Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco, California at a Chinese Hospital. On November 27, 1940 to his Chinese father Lee Hoi-Chuen and Chinese-German mother Grace Lee, where his parents were on a one-year U.S. tour with the Cantonese Opera Company. Bruce's Cantonese given name, (Jun Fan Cantonese: JanfÐoan Pinyin: Zhиnfбn), literally means "invigorate San Francisco." When he was born, he was given the English name "Bruce" by the doctor that delivered him. His name "Bruce" was never used with his family until he went to highschool (LaSalle College) and then on to college(St. Francis Xavier College).

Education and Fam

When he was just 14 years old, Bruce Lee attended La Salle College in Hong Kong, which was a high school. He then attended St Francis Xavier's College from 1957-1959. Bruce got into a fight with a feared Triad gang member's son in 1959 and his father was worried about his safety and sent Bruce to the United States to live with a good friend of his father's. All he had was $100 and the title of 1958 Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. After living in San Francisco, he moved to Seattle to work for Ruby Chow, another friend of his father's. In 1959, Lee completed his high school education in Seattle and received his diploma from Edison Technical School. He enrolled at the University of Washington as a philosophy major. There he met his future wife Linda Emery. Bruce and Linda married in 1964 and had two children together, Brandon Lee (born 1965) and Shannon Lee (born 1969). Brandon, an actor like his father, died on a movie set while filming The Crow on March 31, 1993. Brandon Lee was killed by a piece of shrapnel from a faulty blank bullet. Bruce's character (Billy Lo) was almost killed in a similar way in the movie 'Game Of Death' this is often confused with 'Fist Of Fury' as the movie used previous footage from "fist" to complete the scene after Lee's death.

Acting career

Bruce started to appear in many Chinese films when he was 6 years old. His first film was called "A beginning of a boy". He then made 2 more films "The Orphan" and "Thunderstorm". A few credits short of graduation, Lee headed to San Francisco and then to Hollywood. In 1964 at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Lee met karate champion Chuck Norris. In 1972, Lee later induced Norris to portray one of his opponents in Return of the Dragon, also known as Way of the Dragon, in a famous Colosseum fight scene. 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. Later, Lee used filmmaking to demonstrate his martial arts fighting techniques and theories. He also appeared in the film Marlowe in 1969 and a few episodes of the TV series Longstreet in 1971.

Martial arts training and development

Tai Chi Chuan

Young Bruce learned the fundamentals of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan from his father, Lee Hoi Cheun. Lee's Wing Chun Si fu, Yip Man, was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong Wu family teacher Wu Ta-chi. He always held that the principles of Tai Chi Chuan influenced his view of martial arts all through his life as an actor and a martial artist. While it is obvious that the style studied by his father was the Wu style, Lee was seen on at least one occasion demonstrating the 108 Basic Movements of the Yang form.

Hung Gar

In between the learning of Tai Chi and Wing Chun, Lee also learned bits and pieces of the Kung fu style Hung Gar from a friend of his father. While we do not know how much he learned of this particular martial art, there are photographs of Bruce demonstrating animal stances and forms found within its teachings.

Wing Chun

Bruce Lee began his formal martial arts training at the age of 14 in Wing Chun under Hong Kong Wing Chun master Yip Man. Bruce was introduced to Sifu Yip Man by William Cheung, who was then a live-in student of Yip Man, in early 1954. Like most martial arts schools at that time, Sifu Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking students. One of the highest ranking students under Yip Man at the time of Lee's training was Wong Shun-leung, who is understood to have had the largest influence. Lee would leave before learning the entire Wing Chun curriculum, but Wing Chun formed a base for his later explorations of martial arts and development of Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee was certainly "Great". Bruce Lee's first formal, organized bout came as a teenager at his high school in Hong Kong. He was to fight a young British boxer, a reigning two-time boxing champion. Bruce knocked his opponent out with repeated strikes, using the Wing Chun technique jik chung chuy.

Jun Fan Gung Fu

Main article: Jun Fan Gung Fu

Lee began the process of creating his own martial arts system after his arrival in the United States in 1959. Lee named his first martial arts system Jun Fan Gung Fu, which consisted mostly of elements of Wing Chun, with elements of Western Boxing and Fencing. Lee taught the system at the martial arts schools he opened first in Seattle starting with judo practitioner Jesse Glover and Taky Kimura as his first student who later became his first assistant instructor, and the first person authorized by Lee to teach aspects of Lee's martial arts. After moving to Oakland and Los Angeles, California Lee opened his martial arts school named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute.

The Jeet Kune Do Emblem. The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol indicate: "Using no way as way" & "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless movement and change of the universe.

Lee emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of utilizing a non-formalized approach which Lee claimed was not indicative of traditional styles. Because Lee felt the system he called Jun Fan Gung Fu was too restrictive, it was transformed to what he would come to describe as Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist, a term he would later regret because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connotate whereas the whole point of the system was to exist outside of parameters and limitations. Some confuse the Jeet Kune Do system with the personal version that Bruce Lee practised. Jeet Kune Do can be seen as both a process and a product, the latter deriving from the former.

Bruce Lee certified three instructors: Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, and James Yimm Lee (no relation to