Bruce Lee's epitaph.
"Your enlightenment will continue to guide us towards personal liberation."
This English epitaph written in front of Bruce Lee's grave not only depicts his fleeting life, but also continues today after Bruce Lee left 47 years later.
On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee's life came to an end.
A week later, his movie "Dragon Fighting Tiger Fighting" premiered. This kung fu movie, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, eventually surpassed 200 million dollars at the box office. It also allowed Bruce Lee and his Chinese kung fu to truly enter the international screen, although at that time He is no longer alive.
In fact, a large part of the reputation and respect he now enjoys also gradually accumulated in the years after he left.
As a martial artist, Bruce Lee is called the “King of Kings” by the Americans, the Japanese call him the “Sage of Martial Arts”, and UFC President Dana White regards it as the father of comprehensive fighting.
Bruce Lee attended the 1967 Changdi International Karate Competition and performed.
The word "kung fu" in English was coined by Bruce Lee and was later written in an English dictionary. In a sense, he is synonymous with Chinese Kung Fu and the most loud business card.
In the early years in the United States, he had a discussion with Ed Parker, the father of American karate. It was under the introduction of the latter that Bruce Lee was invited as a guest at the Long Beach Karate Championships, and it was amazing.
In addition, Bruce Lee has communicated with American Jiu-Jitsu master Willie Jay, Pan American Judo champion Hayward Xigang, and the father of American Taekwondo Li Junjiu. They are both eclectic and make Chinese martial arts well known.
There is a saying: "Foreign people think that everyone in China will work hard, that's because everyone abroad knows Bruce Lee."
In this way, he is self-evident in the promotion of Chinese martial arts worldwide. In order to do this, he chose the way of boxing to the flesh and practicing.
Bruce Lee introduces Jeet Kune Do.
But in fact, the Jeet Kune Do he founded was not fully formed in his lifetime, but was gradually derived and developed in later generations under the guidance of his martial philosophy.
It was only later that his film and television works were widely sought after by more people.
This may be related to his early death at the age of 32, but the changes brought by Bruce Lee have been happening all the time, because the times always call for heroes. And his existence as a hero is far more than martial arts recruitment and movie box office.
In the 47th year after Bruce Lee's death, the wave of racial equality once again swept the United States and even spread to the world, just like those years he experienced.
As a result, people followed their eyes over the tumbling character on the screen, crossed the fierce figure in the performance martial arts venue, and cast their trajectory behind the rising of the meteor, and found that the familiar sharp roar appeared louder.
Bruce Lee's short life was a journey against racial prejudice.
Bruce Lee audition screen.
From 1959 to 1970, the affirmative movement in the United States was in full swing. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, and the racial affirmative movement was pushed to the top.
This period of time was exactly when Bruce Lee studied in the United States, held a martial arts hall, and made a movie.
In the concept of martial arts, advocating the idea of abandoning the portal and eclecting Bruce Lee not only explored the strengths of the various families, but also widely enrolled disciples in the process of spreading martial arts, breaking the closed inheritance model.
As a result, a large number of people, regardless of race or gender, gathered under Bruce Lee’s gate. They experienced the charm of Chinese martial arts, and also understood his philosophy of martial arts and freedom.
And his trajectory through Hollywood is more heroic.
As early as 1966, Bruce Lee appeared in the role of Kato in the Hollywood TV series "Green Hornet", and showed his prominence with his performance in the play.
Bruce Lee is in the TV series "Green Hornet".
At that time, the ambitious Bruce Lee once wrote: "From 1970, I will be famous in the world. After that, until the end of 1980, I will earn more than 10 million US dollars of wealth. Then, I will live as I want. Get inner harmony and happiness."
But things were far from progressing as he expected. The challenges he encountered were far stronger than the villains in the movie.
"For many Americans, Asian men are the spokesmen of the enemy," director Ruan Bao described Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s. The Bruce Lee documentary directed by him was released on ESPN in June. It focused on Bruce Lee’s struggle against racial prejudice as an Asian American before becoming famous.
Jabal recalled meeting with Bruce Lee.
"During our time together, he talked excitedly about his frustration with the stereotypes of Asians in movies and TV shows. The only roles Asian actors can get are bad guys and servants."
In an autograph published in 2019 by Bruce Lee, an NBA superstar and a friend of Bruce Lee, he recalled, "Men seem to have no gender, while women will only succumb. Once black actors had such treatment."
Therefore, even if "Green Hornet" allowed Bruce Lee to show his fists in film and television dramas, Hollywood's repulsion of Asian actors still made him deeply bound. He refused to accept characters with a strong ethnic bias.
"When the Chinese appear, there is always the same stereotyped appearance. Damn it!" Bruce Lee once expressed his dissatisfaction in an interview.
Data map: Bruce Lee.
And what he did was not just complain, he wanted to change all this.
"The reason why people are different is not because of what happened in our lives, but because of the way we choose to respond when we face the important situation in life that can test the courage of life."
As this sentence said, he responded in his own way. Putting Chinese Kung Fu on the big screen was the way he chose to fight back.
In the 1970s, Bruce Lee, who had left the United States and returned to Hong Kong for development, has shot five films and one TV series. From "Brother Tangshan" to "Dragon Fighting", almost every movie has achieved unprecedented success.
Bruce Lee in the movie "Brother Tangshan".
With the success of the film, the image of the "Chinese hero" he created was gradually recognized by the world. Before that, no Asian face had played the role of a hero in "American Mythology".
Bruce Lee smashed it all with a roundabout kick. This key "flying leg" is "Dragon Fighting".
It was also at this time that 32-year-old Bruce Lee suddenly resigned. Despite this, he swept through the night sky shrouded by world racial discrimination like a meteor, reflecting a day-like light.
Bruce Lee is in the movie "Raptors Crossing the River".
He was encouraged not only by the Chinese, but also to radiate various "minorities" who felt discrimination. Therefore, people of color in the United States and the world generally regard Bruce Lee as their hero.
And 47 years later, after the death of Freud detonated a time bomb that had been buried in American society in May 2020, the documentary documenting Bruce Lee’s struggle years just happened in June. On the screen, Bruce Lee is trying to "reverse the universe" with his own strength, and at this time, the struggler is no longer alone.
"When I came to the United States from Vietnam, he was the first person to give me hope. Because he is an Asian face star, he let me know that I am qualified to dream." As the first Vietnam selected by the NFL The American-American, Ruan Da said, it was Bruce Lee who gave him the courage to dream. Jabal called Bruce Lee "a symbol of global culture": "For some people, he almost surpassed race."
US police violent law enforcement killed African man Freud.
Asked if Bruce Lee was alive, what would he think of George Freud’s death, Bruce Lee’s daughter Li Xiangning replied that his father would be upset for them: “My father is racist, prejudiced,'we VS them' Things like mentality, xenophobia and bullying are deeply disgusted. He likes people who are sincere and hardworking and respects the differences between people. He believes in unity, equality between people, and everyone on the planet belongs to a family."
If he is still alive, how will it affect the world?
This question was repeatedly asked in the 47 years after Bruce Lee's death.
No one knows the answer, but what is certain is that even if he has been away for 47 years, the world is still being changed by him.