We began to forget our heroes of the 20th century, just as few people recall cell phones weighing several kilograms or large video recorders. Bruce Lee is almost forgotten today. A martial artist, the founder of his kung fu style, which many did, and a whole direction in cinema, which is much less common. Kung fu warriors have accompanied us throughout the last years of Soviet rule. Then no one really thought about what nationality Bruce Lee was. He was almost mine.
Childhood
Bruce was born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940, into a wealthy family of Chinese opera artist Lee Hoi Chen and his wife Lee Grace. Parents of Bruce Lee by nationality: father is Chinese, and mother is of German-Chinese descent (father is German, mother is Chinese). The family came to the USA on tour with the troupe of the Cantonese Chinese opera. Bruce spent his childhood in Hong Kong, where he was engaged in Latin American dances and even won the city championship in cha-cha-cha. The origin of Bruce Lee probably influenced the fact that he eventually engaged in martial arts. After all, the Chinese opera, where his father worked, is a specific singing mixed with scenes of fights in the kung fu style. Since 1956, he began to study the Wing Chun style and never left martial arts.
Kung Fu Forever
As a child, he had to fight a lot because his peers did not recognize Bruce Lee's Chinese nationality because of his quarter of German blood. Therefore, when he wanted to do kung fu, his parents willingly began to pay for training. Bruce began to study martial arts with the famous master Yip Men, who was the first to teach the Wing Chun style to all interested Chinese. Incredibly physically gifted, he very quickly mastered the technique of this school and soon became the best student. To broaden his horizons throughout his life, he studied many other martial arts - judo, jujitsu, boxing. Bruce trained a lot with weapons, especially having mastered nuntyaku, the technique of possession of which he repeatedly demonstrated later in his films. Becoming a great master, Bruce Lee developed his style of Jeet Kune-Do.
Hello America!
At 19, he moved to the United States, whose citizenship he had by birthright. At first, Bruce worked part-time at his uncle's Chinese restaurant, practiced a lot and studied art at the T. Edison School in Seattle. In 1961, Bruce began studying philosophy at the prestigious University of Washington. Then he began to train. For Bruce Lee, the nationality of the students did not matter. This was one of the few cases when the former clan martial art was taught not to the Chinese. The Chinese community was very indignant at this, even his teacher Yip Men was against teaching kung fu "white barbarians." Within a few years, Bruce opened several kung fu institutes. Finally, Bruce gained financial independence. Private lessons were very expensive, about 300 US dollars per hour, and a month at institutes - 800 per month. He became a famous trainer, American celebrities appeared among the students and he was invited to act in films.
First steps to the cinema
Due to the fact that he was born in the family of an artist of Chinese opera, Bruce received his first film role at 3 months, and at the age of 6 he already played one of the main roles in the film "Born by Man". In Hong Kong, he starred in dozens of films that did not bring him any special money or fame, but then the experience came in handy. Continuing to train, Bruce Lee began acting in television series, where he showed skill in staged fights. In the years 1966-1967, he starred in the TV series "The Green Hornet", then appeared in the episode of the movie "Marlow". However, due to the nationality of Bruce Lee, he did not get the main roles. And then he went to Hong Kong, where the Golden Harvest studio had just opened. At this studio, Bruce Lee made his first film "The Big Boss", in which he not only played the main role, but also was the director of martial arts scenes.
