An eternal icon, Bruce Lee is a kick-ass martial arts whiz, a handsome movie star, a profound philosopher, and a cultural ambassador instilling dignity in Asians by flaunting his Chinese heritage worldwide.
Breaking out in 1966 on the television show “The Green Hornet,” Lee represented APA’s still cast in roles like the pony-tailed Hop Sing, an emasculated cook in the “Bonanza” series.
Born in San Francisco while his Peking Opera father toured there, Lee followed in his footsteps becoming a child actor with the stage name Little Dragon. But his parents (his mother’s half-German) worried about his street fighting and sent him to America, where he eventually lived with Ping and Ruby Chow in Seattle. At the University of Washington, Lee studied philosophy, met his Caucasian wife, Linda, and opened a studio teaching his mixed martial arts — Jeet Kune Do — also known as the Way of the Intercepting Fist.
Later on, when the kung-fu films he made in Hong Kong skyrocketed to international popularity, Lee was thrust into stardom. Shirtless in fight scenes, he was the epitome of masculinity overthrowing his oppressors.
Today, Lee remains a powerful global presence living on in daughter, Shannon. Just four when her father died, Shannon Lee now operates Bruce Lee Enterprises and recently executive produced the documentary, “I Am Bruce Lee.” She’s also helping raise funds for a Bruce Lee museum slated for a Seattle location, and assisting UW students and alumni in building a community peace garden in his name.
Although the multi-ethnic daughter of a multi-ethnic father avoids putting herself into any racial category, she says, “I feel particularly honored and proud to be mixed race. It gives me such a rich cultural heritage to draw from.”
While her father was alive, the family lived in Hong Kong where Shannon learned Cantonese.
“But my mom speaks better Chinese than I do,” she laughs. “Even though she has blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Crediting her mother with exposing her and older brother, Brandon, to cultural traditions by sending them to Chinese school on weekends, Shannon admits she would’ve preferred playing soccer then.
According to Shannon, her mom always celebrated Chinese New Year and mastered Chinese cooking, too.
“She would make congee out of Thanksgiving turkey bones,” says Shannon. “Of course, as a kid, I was like, ew, but now I love it!”
Because she was so young when her father passed away, Shannon’s memories are “more like glimpses” although she recalls visiting him on set with Brandon.
She thinks her father would’ve been “thrilled” to still be considered an idol.
“He really opened up the West to the grace, beauty and power of Chinese kung-fu,” she says. “He would be happy to know that he had an impact in making the world a smaller place by bringing his heritage to it.”
But, she stresses that her dad refused to be on a pedestal and felt that people should “look inward to cultivate” themselves rather than deify others. His fame was a constant struggle, she summarizes, because while “it allowed him to bring his message to a large audience, it also created a loss of privacy.”
An actress, herself, Shannon’s been on hiatus while raising her daughter. After Brandon died in 1993, she took time off and began looking after her father’s legacy.
As for her favorite Bruce Lee movies, she names “The Way of the Dragon,” because “he wrote, directed, choreographed, produced and starred in it.”
“It’s his sensibility from top to bottom,” she declared, “his sense of humor and his ideas.”
“Enter the Dragon” is another because, she says, “It has him speaking in his own voice, and I love that visceral connection to it. It has all these little nuggets of philosophy from him that he personally wrote into the script, and it’s a great action movie.”
Of the numerous documentaries made about her father, Lee favors “I Am Bruce Lee,” but not because she executive produced it.
“It’s a very touching story, woven beautifully through the words of a lot of interesting people,” she explains. “It gets you thinking about his legacy and what his influence has been all these years.”
Thanks to Shannon Lee, the legacy of Little Dragon continues.
“I Am Bruce Lee” showed on Feb. 15 at Pacific Place AMC theater, at 8 p.m. For more information, go to: www.iambrucelee.com .
