Why Bruce Lee an International Star

Tjen’s Word

September 2, 2013

Why Bruce Lee an International Star

 

 

Introduction

 

Once I learnt from different media that there had been an exhibition in memory of Bruce Lee the late international Kung Fu movie star, I had the emotion as an excited fan to visit immediately the Hong Kong Cultural Museum located in Shatin, New Territories.

 

The HKSAR Government should  have done more

 

However, when I thought about taking the Hong Kong Island MTR, then the railway into the New Territories… then walking the distance between the train station and the museum under the summer’s heat, I was discouraged from going to the exhibition and that’s why my visit did not happen until the previous week.

 

As the organizer of such an important exhibition for the icon leading Hong Kong movies going international, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the HKSAR should have done more by having the exhibition take place in one of the city museums on Hong Kong Island or Kowloon peninsula where more international visitors could have participated more conveniently. 

 

Why Bruce Lee an international star

 

Putting aside the disappointment with the HKSAR government, I enjoyed very much the 1.5 hour visit to the exhibition (As a result of the enormous number of the visitors, duration of each session is restricted to 1.5 hour) thanks to the generous contributions from all the fans of Lee and most importantly his family members who share so many Bruce’s personal items from which we could imagine the talent and character of this international star.

 

Though it is too complex and risky to analyze a great icon’s success, I just couldn’t help sharing a few of my thinking lines because Bruce has been my favorite Hong Kong icon and I am proud of his personal effort to make Kung Fu so well known internationally.

 

Bruce Lee has indeed got all the basic ingredients to be successful internationally and here are a few:

 

He was born international.  His father was a famous Chinese opera leading star and his great grand-father was a Dutch.  He was born in United States and raised in Hong Kong, at that time a British colony.   He then went to the States and got to know his American girlfriend who later became his wife.

 

He spoke English as local.  Though Bruce spent his earlier years in Hong Kong until 18 when he moved back to the States for higher education, he spoke English like native American probably as a result of his having an American girlfriend J When one watches interviews of Bruce Lee, one will be amazed at the fact that he could speak so lively and non-stop in English for hours about his Kung Fu and life philosophy.

 

He was scientific.  At the time Bruce Lee was invited to be a performance guest at Long Beach International Karate Competition in 1964, few foreigners knew about Chinese Kung Fu (That’s also probably the reason  he was invited to a karate competition for his performance).

 

However, long before that magnificent performance which made Bruce famous, he had spent long hours and much effort to research the basic forms and structures of different kinds of Kung Fu art as well as to promote Kung Fu in different media. 

 

He wrote guidebook with detail illustrations explaining step-by-step of this Chinese martial art.  The illustrations were so well drawn that they look as if they were generated from the computers today…but imagine it’s only 1960’s when he completed all these designs with pens and pencils.

 

Apart from the beautiful art-works, his illustrations were so clearly made that every single movement was vividly and scientifically displayed in front of the foreign readers.

 

He thought simplicity.  Having spent a lot of time and effort to study different kinds of Chinese martial arts, he confirmed that the traditional Kung Fu had a lot of useless movements.  Therefore, he decided to simplify the Kung Fu art so as to increase its practical combating speed and effectiveness.  As such, he created the Jeet Kune Do which was much straight forward and easier to appreciate and to learn.  Bruce had hence laid the solid foundation for Kung Fu art to spread internationally.

 

He is family oriented.  Despite all the love affairs that were rumored in the Hong Kong movie circle, he was a very family oriented man.  He had written poems to his girl-friend who later became his wife.  When he worked overseas, he continued to write love letters to his wife expressing his missing her and the children.

 

Bruce had amazing talents and characters.  However, more importantly, he had universal values which were echoed by people of different nationalities, which are the principal reasons for his becoming an international icon in both Chinese martial arts and movies.

 

Looking forward to a permanent Bruce Lee Exhibition Centre funded by the HKSAR government…for Bruce who loves Hong Kong so much.