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What Is Bruce Lee Influence On American Culture

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Daniel Flores
AAS 100
Professor Acquino
5/8/15
Bruce Lee’s Impact on American Media
42 years after his death, Bruce Lee is still viewed as the greatest icon of martial arts cinema. His philosophy and charisma made him legend amongst popular culture. It's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have survived in American Cinema without Bruce Lee and his incredible movies in the early 1970’s. Till this day, Bruce Lee’s Influence in modern media is apparent. Bruce Lee has become a household name, like Mickey Mouse and The Beatles.
Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco. One year later, Bruce and his family returned to Kowloon in Hong Kong. At the age of 5, Bruce began appearing in children's roles in minor films …show more content…

Bruce landed in San Francisco in 1959 and worked in a relative's restaurant. He eventually made his way to Seattle, Washington where he enrolled at the University of Washington to study Philosophy. He supported his way through college by teaching locals his art of Wing Chun. In 1963, he opened his first Wing Chun School in Seattle. During the early half of the 1960s, Lee became associated with many key martial artists in the United States including Kenpo Karate expert Ed Parker and Tae Kwon Do master Jhoon Rhee. Through tournaments like the Long Beach Nationals, Bruce gained exposure and was later introduced to TV producer William Dozier. Dozier was looking for an Asian actor to play the role of Kato, the Green Hornet’s sidekick. Around this time, Bruce also opened a second Wing Chun school in Oakland, California and relocated to Oakland to be closer to …show more content…

However, the show was surprisingly terminated after only one season, but at that point he was praised more than the star of the show. Later, he opened a third branch of his Wing Chun School in Los Angeles, and began providing private martial arts training to film stars including Steve McQueen and James Coburn. In addition, Bruce was told by Chinese traditionalist to stop teaching Kung Fu to non-asians. He did not listen and challenged the traditionalists to a fight against their best fighter. Bruce won the challenge but was not satisfied. He felt that fight lasted too long. He refined his style of Wing Chun, he incorporated aspects of other fighting styles such as Boxing and Western Fencing and called it "Jeet Kune Do" (Way of the Intercepting Fist).
With his minor success in Hollywood, Bruce returned to Hong Kong and was approached by film producer Raymond Chow who had started Golden Harvest Productions. Chow offered him the lead role in The Big Boss (1971). When it released in Hong Kong, the film was an instant hit. Chinese youth loved seeing a film starring a tough, athletic Chinese hero who dispensed justice with his fists and feet. Chow quickly assembled another script entitled The Chinese Connection (1972). His second film broke the box office records set by the

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