When Hong Kong students were resisting Chinese authoritarianism in 2019, they adopted Lee’s maxim: “Be water.” It wasn’t just local audiences Lee became a universal symbol of defiance: a man of colour seeking to express himself with the tools he had available. In The Way of the Dragon, he saves the family restaurant and tears a strip off Chuck Norris at the Colosseum. He stood with the oppressed factory workers and against criminal corruption in The Big Boss in Fist of Fury, he embarked on a one-man crusade against colonial oppression in 1920s Shanghai (and, by extension, British-ruled 1970s Hong Kong), forcing his Japanese adversaries to literally eat their words, describing China as “the Sick Man of east Asia”. As well as displaying his dazzling physical skills, Lee’s movies were narratives of resistance. Returning to Hong Kong in 1971, Lee churned out four movies in two years, and exploded into global superstardom. Either way, he auditioned for the lead role, only to be passed over in favour of David Carradine, who had neither Chinese ancestry nor any knowledge of martial arts. Lee’s involvement in developing the show, which followed a Shaolin monk in the old west, is contested. The final insult came with the 1970s TV series Kung Fu.
Photograph: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images Physical yet cerebral … Bruce Lee on the set of Tang Shan Da Xiong.
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