![]() ![]() It wasn’t just local audiences Lee became a universal symbol of defiance: a man of color seeking to express himself with the tools he had available. In The Way of the Dragon, he saves the family restaurant and tears a strip off Chuck Norris at the Colosseum. He stood with the oppressed factory workers and against criminal corruption in The Big Boss in Fist of Fury, he embarked on a one-man crusade against colonial oppression in 1920s Shanghai (and, by extension, British-ruled 1970s Hong Kong), forcing his Japanese adversaries to literally eat their words, describing China as “the Sick Man of east Asia”. As well as displaying his dazzling physical skills, Lee’s movies were narratives of resistance. Returning to Hong Kong in 1971, Lee churned out four movies in two years and exploded into global superstardom. Either way, he auditioned for the lead role, only to be passed over in favor of David Carradine, who had neither Chinese ancestry nor any knowledge of martial arts. Lee’s involvement in developing the show, which followed a Shaolin monk in the old west, is contested. Despite training a roster of celebrity students in the martial arts (including Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Sharon Tate), Lee realized the US was not ready to accept an Asian leading man.Īccording to a report by, the final insult came with the 1970s TV series Kung Fu. Lee grew exasperated at being used as a subservient sidekick in the TV series The Green Hornet. It was a time when east Asian men were depicted as servants, sinister villains or buck-toothed buffoons (often played by white actors – see Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s). He was born in San Francisco, then grew up in Hong Kong before returning to the US, aged 18. ![]() Lee also built a unique persona – intense, disciplined, physical yet cerebral – light years away from western stereotypes of Asian masculinity that were very much in play when he first came to Hollywood in the mid-1960s. The fact that he died young, in perplexingly banal circumstances (a reaction to a painkiller) only burnishes his myth. ![]() Lee runs through the DNA of global culture: video games, hip-hop and mixed martial arts, not to mention the general rise of the super-fit, zero-body-fat masculine physical ideal. Despite leaving a slim body of work – just four complete films – he practically spawned a whole genre, and wrote the book for Hollywood action to this day. Lee is one of those rare stars who is bigger than his movies. Lee smashed down the door for Asian representation pretty much single- (and bare-) handedly, even if he died too soon to be a beneficiary of it. It is not certain that Bruce Lee would have seen a kung fu duel involving sex toys as a fitting tribute to his legacy, but the Oscar triumph of Everything, Everywhere All At Once earlier this year is a reminder, 50 years after his death, of what a trail he has blazed. ![]()
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