Enter The Dragon

I was speaking to my sister the other day about legacies. Malcom X was only 40 when he was murdered. Bruce Lee was only 32 when he died. They were both relatively young, yet the impact they had and have had both in life and death is incredible. Malcolm X was proud of his Blackness and his faith. He was bold in his words and his conviction for everything that he stood for. And because of this, many times, he was succumbed to bullying, harassment, alienation and isolation from the wider world but also members of his own community as well as his own dear friend, Muhammad Ali, after he left the Nation of Islam. Regardless of how the media and society painted Malcolm X throughout his life, he stayed true to himself and his beliefs. And even in death, his legacy has impacted and continues to impact millions of people across the globe regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and faith.

In the 20^th century, when East Asian characters were featured in TV and film as mains, they were usually played by White actors in yellowface i.e. Fu Man Chu or John Wayne in The Conqueror. When Asian characters were portrayed in films over 50 years ago by Asian actors, it was usually as a minor role: waiters, rice paddy field workers or within laundrettes. And their primary purpose, if not only purpose, was to be for satire, feeding into racist comedic tropes which played on archaic stereotypes. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a prime example, featuring Mickey Rooney playing the role of a Japanese landlord. For this role, Rooney was donned in yellow face, a receding hairline, false protruding teeth and an accent. His whole entourage was based off racist World War two propaganda towards Japan and Japanese citizens.

When Bruce Lee came on to the scene, he challenged these cinematic tropes. He refused to play the subservient passive Asian character. He was proud of his Chinese heritage and wanted to show this in a new and innovative way. Though Lee popularised Kung Fu in America, and whilst some of his movies are considered the greatest martial arts films of all time, he did so much more than just revolutionise film and acting. Ultimately, he transformed the way Asian people were presented in film. He turned down so many roles because he refused to be type casted and succumb to Hollywood’s representation of how Asian men should be characterised. With his shredded abs, ripped muscles and unapologetic self, he redefined the stigmatised and desexualised Asian man commonly characterised by Hollywood and invented a new archetype: the Asian American hero.

With Bruce Lee breaking into the American market, he opened a door where previously one remained closed. As time has gone by, we have seen an increase in Asian representation. In addition, Asian actors have ventured into different genres. In the 90’s we saw Jackie Chan and Jet Li in romantic comedies or rather, films with romantic elements such as Gorgeous, Rumble in the Bronx and Romeo Must Die. However, the romance was secondary to the martial arts action fighting or wider cultural issues. In the internationally acclaimed Crazy Rich Asians, we saw an Asian lead whereby romance took centre stage, though, arguably, secondary to struggles of conformity and honour within cultural ties and familial homes. Henry Golding stole everyone’s hearts and was recently hailed by People’s Magazine as one of the sexiest men alive.[1] In an interview in 2021, Golding said ‘Right now, Simu Liu, myself and others are doing it, but before us there was Bruce Lee. And even after Bruce Lee, there is Jason Scott Lee and Brandon Lee etc. We have had the representation a long time ago, but we haven’t had the opportunity to highlight them.’ [2] Joe Taslim has credited Bruce Lee alongside Chuck Norris as his biggest screen inspirations.[3] Jet Li was inspired by Lee to become a martial artist. [4] Jackie Chan said watching Bruce Lee with stunt doubles on set together inspired him to ensure that he did all of his own stunts. It was very important to Chan that the audience could see his face at all times, throughout fight scenes, when watching him on the screen. Chan’s acting style in particular is a unique form of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Bruce Lee.[5] Martial arts meets slapstick comedy of the silent film era. In Marvel’s 2021 film Shang Chi, in the first fight scene, Simu Liu partially takes off his jacket to punch a villain, and then puts it back on to resume his fighting. He pays a homage to Chan’s convenience store fight scene in 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx. Chan is notorious for using props and objects to bring comic relief and humour to intense scenes. This is seen profoundly in 1978’s Drunken Master.

This blog post was inspired by Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, who has helped to keep her father’s legacy alive. When Lee was alive, he had his own idea for a TV show surrounding a Shaolin monk who travels to America in the 1870’s in search of his brother. The main character was centred around Lee and his own training and experience. The show was called ‘The Warrior’. Hollywood believed that despite Lee taking a centre role and being the poster boy for many Kung Fu movies, America wasn’t ready for an Asian lead in TV, especially one with an accent. Despite this, a year later, Warner Bros produced a show called ‘Kung Fu’ which followed the exact plot as Lee’s idea for ‘The Warrior’, with Lee’s protagonist being played by a white actor, David Carradine. In the early 2000s, over two decades after his death, Shannon Lee came across the concept for ‘The Warrior’ in her father’s journals. A few years back, her and director Justin Lin (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast and Furious 6 and F9) went through Lee’s originals concepts together for his show and produced the HBO series Warrior, which was based on his early writings.

Legacies are so important. On the 5^th of October this year, it will be approximately 11 years since my father passed on. This blog post was to highlight that people in our lives, whom we know personally or indirectly, who have left us, have a legacy. Just because someone’s soul leaves us and they are no longer here physically, that doesn’t mean they cease to exist in our day to day. The essence of who they are, their teachings, morals and principles still exist, and this essence surrounds us and impacts us. It’s our choice as to whether we want to honour that legacy or not.