what are people views on Bruce Lee?

[bawang]

lesson of the day


do not argue with an assburger

[sanjuro_ronin]

[Happy Tiger]

I had a wonderfully introspective and honorable visit to master Lee Jun Fan and Brandon Lee's resting place last October(2011) First time visitor, long time respect and admiration. It was a road trip full of strange coinicidence and good omens, making it seem mysterious. I even had a unique interaction with the protective, surly guard that was worth the trip right there. At that time I re affirmed my dedication to self understanding commitment to community and the martial way...I'm still geekin out over it.



>bows deeply<

[Fa Xing]

That's really awesome HT, I have always wanted to do something very similar. In fact, my big plan would be to start here in Chinatown, LA on College St. and then make my way North tracing his path backwards here in the US.

[Happy Tiger]

Originally Posted by Fa Xing

That's really awesome HT, I have always wanted to do something very similar. In fact, my big plan would be to start here in Chinatown, LA on College St. and then make my way North tracing his path backwards here in the US.

That would be an incredible pilgrimage. Especially now we've lost both master Ted Wong. (time constraints didn't allow me to visit his resting spot.) and now sifu Jesse Glover, also laid to rest at Lakeview cemetary.
I made a mistake in my post re: the date. It was actually November 28th to be exact, The day after master Lee's birthday. We had been held up in traffic and got to the cemetary right at closing.(4:15 p.m.) The guard was just shutting the gate when we pulled up. He wouldn't let the car in and with a huff grumbled, " I've heard every excuse in the book." He gave my pathetic personage a scornfull look up , down and finally,let me and only me attempt to run to the grave site. No directions, nothing. He hollered after me..." You'll never make it, kid. You've got 2 minutes and I'm locking the gate with or without you!!" Funny enough, with only the image in my mind from pictures (I think I Google Earthed it once) I more or less marched straight to the spot...got there at exactly 4:20 (heheheh, for those in the know)I spent about 5 min. there...time that stretched out forever, it seemed. Completely alone...just them and I. As I walked out and past that cool, grumpy guard, he said," Well, did you learn the secret of life, kid?" I said "Thank you for the break, sir. All I really feel right now is life is soooo worth living!!" He said," Come back again at a decent time and your friends can go, too."
What an awsome moment!!!

[lance]

Originally Posted by Ng Jit

Sometimes these threads are so difficult to get through without either laughing for weeping for the future of Kung Fu.

Like a lot of westerners I grew up idolizing Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. In the 1970tys those were the guys who were the ambassadors of Chinese martial arts. That was before I actually started learning Chinese Boxing. I have waxed and waned on my opinions of Bruce throughout my life. I have known people who have known him, I have Kung Fu brothers who trained in legit JDK. Still to this day Bruce is of monumental interest to me.

From personal off the record conversations I have gathered this: It all (in my opinion) boils down to a fight that Bruce Lee had in defense of a challenge. There are many stories and theories about that particular fight but in a real life (not being there) aspect, one fact emerges to be completely true. Both the men involved lives were changed radically.

Bruce Lee went into a more external washed down version of Kung Fu that borrowed from many other martial concepts, because he thought that Wing Chun was too slow. And Jack Man went into internal training probably for the iron shirt aspects but I am not positive of that.

This tells me a lot about Bruce Lee and how he died. He could have been a master if it wasn't for his ego. He could have lived to be much older if he had not let what he knows get in the way of what is. Mediation is the foundation of internal knowledge. But in any southern kung fu system there are entire styles of internal training that go with any given system. At least in my experience and in that I have practiced 5 different southern kung fu systems.

Even Bruce Lee's Wing Chun doesn't appear to have what the system I practices is called the “Lower Bell”. He doesn't ever use the default Wing Chun stance work, he uses a great deal of Sil Lum stance's which is fine. But not the way that his teacher Yip Man taught Wing Chun.

Bruce Lee was a victim of Hollywood and his own ego. Once he became a star his ability to continue learning seems to have been stumped. I have heard many things about Yip Man and Bruce Lee's relationship. Most of them are not painted in the best light.

As far as I am concerned Bruce Lee's lack of knowledge into the internal is what killed him. He often did not sleep, he would push his external body beyond its limits and in the end his life did not come close to the very documented evidence about the virtues of qigong in daily life.

As far as I am concerned Bruce Lee is a tragedy of Media and and his own legion.

Ng Jit , you ' re right , you ' re entitiled to your own opinions towards Bruce Lee .
But some of the things you said about bruce is ' nt true at all . So go and do your own research on bruce . Theres' alot of books and documentry being published and produced on bruce so go and do your own research .

Your kung fu forms demo on the youtube looks good , but no power . I ' ve seen alot of different kung fu masters demo their forms they all have power . How come you don ' t have power .

What is lowerbell ? Your own version of kung fu right ? The frame work came from the 5 southern styles you ' ve learned right ?

If bruce was uneducated how the hell did he developed JKD then ? Think about it ? Maybe you ' re the uneducated one ?

[Happy Tiger]

Originally Posted by lance

Ng Jit , you ' re right , you ' re entitiled to your own opinions towards Bruce Lee .
But some of the things you said about bruce is ' nt true at all . So go and do your own research on bruce . Theres' alot of books and documentry being published and produced on bruce so go and do your own research .

Your kung fu forms demo on the youtube looks good , but no power . I ' ve seen alot of different kung fu masters demo their forms they all have power . How come you don ' t have power .

What is lowerbell ? Your own version of kung fu right ? The frame work came from the 5 southern styles you ' ve learned right ?

If bruce was uneducated how the hell did he developed JKD then ? Think about it ? Maybe you ' re the uneducated one ?

I respect your view, Ng Jit and Lance... IMO you are right in many ways. But it depends on your perspective.
I have always been against the kinda 'whitewashing' of Bruce Lee's life by many, not least of all his widow, Linda. This is our way isn't it? Too cannonize an incredible person and see only the 'good' or 'wholesome' aspects of their life. And erase anything 'bad'. I am sure that Lee wouldn't have wanted that.
Bruce Lee was both derivitive and feircely individualistic. He was sensitive in the extreme, yet was ultra aggressive.
He was a man perfect for his time for what he did, (which almost makes an argument for 'destiny'.)
Bruce was a man of contrasts.
I relate to Lee personally in two ways. Huge physical and mental contrasts to harmonise . And dedication to self understanding.
I like the fact your keeping it real, Ng Jit. Lee would have slapped you on the back for that.
Kung Fu is a journey. A journey that can take us far away to the ends of our potential. It is also everything you've said, too.
Read the book 'Unsettled Matters by the ex of Linda, Tom Bleeker. It really rips things up.
I still admire and love Bruce Lee. More for his problems, incredible successes despite and glorious failures than any Idealized bull**** reguarding same.
He shows that it life isn't anything but what you want it to be. He made his choices and flowed through them...If he had it to do again, he'd a done it the same way, I reckon.
I'm gratefull that the world has Bruce Lee

[lance]

Originally Posted by Happy Tiger

I respect your view, Ng Jit and Lance... IMO you are right in many ways. But it depends on your perspective.
I have always been against the kinda 'whitewashing' of Bruce Lee's life by many, not least of all his widow, Linda. This is our way isn't it? Too cannonize an incredible person and see only the 'good' or 'wholesome' aspects of their life. And erase anything 'bad'. I am sure that Lee wouldn't have wanted that.
Bruce Lee was both derivitive and feircely individualistic. He was sensitive in the extreme, yet was ultra aggressive.
He was a man perfect for his time for what he did, (which almost makes an argument for 'destiny'.)
Bruce was a man of contrasts.
I relate to Lee personally in two ways. Huge physical and mental contrasts to harmonise . And dedication to self understanding.
I like the fact your keeping it real, Ng Jit. Lee would have slapped you on the back for that.
Kung Fu is a journey. A journey that can take us far away to the ends of our potential. It is also everything you've said, too.
Read the book 'Unsettled Matters by the ex of Linda, Tom Bleeker. It really rips things up.
I still admire and love Bruce Lee. More for his problems, incredible successes despite and glorious failures than any Idealized bull**** reguarding same.
He shows that it life isn't anything but what you want it to be. He made his choices and flowed through them...If he had it to do again, he'd a done it the same way, I reckon.
I'm gratefull that the world has Bruce Lee

HappyTiger , you right we can often talk about bruce just like the way you mention , but we may not know how his wife linda had influence him too . I read some place that linda was married before ? So tell me white tiger you seem to know something that I may not know tell me about linda ? And thanks for the information on the book by tom bleeker .

[Happy Tiger]

Originally Posted by lance

HappyTiger , you right we can often talk about bruce just like the way you mention , but we may not know how his wife linda had influence him too . I read some place that linda was married before ? So tell me white tiger you seem to know something that I may not know tell me about linda ? And thanks for the information on the book by tom bleeker .

Hey, Lance, I'm on a Crackberry right now so I'll post more later. One thing about B. Lee and YGKYM is the difference in leg length he was born with(up to one inch reported). In many of the earliest pics. Of him he's already favouring a forward right leg. I think this was more adapting to his frame rather than 'power lead' experimentation. It wasn't till he was studied up in fencing, I think, before he had a theory that blended to his natural right forward inclination. But there are enough clips and pics of him in good VT posture, even though, I believe it made him uncomfortable and stressed his composition.

[Fa Xing]

Linda was like 17 or 18 when Bruce and her married, so there was no way she was married before. I have read before that there was a plan to just focus on the positive aspects of Bruce's life, but whether this is true or not, we can take away from Bruce's example of putting both feet forward and achieving everything we can in our own life.