“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Bruce Jun Fan Lee (Lee Siu Loong) was born in 1940 in San Francisco, CA while his parents were on tour with the Chinese Opera. Ultimately raised in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was a child actor appearing in more than 20 films. At the age of 13, Bruce took up the study of wing chun gung fu under renowned wing chun master, Yip Man.
Bruce left Hong Kong at the age of 18, came to the United States and made
his way to Seattle, Washington where he worked in the restaurant of a
family friend. He soon enrolled in the University of Washington where he
pursued a degree in philosophy. Bruce began to teach gung fu in Seattle
and soon opened his first school, the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. Two more
schools followed in Oakland and Los Angeles. Concurrently Bruce married
his wife, Linda and had his two children, Brandon and Shannon. In the mid
sixties, Bruce was discovered while doing an exhibition at the Long Beach
Internationals and a role as Kato in the tv series The Green Hornet soon
followed. During this time, Bruce was also developing his own martial art,
which he ultimately named Jeet Kune Do.
Bruce's art was steeped in a philosophical foundation and did not follow
long held martial traditions. Instead it had at its core the ideas of
simplicity, directness and personal freedom. After The Green Hornet series
was canceled, Bruce encountered resistance while working in Hollywood and
so headed to Hong Kong to pursue a film career. In Hong Kong he made 3
films, which consecutively broke all box office records and showcased
martial arts in an entirely new way. Hollywood took notice and soon Bruce
was making the first Hollywood / Hong Kong coproduction with a film called
Enter the Dragon. Unfortunately, Bruce Lee died in 1973 before this film
was released. This film catapulted him to international fame. Today Bruce
Lee’s legacy of self expression, equality, and pioneering innovation
continues to inspire people all around the world.