter where Lee writes “if you think you’re beaten, you
are.” I can see that this Kung Fu master had been reading the works of Kipling!
Despite his fame, Lee wasn’t into self-aggrandizement,
basing his approach on Confucian ethics of personal humility. He gave lessons
to anyone who was interested, and he put a huge amount of comedy into his
movies. Take for example The Way of the Dragon, where his character keeps
goofing up thanks to his ignorance of Italian and even worse ignorance of
Italian social norms. Every joke is on him, and he put pauses in between the
dialogue to give the audience time to laugh.
There is another aspect of Lee’s work that the author
doesn’t expressly say, and that is the equality between races. In the early
1960’s, there were a sizable number of Chinese instructors who would not take
non-Chinese students, especially Black American, but Lee set no bar for race or
color. His was a strict meritocracy, and if you could prove yourself, you went
straight to the top. One possibility is that he learned lessons from being a
minority, or maybe his attitude of inclusion was a rejection of constraint? As
a rebellious youth in Hong Kong, he would have been eager to break out of constraint,
and the West Coast, where he migrated, has always been a hotbed of holistic
living. Away from the strict patriarchal ways of his homeland, he would’ve had
fewer examples to follow.
Bruce Lee’s life has many elements worth studying. He was
born on an Island that was 99% Chinese, owned by Britain, and flooded with
craftsmen and businessmen after 1948. He was a skilled dancer, which may have
aided his martial arts ability, and he had a great sense for business when it
came to using his skills. It’s said that on his way to California, he made
money giving Cha-Cha lessons to wealthy passengers in first-class, so he would
have something to fall back on when he arrived. He would’ve taken flak from
Kung Fu traditionalists, who weren’t keen on teaching outsiders, but at the
same time, what were the traditionalists doing for him? He was on his own in
California, with no family for support. It is unfortunate that his life ended
at age 33, just as he was making his biggest appeal to American audiences. He broke
stereotypes with his role of Kato in the Green Hornet, pushing his way out of
the submissive Asian servant boy and forcing audiences to put up with his
ass-kicking chauffeur.
If only Bruce Lee had lived long enough to write a Bill
Bryson style comparison of Chinese and American habits.
