Bruce Lee American Dream
Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, California. He was five foot seven
inches and weighed one hundred forty one pounds. In his family, Bruce was the fourth born out of five
children. As a child Bruce like to practice martial arts and dance the cha cha. Bruce would always think
about philosophy and read a lot of books. Bruce had many different names he went by. The most notable
name by “Li Xiao Long” which means little dragon. Bruce father was a famous Chinese opera and movie
actor in Hong Kong. His mother was half white and Chinese and came from a very wealthy family. When
lee was just three months old he was in a movie. Since Bruce was a baby he’s been in over twenty
movies total. Bruce childhood was spent it Hong Kong. Bruce got his high school diploma in Edison
technical school. He attended the University of Washington in 1960 and majored in drama. Bruce
dropped out of college and moved to Oakland, California. Bruce soon then married Linda Emery on
August, 17, 1969 in Santa Monica. Bruce participated in many competitions like the long beach
international karate championships. Bruce had two children named Brandon and Shannon. Bruce Lee
was the first Chinese people to be in Hollywood. He became famous in Hollywood by showing Chinese
culture and martial arts in movies. Even though Bruce lee was a weak boy and faced some obstacles in
his life, he still succeeded in bring a different kind of martial art to Hollywood. (“Bruce Lee." 2013. The
Biography Channel website)
Bruce lee had a dream to bring martial arts to holly wood. His dreams were to master martial
arts and bring martial arts to films. Bruce trained in Tai chi. Bruce started practicing wing Chun when he
was thirteen years old and added his own style to martial arts. Lee started to specialize in nunchaku,
which is a type of art used with nun chucks. Bruce was influenced by his father who introduced Bruce to
martial arts and his home town to master the arts. These influences drove Bruce even more to
accomplish his dreams. At a young age Bruce defeated many opponents in competitions and street
fights. During the Hong Kong inter- school amateur boxing championships, lee went against three-time
champion Gary elms and lee won. The largest influence on Lee's martial arts development was his study
of Wing Chun. Lee began training in Wing Chun at the age of 13 under the Wing Chun teacher Yip Man in
1954, after losing a fight with rival gang members. Yip's regular classes generally consisted of the forms
practice, chi Sao, drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring. Yip tried to keep his students from
fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions. ("Bruce
Lee." UXL Biographies. Detroit: U*X*L, 2003. Discover Collection)
Throughout Lee’s life he faced many obstacles. One of the biggest obstacles Lee faced was his
career threatening injury. Lee being disabled for a short period of time, having his back attacked from the
spine, doctors would have him believe he may not walk again. In the Martial-Arts, its 50 % physical, and
50% mental, where he had proven to the world that there are no limits to what you set your mind to. His
injury had shaped him to a different person, to overcome the odds, and to never give up his goal, SelfMastery. This injury put Lee’s martial arts training on hold for a while. When Bruce was younger he was a
very weak boy. Bruce wasn’t strong at all and didn’t weigh much. Bruce father notice it and trained him
even harder because of that. Bruce always had body and some health problems. He didn’t quite get the
right nutrition he needed. Being weak when he was younger and not having good nutrition led to his later
injuries in life as an adult.( Bruce Lee Enterprises, 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2013)
Another major obstacle Bruce faced was having a mix of white in his ancestry. The Chinese do
not like to teach any non-Asian any martial arts. They do not allow others to train with them or train them.
After a year into his Wing Chun training, most of Yip Man's other students refused to train with Lee after
they learnt of his mixed ancestry. This affected Bruce a lot because Bruce trained very well with wing
Chun and the students. Also he needed more training to get better at competitions and win more
championships. Bruce couldn’t do that without Wing Chun’s help. Wing Chun saw the potential in Bruce
so he decided to privately train Bruce without others knowing and it paid of very well. This also caused
Bruce to get in numerous fights in school all the time. Bruce was always fighting especially street fights.
His father nor his trainer Wing Chun did not approve of this and warned him to stop. As Bruce got older
he kept getting in more and more fights. In 1959, Lee got into yet another street fight and the police were
called. From all the way to his late teens, Lee's street fights became more frequent and included beating
up the son of a feared triad family. Eventually, Lee's father decided for him to leave Hong Kong to pursue
a safer and healthier avenue in the United States. Before his father made that decision the police were
called on Bruce. The police informed Lee’s parents about his fighting and told them one more time and
they’ll put him in jail. This led to Lee leaving Hong Kong and going to the U.S. ("Bruce Lee." 2013. The
Biography Channel website)
Throughout Lee’s life he’s been through a lot of obstacles but also has had a lot of success.
Bruce has been in numerous hit movies throughout his life. Bruce has been a gang member in Hong
Kong, brought his own style to martial arts and has been a successful movie star. His movies that he’s
most notable for are enter the dragon, way of the dragon, and fist of fury. Bruce has been recognized as
the “Crown Colony Cha-Cha Champion” in Hong Kong at 18 years old. He also got the 1964 Karate
Championship Award presented at the 1964 International Karate Championships for his “contribution to
karate.” He’s also achieved many more accomplishments. Bruce Lee died July, 20, 1973 from taking
aspirin from having pains. Even though Bruce died at a young age he accomplished his American dream.
He been in hit movies and he bought out his style of martial arts and Kung foo to the world. Bruce lee is
also the reason why the word Kung foo is in the dictionary. Today Bruce lee still is the inspiration behind
many martial art films and known martial artist like Jackie chan. (Bruce Lee." UXL Biographies. Detroit:
U*X*L, 2003)