What does Bruce Lee have to do with it?

We found a recent blog post on creating an exercise program without gym visits or weights. The elements of the workout were fine on their own, but the author brought Bruce Lee into the mix saying that Lee seldom used weights and never set foot inside a gym. Site comments noted some of the inaccuracies. What caught our attention were the physical feats attributed to Lee: he could perform 50 reps of one arm chin ups. He could hold a V position for half an hour. He could even catch a grain of rice, midair, with chopsticks. It stimulated our thoughts about about myth and reality. What makes something, or someone, legend?

Symbols

We need heroes. Extraordinary skills and achievements amaze us, inspire us. In all cultures, ancient to modern, some need resides deep within us to elevate certain individuals to mythic status. We shape flesh and blood into a carved and crafted symbol. What compels us to exaggerate and embellish upon their accomplishments? Jung saw our need to order the world around us and identified the archetypal symbols we create, onto which we project our ideals, values and dreams. Like Hercules, or Achilles, Bruce Lee is a symbol.

Keeping it real

How do you separate fact from fiction? And what happens when the screen character is a martial artist master portrayed by an actor who is a famous martial artist?  Things become convoluted.  Many people confuse Bruce Lee’s celluloid martial art heroics with the flesh and blood martial artist. We thrill to his swirling nunchuks and his taking out 20 opponents – beautifully, single handed. We don’t see the outtakes. We get so caught up with the persona, we lose sight of the person. The stuff that legends are made of…

Whether or not he could catch rice grains with chopsticks (he couldn’t) or beat up Mike Tyson (sheer conjecture) is irrelevant. Bruce Lee was a phenomenon. He was the first to bring martial arts into the mainstream through his screen presence, charismatic personality and innovative approach to tradition. This was also abetted by his confident articulation of Chinese thought. Dying young makes the symbol even more powerful…Lee is captured in a moment in time, forever young.

Bruce Lee is the mythic icon for martial arts. But the breadth and depth of the martial art tradition is thousands of years old, with its many systems and great masters who came before him and those yet to arrive. With this in mind we ask you:  is Bruce Lee, as some claim, the greatest martial artist ever?  Please leave a comment.

Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson

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