Born in California’s San Francisco city, on 27th November 1940, Bruce Lee was brought up at Hong Kong till he reached his late teens. His father was a leading Cantonese opera and film actor, and his mother Grace Ho was from one of the most powerful and richest families of Hong Kong, named the Ho Tungs. This ensured that Bruce Lee spent his growing years in a comfortable and privileged manner. However, irrespective of his affluent family status, Bruce Lee spent his young years in a very dangerous neighborhood of Hong Kong that was known for its gang rivalries.
Bruce Lee started his formal training of Kung Fu started at the early age of 13, when he began his training for Wing Chun, by the side of Yip Man. Lee’s keen attention in Wing Chun developed due to the basic training of the art, imparted to Bruce by his father, which later lead him to take private training in Wing Chun from William Cheung, in 1955. He was simultaneously also trained in private by martial art performer Shun Leung, who had been known for being involved in dangerous and cruel beimo competitions. In 1957, Lee won the High School Boxing Champion title and followed it up with the title of Hong Kong’s “Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion”, in the following year of 1958.
Bruce Lee moves back to USA
All through his growing years, Lee was often involved in violent confrontations with the gangs that ruled the streets of the city. In his late teenage life, Lee’s street fights became more frequent and after he beat up the son from one of the dreaded triad family, his father made him leave Hong-Kong and move to USA. Lee returned to US when he was 18 and half years old and continued to pursue his studies for High School, which he completed in 1960. Soon after, in March 1961, he joined University of Washington, with a major in drama, but left the university before graduating. Lee met Linda Emery, his future wife, while studying at University of Washington.
Soon after Bruce Lee returned to America, he started imparting martial arts training to people. The form of martial art he taught was basically Wing Chun, but since he taught it in his own unique style, he named it as something, which translated to Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu. His first apprentice was Jesse Gloveree, who practiced judo and later went on to become Lee’s first associate trainer. Lee also opened his school of martial art in Seattle and gave it the name of “Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute”. He combined the directness from Wing Chun, along with the power kung fu from the Northern Shaolin to improve on his own system of kick boxing. His unique style enabled him to deliver quick kicks to his opponent, despite not making full leg contact.
Lee’s philosophy about fighting was influenced during a contest he had against Wong Jack Man and he came to believe that the techniques utilized in various traditional forms of martial art were too strict and reserved and could not be applied practically in real life scenarios of disorganized street fighting. As a result he made up his mind to create a new system of martial art that was more practical, flexible, and had better speed and competence. Thus Lee developed the form of martial art known to be Jeet Kune Do, the martial art that emphasized on the styles of no styles. He directly gave the certification of this art to only three people named James Yimm Lee, Taky Kimura and Dan Inosanto, all of whom were instructors themselves.
Bruce Lee earned a great reputation not only as a practitioner of martial art, but also as philosopher, film director and screenwriter. Times magazine listed him in the list of 100 most influential people of the 20th century. He died on 20th July 1973, at the young age of 33 years, after suffering from full-body seizures and cerebral edema. Read here for the full reason of how did Bruce Lee die.