Bruce Lee, Kung Fu Martial Arts Movie Star
Martial Arts: Today and in History
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Kung Fu
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Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 — July 20, 1973) was a Chinese American martial artist and actor who is widely regarded among the most influential martial artists of the 20th century. Lee's few movies, especially his performance in the 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, Chow Yun Fat, and Chuck Norris.
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Names
Birth names
Lee was named Lee Jun Fan in Cantonese (Mandarin Pinyin: Li Zhènfán; literally means invigorate [San] Francisco, paying homage to the Chinese name of his birthplace).
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 name (Mandarin Pinyin: Li Xuànjin), 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 Phœnix, a typical feminine name), commonly used to hide the child from evil spirits.
Screen name
Lee Siu Lung in Cantonese or Li Xiao Long in Mandarin (Cantonese pengyam: Ley5
Siw2 Long4; Mandarin Pinyin: Li Xiaolóng), literally Lee Little-dragon, first
named by director in the 1950 Cantonese movie).
Biography
Bruce Lee was born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco to a Chinese father,
Lee Hoi-Chuen and Chinese-German 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 martial art known as Wing Chun for a few years and,
at a young age, picked up the languages of English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
In 1959, Lee went to Seattle, to complete his high school education. He received
his diploma from 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 after graduating.
Lee has two children- a daughter and a son, Brandon, who was tragically killed
during a film set accident. Some Chinese people believe this was a curse of
sort.
Acting career
Due to his father's entertainment industry connections, Lee was a child actor in
several 1950s Hong Kong movies.
After graduating from the University of Washington, 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.
The Karate black belt, and actor, Chuck Norris was introduced by Lee, portraying one of Lee's enemies in Return of the Dragon.
Martial arts training and development
Lee began his formal martial arts training at the age of 13 in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Hong Kong master Yip Man. Like most martial arts schools at that time, Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking student. Lee did not finish Yip Man's curriculum.
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 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 style, which consisted mostly of elements of Wing Chun, with elements of Western Boxing and Fencing, 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 arts. It would be much later that he would come to describe his style as Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) or JKD.
It took a violent confrontation to start Lee's adaptation of his art. Bruce 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 artist in the area to settle the dispute. According to Linda Lee (Cadwell) the fight lasted a total of three minutes, most of which consisted of Lee chasing the man around the room until finally submitting him. Although he won the duel, 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 he 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 in 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.
Today, there is often some controversy between Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu (a.k.a. "original Jeet Kune Do") and "Jeet Kune Do concepts," which explore other styles not previously incorporated into Jeet Kune Do by Lee. Depending on the instructor a person trains under, the name of "the style of JKD" is usually specific to a time period in Lee's process although many of the techniques are often the same. 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 being dogmatic and 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. Yet, much of the dispute about Jeet Kune Do instruction is not about the names, but the credibility of the instructors teaching these Jeet Kune Do fighting systems.
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.
Another student of Lee's at the Jun Fan Gung Fu institute in Seattle was Joseph Cowles, who was not certified by Lee as a Jun Fan Gung Fu instructor, but was encouraged by him to teach martial arts. Cowles then founded the Wu Wei Gung Fu system.
Physical Training, Fitness, and Nutrition
Lee worked a fitness routine and tracked the evolution of his training in personal notes and diaries, which have been collected and published in The Bruce Lee Library by John Little, a "martial arts historian" from Bruce Lee's Estate. Lee used electric current as an aid to strength training, because of the alleged 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.
Lee took an interest in nutrition 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,". "He also drank his own juice concoctions made from vegetables and fruits: apples, celery, carrots and so on, prepared in an electric blender."
Upper Body
two finger push upAt the invitation of Ed Parker, Lee appeared in the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championship and performed repetitions of two-finger pushups (using the thumb and the index finger) with feet at approximately a shoulder-width apart.
"one inch punch"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[3] for endurance. This translates to an estimated one-repetition-maximum of 110 pounds[4], placing Lee in approximately the 100th percentile for the 121 to 140 pound weight class[5].
Lee typically exhibited a very lean and muscular appearance in his films, particularly in his upper body.
Circuit training
Bruce Lee was quick to discover the concept of circuit, which was then in
development in several forms. Circuit training is a method of performing several
exercises in order, for a predetermined period of time, with a predetermined
period of rest between the exercises. He would use these exercises to develop
cardiovascular ability, martial technique, and would also use exercises that
developed coordination, and balance. He would frequently train his students in
such programmes. Later on in his career, with the purchase of a marcy circuit
training machine, he began a modified routine of circuit training with weights.
These exercises included lat pull downs, bench presses, shoulder lifts, squats,
biceps curls, tricep extensions, etc. This routine is largely responsible for
the ultra defined physique seen in his last film, Enter the Dragon.
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 lay 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. However, Lee was dead by the time he
reached the hospital. The ensuing autopsy found traces of cannabis. 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 hypersensitive to equigesic, one of the three ingredients
in the pain-killing medication, whose generic name is Flunixin Meglumine. It is
thought that the reaction Lee suffered was exacerbated because of his strict
diet and training regimen. Lee lived on only rice and water and was so pure that
even a normal dose of this particular NSAID proved fatal.
A similar incident had occurred a few months before. On May 10, during the final
dubbing of Enter the Dragon, Lee suffered a sudden attack of seizures and a
nonfatal cerebral edema.
Lee's death was officially recorded as being the result of an abnormal reaction
to painkillers he took for severe back pain, possibly in combination with the
analgesic for a headache. Lee incurred this back problem when he was younger,
after pinching a nerve in his lower back while doing morning exercises using
heavy weights without properly warming up -- a condition that left him
temporarily in a wheelchair. Fortunately, contrary to his doctor's prognosis
that he would never kick again, Lee regained his range of motion and martial
arts ability.
He is interred in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery.
Although he made only a handful of films and television appearances in his
adulthood, Bruce Lee has become an iconic pop culture figure in his movies as an
Asian man who became the epitome of what his fans see as the mental and physical
perfection in martial arts.
His fame also 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.
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 claimed that his martial arts were solely a metaphor
for such teachings. His influences were largely Taoist, Buddhist, and a
conglomeration of contemporary hippie philosophers such as Jiddu Krishnamurti.
The source of this article is
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