The Legend of the Dragon(a)|龙的传奇

by Marcus Maurice

Master martial artist, genre-defying actor, and philosopher are all the terms that have been used to describe the one and only Bruce Lee.

Born in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1940, Bruce Lee was the son of a Cantonese opera-singing father and half-Caucasian mother. Shortly after he was born, Lee's family moved back to Hong Kong and lived under Japanese occupation. Lee's mother was from a well-off family, so after the occupation was over, the Lees lived in an affluent neighborhood, which eventually became overrun with people that were fleeing the Communists in China.

For a youngster, this meant that nearly every day was a struggle to survive. Bullies were waiting around every corner, and young Lee got into his share of street fights. Lee's parents thought it would benefit him to learn some martial arts to protect himself after he got beaten up by some rivals. At the age of 13, Lee started taking classes in Wing Chun under renowned master Yip Man. Yip's classes were freeform, and he tried to discourage street fighting by getting his students to focus their anger on organized competitions.

After a year of training, Yip's other students found out about Lee's mother not being a full-blooded Asian and refused to train with him because they didn't want martial arts taught to non-Asians. This problem actually worked to Lee's advantage because he ended up being one of a select few that ever got private lessons from Yip. Even though the training helped Lee, it didn't keep him out of trouble. When he beat up a son of a feared gangster in Hong Kong, his parents had no choice but to send him to live with his sister in California in 1958.

龙的传奇

武术大师、反主流演员及哲学家都是长久以来用以形容独一无二的李小龙的名词。

李小龙于 1940 年出生于旧金山唐人街，他父亲是粤剧演员，而他的母亲有一半的白人血统。他出生后不久，李家搬回了香港，并生活在日本统治下。李小龙的母亲出身豪门，因此在日治时期结束后，李家一家人住进了极为富裕的小区，此地后来成为一些要逃离中国共产党员人们的聚集地。

对一个年轻人而言，这意味着几乎每天都要为了生存而挣扎。每个角落都有恶霸在等着找他麻烦，而年少的李小龙也卷入了不少街头斗殴事件。在他被某些对手打得鼻青脸肿之后，他父母觉得让他去学武术有助于他自卫。13岁时，李小龙开始在著名的大师叶问门下学习咏春拳。叶问上课的形式很自由，他要弟子将怒气发泄在有组织的比武竞赛上，藉此阻止他们参与街头斗殴。

经过一年的训练，叶问其他的弟子发现李小龙的妈妈不是纯种亚洲人，因而拒绝和他一起受训，因为他们不想要将武术传授给非亚洲人。这个问题实际上反而对李小龙有利，因为他最终成了少数获选曾受叶问亲自教导的弟子之一。虽然训练对李小龙有所帮助，但却未能让他逃过麻烦。在他痛打了香港当地一名令人闻风丧胆的流氓之子后，他的父母不得不在 1958 年将他送到加州和他姊姊同住。