I Am Bruce Lee Page #2

because he wasn't purely Chinese.

When you're by yourself

and no one wants to be there

because they didn't wanna get beat up,

it's the loneliest feeling in the world.

One thing I have

definitely learned in my life

is that I do have a bad temper.

A violent temper, in fact.

His whole life is sort of

this play between East and West.

He hated the oppression

of little people

which he saw everywhere,

in the Japanese occupation,

the Boxer Rebellion,

the foreign powers going into China.

He just thought all of that was wrong.

To live the life he wanted

to live, he had to fight for it.

He really had to put it out there

and really walk the walk.

I mean, it is easy for me

to put on a show

and be cocky

and be flooded with a cocky feeling

and then feel like pretty cool

and all that.

Or I can make all kinds

of phoney things, you see what I mean?

Blinded by it. Or I can show you

some really fancy movement.

But to express oneself honestly,

not lying to oneself,

and to express myself honestly,

that, my friend, is...

In some ways

it's the total opposite of anger.

It's beauty, it's passion, it's art.

It's... It's painting a picture

without tools.

It was a surprise,

but an understandable one,

when I found out that Bruce Lee

was a cha-cha champion,

because you could see that reflected

in his fighting style.

He was the 1957

Hong Kong cha-cha champion.

People don't know that. His footwork

was impeccable. Incredible samba dancer.

He didn't move like anybody else.

He moved like himself.

In a fight you have footwork

and you have form

and you have stance and power

that you interject,

and that's the way that dancing

and martial arts go hand in hand.

For him to be steeped into that rhythm

reinforced why black people

have always identified with Bruce

and his fighting style.

So what I got from Bruce

as a performer is...

You know, most performers

perform like this, right? Straight up.

Me, perform from the side,

sort of like how Bruce

used to always, you know,

be ready for combat like this.

Honestly expressing yourself,

like me being a dancer,

that's what it's all about.

That's another big, big philosophy from

him that I take with me to this day.

So I'll be performing like,

"Bah, bah! Bah, bah, bah, bah!"

I keep trying to dig deeper

and deeper within myself

and find that fluidity

that no one can replicate.

That's the vibe

that Bruce Lee taught me.

It's to always bring it.

That's what I get from Bruce.

- And when did you leave Hong Kong?

- 1959, when I was 18.

It had gotten a little

difficult with the police on one side

and with gangs on the other side.

He beat this kid up,

but he didn't know that the kid

was the son of a high-ranking

police officer in Hong Kong.

He got into so many street fights

that by 18, his father gave him $100

and sent him off to America.

If he wanted

his immigration status to be US citizen,

then he had to return

by the time he was 18.

To go when you're still a star

is very strange,

because he could have kept doing films,

but they wanted him to go,

to make the right decision

of where he's going next.

In Seattle, my father

started teaching martial arts.

He didn't ever look at people because of

their race or their stature in life.

If you had a sincere interest

in martial arts, he would teach you.

Taky Kimura was really his best friend.

Taky became his first assistant

instructor in his first school,

the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute,

in Seattle, Washington.

Bruce used to come

to my high school

and he used to teach

in the Chinese philosophy class.

He was five years older than we were

and I do remember my heart going,

"Pah, pah, pah", you know,

"He is sure cute. "

It wasn't long after that that I started

taking gung fu lessons from him,

and my relationship with him

changed more from just a student

to actually feeling that maybe, maybe

there could be a connection between us.

We both attended

the University of Washington.

We would get together on campus

and attend our classes,

occasionally, when we weren't doing

gung fu or something else.

And then when we were both done

with our classes,

we would rush back to his studio,

which was just right there

in the university district,

and we'd turn on the TV

and watch General Hospital every day.

And it was like, "We have to get there.

It's almost three o'clock!"

In the '60s,

marriages were happening in California.

In the rest of the country there were no

interracial marriages. It was difficult.

My mother was not thrilled

when we decided to get married

and didn't want her daughter to have to

suffer any negativity from others.

The ban on interracial marriage

was lifted in 1968.

That didn't mean

the ban lifted in people's hearts.

Bruce was very strong in saying,

"I want to marry Linda.

I know that we are a good match. "

And so we did get married.

It was really hard on my mother.

But it wasn't long

before she came to love Bruce very much.

It's so important to know that it was

his wife Linda that grounded him.

She was his rock.

As a couple, we really did not

suffer any prejudice from outsiders,

and I think this had a great deal to do

with Bruce's overwhelming personality.

I absolutely recognise

that my uncle was a gorgeous man.

He's got swagger. We love his style.

He had style the way

Muhammad Ali had style in the ring.

He was like the Elvis of martial arts.

He looked like a movie star.

He was always

such a snappy dresser and so handsome.

I've heard the term

that he's put balls on Chinese men.

He's shown that the Chinese man can be,

you know, sexy and hot and enticing.

I'm trying to copy his hair.

That's why my hair is long.

After Bruce Lee, my God, Chinese men,

they're a force to be reckoned with.

They're invincible.

So that's an amazing transformation.

He's one of a kind

and extremely attractive.

That would be for both straight women

and a lot of gay men that I know too.

Let's just put it this way.

I think the one thing that's missing

in my life right now is Bruce Lee.

A man like Bruce Lee.

The first internationals

were in Long Beach.

I was instructed to take out Bruce Lee.

He was the guest.

So I was sort of like

the tour guide for him.

He demonstrated his art

before he even demonstrated

in front of the black-belt audience.

In the hotel room he says, "You can

use everything, you can side-kick,

you can round-kick,

and I'll just use my jab. "

When he knocked me out,

it was more like a hook.

It sort of came off the side like that.

The ease in which he did it,

and explaining

while he was doing it to me,

that was mind-boggling for me.

It was like a bad dream,

like the dreams where you can't run.

When Bruce Lee came up

and did his performance of his gung fu,

it was something

I had never seen before.

He said, "The individual is more

important in any style or system. "

I said,

"I need to train with a man like this. "

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