by Lewis
(Hacienda Heights)
Growing up in Taiwan in the late 70's and 80's, pictures of Bruce Lee were everywhere.
I didn't think much of it other than that he is one of the biggest action movie stars in the Chinese community.
I really had a bad impression of Bruce Lee as I was picked on in junior high school when I first immigrated to the US. Kids were taunting me to use my "kong fu" calling me Bruce Lee and making Bruce Lee noises trying to embarrass me.
When I was in high school in the US I started getting into Jet Li's movies with all the high flying wired acts which looked impressive compared to Bruce Lee's move where action sequence were shot the old fashion way. I was never a fan of classical movies. Even then, I still could not understand why people, especially some Americans, idolize him so much. I thought people were just into violent movies at the time.
It wasn't until recent years I caught one of Bruce Lee's documentaries on the History Channel that I slowly started to understand why not only Chinese and Americans idolize this hero, almost everyone in the world knows who Bruce is. Soon after, I started to look for all of his documentaries and movies on Netflix and everything I could find.
It turns out it wasn't the martial arts that impressed me although I am a big fan of boxing and MMA. It was his philosophy and the way he carried himself in a world where racism was rampant that really inspired me. He is truly smart and special and unusually expressive for Asian (yes I know I am being stereotypical but it's somewhat true speaking as a Chinese myself).
The fact that he is respected by all walks of life shows it the way how he lived his life that will leave a lifetime inspiration for me that is still growing by the day.
The human race is lucky to had the presence Bruce Lee for however short it was. Hopefully, many generations from now will find the same inspiration through his legacy. Thank you Bruce Lee.