EP 222: Bruce Lee’s (martial) art
“As an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all type of knowledge, ultimately means self-knowledge. Under the sky, under the heaven, there is but one family. It just so happened, that people are different.”
Bruce Lee (李振藩) was among the first Chinese-Americans to truly bridge the gap between East and West. Born in San Francisco (1940), raised in Hong Kong, and known around the world, he’s considered the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different disciplines. Bruce Lee changed the way Chinese people were presented in American film. He taught his philosophies to many of his era’s greatest actors, and his films influenced the way martial arts were seen around the world. Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973, aged 32 - but he continues to capture the imagination of us all.