Awards, Honors, Achievements, and Activities

1. 1958 – recognized as the “Crown Colony Cha-Cha Champion” in Hong Kong – 18 years old.

2. 1964 – Karate Championship Award presented at the 1964 International Karate Championships for his “contribution to karate.”

3. May 2, 1964 – Commemorative Exhibition Award presented by Wally Jay and the Island Judo Jujitsu Club of Alameda, California in appreciation for his gung fu exhibition.

4. January 28, 1967 – Appears on the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon to help raise money for victims of the disease.

5. May 1967 – National Karate Championship Appreciation Award presented in appreciation of his participation.

6. 1967 – Appreciation Award presented by Wally Jay and the Island Judo Jujitsu Club of Alameda, California.

7. June 1968 – National Karate Cham pionship Award in appreciation of his participation as a guest judge.

8. May 1969 – National Karate Championship Appreciation Award in appreciation of his participation as a special guest.

9. May 1970 – National Karate Championship Appreciation Award in appreciation of his participation as the guest of honor.

10. October 30, 1970 – Awarded a “Golden Horse Award” for Best Mandarin Movie for the film Fist of Fury.

11. 1972 – Inducted into Black Belt magazine’s Black Belt Hall of Fame.

12. 1972 – Receives an award for being selected by the Hong Kong “Evening” Newspaper as one of the top ten movie stars.

13. June 1972 – Appears with son, Brandon, on Hong Kong TVB Operation Relief telethon to help raise funds to aid victims of a recent typhoon in Hong Kong; makes a personal donation of $10,000 Hong Kong dollars.

14. March 12, 1973 – St. Francis trophy presented by the students of his Hong Kong alma mater for participation in St. Francis Xavier’s College Sports Day.

15. 1974 – Inducted into Black Belt magazine’s Black Belt Hall of Fame for the second time as the Man of the Year / Martial Artist of the Year.

16. April 28, 1993 – Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honors Bruce with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

17. 1994 – Honored with a Lifetime Achiev ement Award at the 13^th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards.

18. November 15, 1995 – Hong Kong post office releases a postage stamp in honor of Bruce Lee.

19. August 4, 1998 – The Honorable Pedro Rossello, Governor of Puerto Rico, and the Government of Puerto Rico bestow a recognition award to the memory of Bruce Lee.

20. August 5-25, 1998 – Honored in Tokyo, Japan with the “Bruce Lee Exhibition: Memory of the Dragon.”

21. November 16, 1998 – Honored by the Chinese Wushu Association with a “Supreme Movie Star Award.”

22. Carlos Mendez Martinez, Mayor of Aguadillo, Puerto Rico, bestows a recognition award to the legacy of Bruce Lee and declares Aguadillo City the home of Bruce Lee in Puerto Rico.

23. U.S. Senator Milton R. Young, President of U.S.T.A. and Jhoon Rhee, Vice President of U.S.T.A., honor Bruce for his international contribution to the martial arts.

24. June 14, 1999 - Profiled in Time magazine’s Time 100: The Most Important People of the 20^th Century under Heroes and Icons of the 20^th Century

25. 1999 - Listed in The Movie Book as one of five hundred people who have made a landmark contribution to the medium of film.

26. 1999 – Inducted into the “Martialinfo.com Martial Arts Hall of Fame.”

27. October 21, 2000 – Declared “Bruce Lee Day in San Francisco” by Mayor Willie L. Brown in honor and recognition of the “Little Dragon” in the year of the Golden Dragon.

28. November 20 – December 17, 2000 – Hong Kong Film Archive honors B ruce with an exhibition, “Bruce Lee Retrospective”, and a festival of 20 Bruce Lee films “The Immortal Bruce Lee: From the Kid to Kung Fu Dragon.”

29. October 22, 2000 – February 18, 2001 – Honored in San Francisco with the exhibition, “Bruce Lee: A Retrospective” at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

30. May 2001 – Named by Premiere Magazine as the 3^rd most influential deceased show business talent (Walt Disney was named as #1 and Stanly Kubrick was named as #2).

31. 2003 - Bruce Lee named by People Magazine / VH1 Special Collector’s Edition Magazine as one of 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons.

32. December 7, 2003 – Latin American Martial Arts Society Worldwide inducts Sijo Bruce Lee into the Hall of Fame as a Martial Arts Legend.

33. May 24, 2004 – Receives the EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy) Legacy Award in London for his humanitarian achievement through the spiritual philosophy of martial arts which challenged racism and added substance to our lives; other recipients include Ghandi and Martin Luther King.

34. March 6, 2004 – Receives Citation for Outstanding Achievement and Contribution for his contributions to the martial arts at the Arnold Martial Arts World Games at the Battle of Columbus in Ohio; Governor Schwarzenegger bestows the award.

35. 2004 – Receives a star on the Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars .

36. March 27, 2005 – Receives the Star of the Century Award from the Hong Kong Film Awards.

37. September 25, 2005 – Receives a Lifetime Achievement Award during the International Forum on Chinese Martial Arts Cultural Industry in Datong, China bestowed by the National General Administration of Sports and the All China Youth Federation for his special contribution to Chinese Gung Fu movies and to the world.

38. November 17, 2005 – Named as one of Variety Magazine’s Icons of the Century.

39. November 19-20, 2005 – UCLA Film and Television Archive screen Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon as part of their “Heroic Grace: the Chinese M artial Arts Film Part II” at the James Bridge Theater at UCLA.

40. November 26, 2005 – A life size statue of Bruce Lee is unveiled in Mostar, Bosnia as a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions. Bruce Lee is chosen by organizers as he is admired for his own ethnic struggles and accomplishments.

    

41. November 27, 2005 – A statue of Bruce Lee is unveiled on the Ho ng Kong Avenue of the Stars during a week long Bruce Lee Festival which featured film screenings and tours of his homes, schools and work places. The statue reads “Star of the Century.”

42. November 17 – December 16, 2005 – The UCLA Film and Television Archive Research and Study Center presents an individual viewing exhibit featuring a selection of television titles from the Archive’s Study Collection featuring Bruce Lee. The selection includes titles not available on home video and is open to the public.

43. June 24, 2007 – Spike TV airs Enter the Dragon with bonus interviews and declares it Bruce Lee Day on Spike TV.

44. June 10, 2008 – The Lee Family debuts and launches Bruce Lee Enterprises at the New York Licensing Expo.

45. July 18, 2008 – The Bruce Lee Foundation unveils its plans to build a Bruce Lee Museum in Seattle, Washington and fundraising activities begin.

46. October 2008 – CCTV1 in China premiers a 50 episode biographical, live action series on the legacy of Bruce Lee entitled “The Legend of Bruce Lee”.

47. October 2008 – Discussions begin with the Hong Kong Government to convert Bruce Lee’s former home in Hong Kong into a museum run by the Bruce Lee Foundation.

48. November 9, 2008 – A 2600 acre nature preserve is dedicated to Bruce Lee as a memorial park in the Lee family ancestral home of Shunde, China complete with a Bruce Lee Museum, Martial Arts School, and the tallest Bruce Lee statue in existence at 18 meters high.

49. April 20, 2009 – Waddell Media and LeeWay Media will premier the documentary How Bruce Lee Changed the World on History Channel US.

50. Honored with postage stamps in Republic Batumi, Tanzania, Gambia, Antigua –Barbuda, Madagascar, Chuvashia, Khakassia, and Hong Kong.

51. Appeared in 34 films and television shows (see bruceleefoundation.org for Filmography under menu heading “Bruce Lee”).

52. Books by Bruce Lee:
    1. Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense
    2. Tao of Jeet Kune Do
    3. Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method Vols. I-IV
    4. The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
    5. Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee’s Commentaries on the Martial Way
    6. The Art of Expressing the Human Body
    7. Letters of the Dragon: Correspondence 1958-1973
    8. Artist of Life
    9. Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living
    10. Words of the Dragon: Interviews, 1958-1973

Fight history of bruce lee

Fight history

Martial artist Bruce Lee was involved in competitive fights. Some by date, some without. Dan Inosanto stated, "There's no doubt in my mind that if Bruce Lee had gone into pro boxing, he could easily have ranked in the top three in the lightweight division or junior-welterweight division.

Lee defeated three time champion British boxer Gary Elms by way of knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong Inter-School amateur Boxing Championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches. Hawkings Cheung, his fellow Wing Chun street fighter, witnessed the event. Lee knocked-out Pu Chung, a Choy Li Fut fighter, in the roof tops of Hong Kong in a 1958 Full-Contact match. The match was refereed by Sheun-Leung Wong.

The following year, Lee became a member of the "Tigers of Junction Street," and was involved in numerous gang-related street fights. "In one of his last encounters, while removing his jacket the fellow he was squaring off against sucker punched him and blackened his eye. Bruce flew into a rage and went after him, knocking him out, breaking his opponent's arm. The police were called as a result." The incident took place on a Hong Kong rooftop at 10 P.M. on Wednesday, April 29, 1959.

In 1960 in Seattle, Lee back-fisted and broke a man's nose after Lee saw him harassing a Chinese girl while Lee was taking a walk. This fight was witnessed by James DeMile in 1960.

In 1962 Lee knocked out Uechi,a Japanese black belt, in 11 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle. It was refereed by Jesse Glover. The incident took place in Seattle at a YMCA handball court. Taki Kamura says the battle lasted 10 seconds in contrary to Harts statement. Ed Hart states "The karate man arrived in his gi (uniform), complete with black belt, while Bruce showed up in his street clothes and simply took off his shoes. The fight lasted exactly 11 seconds--I know because I was the time keeper—and Bruce had hit the guy something like 15 times and kicked him once. I thought he'd killed him." The fight ended by Bruce knocking Uechi the length of the gymnasium

In Oakland, California in 1964 at China Town the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to Bruce's dojo to stop teaching non-Chinese. Refusing to be told what to do or to discriminate who is allowed to learn, Lee had been challenged to a combat match with their top fighter Wong Jack Man ^[46]. The formidable Wong Jack Man had mastery of Xingyiquan, Northern Shaolin, and Tai Chi Chuan while being a direct student of Grand Master Ma Kin Fung. The arrangement was that if Bruce lost he would have to shut down his school, if he won then Bruce would be free to teach Caucasians or anyone else. Wong stated that he requested to fight Lee after Lee issued an open challenge during one of Lee's demonstrations at a Chinatown theater. However, contrary to this claimed motive is the signed formal letter manifested by Dan Chan with signatures by the martial art community, including Chan and Wong, as a petitioned document by the community does not correspond to the motive of responding to an open challenge. "That paper had all the names of the sifu from Chinatown, but they don't scare me." — Bruce Lee

Wong and witness William Chen stated that the fight lasted an unusually long 20-25 minutes. Individuals known to have witnessed the match included Cadwell, James Lee (Bruce Lee's associate, no relation) and William Chen, a teacher of Tai Chi Chuan. According to Bruce, Linda, and James Lee, the fight lasted 3 minutes with a decisive victory for Bruce. "The fight ensued, it was a no holds barred fight, it took three minutes. Bruce got this guy down to the ground and said 'do you give up?' and the man said he gave up." — Linda Lee Cadwell

Reportedly, Wong Jack Man published his own account of the battle in the Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco, which contained another challenge to Lee for a public rematch Lee had no reciprocation to Wong's article nor were there any further public announcements by either, but Lee had continued to teach Caucasians.

Lee's eventual celebrity put him in the path of a number of men who sought to make a name for themselves by causing a confrontation with Lee. A challenger had invaded Lee's private home in Hong Kong by trespassing into the backyard to incite Lee in combat. Lee finished the challenger violently with a kick, infuriated over the home invasion. Describing the incident, Herb Jackson states,

"One time one fellow got over that wall, got into his yard and challenged him and he says 'how good are you?' And Bruce was poppin mad. He [Bruce] says 'he gets the idea, this guy, to come and invade my home, my own private home, invade it and challenge me.' He said he got so mad that he gave the hardest kick he ever gave anyone in his life."

Bob Wall, USPK karate champion and co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalled one encounter that transpired after a film extra kept taunting Lee. The extra yelled that Lee was "a movie star, not a martial artist," that he "wasn't much of a fighter." Lee answered his taunts by asking him to jump down from the wall he was sitting on. Wall described Lee's opponent as "a gang-banger type of guy from Hong Kong," a "damned good martial artist," and observed that he was fast, strong, and bigger than Bruce.

"This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart.Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass with the wall and swept him up, proceeding to drop him and plant his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly." — Bob Wall

Early life of bruce lee

Bruce Lee was born on 27 November 1940 at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown. His father Lee Hoi-Chuen was Chinese, and his mother Grace Ho (何愛瑜) was of Chinese and partly German ancestry. He was the fourth child of five children: Agnus, Phoebe, Peter, and Robert. Lee and his parents returned to Hong Kong when he was three months old.

Names

Bruce Lee's Cantonese given name was Lee Jun Fan The English name "Bruce" was thought to be given by the hospital attending physician, Dr. Mary Glover.

Bruce Lee had three other Chinese names: Lee Yuan-Xin 李源鑫 a family/clan name, Li Yuan Jian 李元鑒 as a student name while attending La Salle College, and of course his Chinese stage name Li Xiao Long 李小龍 (Xiao Long - meaning small dragon). The Jun Fan name was originally written in Chinese as 震藩, however this Jun (震) was identical to part of his grandfather's name 李震彪, which is considered taboo in Chinese tradition. Theref

ore, Bruce Lee's name was changed to homonym/synonym 振.

Family

Bruce's father, Lee Hoi Chuen was one of the leading Cantonese opera and film actors at the time, and was embarking on a year-long Cantonese opera tour with his family on the eve of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during the Second World War. Lee Hoi Chuen had been touring the United States for many years performing at numerous Chinese communities.

Although a number of his peers decided to stay in the US, Lee Hoi Chuen decided to go back to Hong Kong after his wife gave birth to Bruce. Within months, Hong Kong was invaded and the Lees lived the ensuing 3 years and 8 months under Japanese occupation. The Lee family survived the war and had actually done reasonably well. After the war ended, Lee Hoi Chuen would resume his acting career and become an even bigger star during Hong Kong's rebuilding years.

Bruce Lee's mother Grace belonged to one of wealthiest and most powerful clans in Hong Kong, the Ho Tungs. She was the niece of Sir Robert Ho Tung, patriarch of the clan. As such, the young Bruce Lee grew up in an affluent and privileged environment. Despite this advantage of his family's status and because of the mass number of people fleeing communist China to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong neighborhood he grew up in became over-crowded, dangerous, and full of gang rivalries.

"Post war Hong Kong was a tough place to grow up. Gangs ruled the city streets and Lee was often forced to fight them. But Bruce liked a challenge and faced his adversaries head on. To his parents dismay Bruce's street fighting continued and the violent nature of his confrontations was escalating."

After being involved in several street fights, his parents decided that Bruce Lee needed to be trained in the martial arts. Lee's first introduction to martial arts was through his father, Lee Hoi Cheun. He learned the fundamentals of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan from his father.^[11]

Wing Chun

The largest influence on Bruce Lee's martial development was

his study of the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. Bruce Lee began training in Wing Chun at age 13 under the famous Wing Chun master Yip Man in the summer of 1954. Master Yip Man was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong's Tai Chi Chuan teacher Wu Ta-ch'i. Yip's regular classes generally consisted of the forms practice, chi sao (trapping hands) drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring.There was no set pattern to the classes. Yip tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions.

After a year into his Wing Chun training, some of Yip Man's other students refused to train with Lee due to his ancestry (his mother was of partly German ancestry) as the Chinese generally were against teaching their martial arts techniques to non-Asians.^[14][dea

^{d link]} Lee's sparring partner, Toe Dai Hawkins Cheung states, "Probably fewer than six people in the whole wing chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Yip Man." However Bruce showed a keen interest in the art, and continue to train privately with William Cheung and Wong Shun Leung in 1955.

Leaving Hong Kong

After attending Tak Sun School (德信學校) (a couple of blocks from his home at 218 Nathan Road, Kowloon) Lee entered the primary school division of La Salle College in 1950 or 1952 (at the age of 12). In around 1956, due to poor academic performance (or possibly poor conduct as well), he was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College (high school) where he would be mentored by Brother Edward, a Catholic monk (originally from Germany spending his entire adult life in China and then Hong Kong), teacher, and coach of the school boxing team.

In the spring of 1959, Lee got into yet another street fight and the police were called.Reaching all the way to his late teens Lee's street fights frequented more and included beating up the son of a feared triad family. Finally Lee's father decided for him to leave Hong Kong to pursue a safer and healthier avenue in the U.S. His parents confirmed the police's fea

r that this time Bruce Lee's opponent had organized crime background, and there was the possibility that a contract was out for his life.

"The police detective came and he says 'Excuse me Mr. Lee, your son is really fighting bad in school. If he gets into just one more fight I might have to put him in jail'."--Robert Lee

In April 1959 they decided to send him to the United States to meet up with his older sister Agnes Lee (李秋鳳) who was already living with family friends in San Francisco.

New life in America

At the age of 18, Lee returned to the U.S. with $100 in his pocket and the titles of 1957 High School Boxing Champion and 1958 Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. After living in San Francisco for several months, he moved to Seattle in the fall of 1959, to continue his high school education and worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant.

Ruby's husband was a co-worker and friend of his father. His older brother Peter Lee (李忠琛) would also join Bruce Lee in Seattle for a short stay before moving on to Min

nesota to attend college. In December 1960, Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School (now Seattle Central Community College, located on Capitol Hill, Seattle).

In March 1961, he enrolled at the University of Washington majoring in drama according to UW's alumni association information, not in philosophy as claimed by Lee himself and many others. He most likely also studied philosophy, psychology, and various other subjects. It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife Linda Emery, whom he would marry in August 1964.

Bruce Lee had two children with Linda, Brandon Lee (1965–1993) and Shannon Lee (1969–).

biography of bruce lee in brief

Bruce Lee (Lee Hsiao Lung), was born in San Fransisco in November 1940 the son of a famous Chinese opera singer. Bruce moved to Hong Kong when he soon became a child star in the growing Eastern film industry. His first film was called The birth of Mankind, his last film which was uncompleted at the time of his death in 1973 was called Game of Death. Bruce was a loner and was constantly getting himself into fights, with this in mind he looked towards Kung Fu as a way of disciplining himself. The famous Yip Men taught Bruce his basic skills, but it was not long before he was mastering the master. Yip Men was acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities on the subject of Wing Chun a branch of the Chinese Martial Arts. Bruce mastered this before progressing to his own style of Jeet Kune Do.

At the age of 19 Bruce left Hong Kong to study for a degree in philosophy at the University of Washington in America. It was at this time that he took on a waiter's job and also began to teach some of his skills to students who would pay. Some of the Japanese schools in the Seattle area tried to force Bruce out, and there was many confrontations and duels fought for Bruce to remain.

He met his wife Linda at the University he was studying. His Martial Arts school flourished and he soon graduated. He gained some small roles in Hollywood films - Marlowe- etc, and some major stars were begging to be students of the Little Dragon. James Coburn, Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin to name but a few. He regularly gave displays at exhibitions, and it was during one of these exhibitions that he was spotted by a producer and signed up to do The Green Hornet series. The series was quite successful in the States - but was a huge hit in Hong Kong. Bruce visited Hong Kong in 1968 and he was overwhelmed by the attention he received from the people he had left.

He once said on a radio program if the price was right he would do a movie for the Chinese audiences. He returned to the States and completed some episodes of Longstreet. He began writing his book on Jeet Kune Do at roughly the same time.

Back in Hong Kong producers were desperate to sign Bruce for a Martial Arts film, and it was Raymond Chow the head of Golden Harvest who produced The Big Boss. The rest as they say a history.

about bruce lee

Bruce Lee
Chinese name	李小龍 (Traditional)
Chinese name	李小龙 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Lǐ Xiǎolóng (Mandarin)
Jyutping	lei5 siu2 lung4 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Lee Jun Fan 李振藩 (Traditional) 李振藩 (Simplified) Lǐ Zhènfān (Mandarin) lei5 zan3 faan4 (Cantonese)
Ancestry	Shunde, Guangdong, China
Origin	Hong Kong
Born	27 November 1940(1940-11-27) San Francisco, California, USA
Died	20 July 1973 (aged 32) Hong Kong
Resting place	Seattle, Washington, USA Lakeview Cemetery
Years active	1941–1973
Spouse(s)	Linda Emery (born 1945) (1964-1973)
Children	Brandon Lee (1965–1993) Shannon Lee (born 1969)
Parents	Lee Hoi-chuen (1901-1965) Grace Ho
Official Website	Bruce Lee Foundation The Official Website of Bruce