jeet kune do in Nepal

The great filmstar Sijo Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee Bio

Bruce Jun Fan Lee was born in the hour of the

Dragon, between 6 and 8 a.m., in the year of the

Dragon on November 27, 1940 at the Jackson

Street Hospital in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Today, a plaque in the hospital’s entry commemorates the place of

his birth. Bruce’s birth, in the hour and the year of the Dragon, is a

powerful symbol in Chinese astrology. It would be a strong omen of

the powerful life that was to be lived by Bruce Lee and the explosive

impact his life would have on countless others.

Bruce was the fourth child born to Lee Hoi Chuen and his wife

Grace Ho. He had two older sisters, Phoebe and Agnes, an older

brother, Peter, and a younger brother, Robert. Lee Hoi Chuen was,

by profession, a comedian in the Chinese opera and an actor in

Cantonese fi lms. At the time Bruce was born, Mr. and Mrs. Lee were

on tour with the opera company in the United States. Th us, it was

fortuitous for Bruce’s future that his birth took place in America, as

he would return 18 years later to claim his birthright of American

citizenship.

Bruce’s parents gave him the name “Jun Fan.” Since it is Chinese

custom to put the surname fi rst, Bruce’s full name is written Lee Jun

Fan. Th e true meaning of Jun Fan deserves an explanation as it, too,

would foretell the journey of the newly born Lee son. Literally, JUN

means “to arouse to the active state” or “to make prosperous.” It was

a common middle name used by Hong Kong Chinese boys in those

days, understandably because China and the Chinese people were

very vulnerable at that time, and everyone, including Bruce’s parents,

wanted the “sleeping lion of the East” to wake up. Th e FAN syllable

refers to the Chinese name for San Francisco, but its true meaning

is “fence of a garden” or “bordering subordinate countries of a big

country.” During the period of the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911), many

Chinese immigrated to Hawaii and San Francisco as laborers, and

the implication became that the United States was FAN of the Great

Ching Empire.

Th us the true meaning of Bruce’s name--JUN FAN--was “to arouse

and make FAN (the United States) prosperous.” Th e gut feeling of

many Chinese at that time, who felt suppressed by and inferior to

foreign powers, was that they wished to outshine the more superior

countries and regain the Golden Age of China. Bruce’s parents

wanted Bruce to have his name shine and shake the foreign countries,

which he certainly succeeded in doing. Th e English name, BRUCE,

was given to the baby boy by a nurse in the Jackson Street Hospital

although he was never to use this name until he entered secondary

school and began his study of the English language. Th e story goes

that on the fi rst day of English class, the students were asked to write

down their English names, and Bruce, not knowing his name, copied

the name of the student next to him. His family almost never used the

name Bruce, especially in his growing up years when his nickname in

the family was “SAI FON,” which literally means Little Peacock. Th is

is a girl’s nickname, but in being applied to Bruce, it had a serious

purpose. Th e fi rst-born child of Mr. and Mrs. Lee had been a boy

who did not survive infancy. Th eir belief was that if the gods did not

favor the birth of a male child, the babe might be taken away. Th us,

the name, Little Peacock, was used as a ruse to fool the gods into

thinking that Bruce was a girl. It was a term of great aff ection within

the family circle.

At the age of three months, Lee Hoi Chuen, his wife Grace and baby

Bruce returned to Hong Kong where Bruce would be raised until

the age of 18. Probably because of the long ocean voyage and the

change in climates, Bruce was not a strong child in his very early

years, a condition that would change when he took up the study of

gung fu at the age of 13. (Bruce always spelled his Chinese martial

art as GUNG FU, which is the Cantonese pronunciation of the more

commonly spelled Kung Fu, a Mandarin pronunciation.) Bruce’s

most prominent memory of his early years was the occupation of

Hong Kong by the Japanese during the World War II years (1941-

1945). Th e residence of the Lee family was a fl at at 218 Nathan Road

in Kowloon directly across the street from the military encampment

of the Japanese. Bruce’s mother often told the story of young Bruce,

less than 5 years old, leaning precariously off the balcony of their

home raising his fi st to the Japanese Zeros circling above. Another

nickname the family often applied to Bruce was “Mo Si Ting” which

means “never sits still” and aptly described his personality.

Th e Japanese occupation was Bruce’s fi rst prescient memory, but

Hong Kong had been a British Crown Colony since the late 1800’s.

Th e English returned to power at the end of the war. It is not hard

to see why young Bruce would have rebellious feelings toward

foreign usurpation of his homeland. In his teenage years Bruce was

exposed to the common practice of unfriendly taunting by English

school boys who appeared to feel superior to the Chinese. It is not

surprising that Bruce and his friends retaliated by returning the

taunts and sometimes getting into fi ghts with the English boys. Th is

atmosphere laid the background for Bruce to begin his study of

martial arts.

At the age of 13, Bruce was introduced to Master Yip Man, a teacher

of the Wing Chun style of gung fu. For fi ve years Bruce studied

diligently and became very profi cient. He greatly revered Yip Man

as a master teacher and wise man and frequently visited with him in

later years. When he fi rst took up gung fu, he used his new skills to

pummel his adversaries, but it did not take long for Bruce to learn

that the real value of martial arts training is that the skills of physical

combat instill confi dence to the point that one does not feel the

constant need to defend one’s honor through fi ghting.

In high school, Bruce, now no longer a weak child was beginning to

hone his body through hard training. One of his accomplishments

was winning an interschool Boxing Championship against an English

student in which the Marquis of Queensbury rules were followed

and no kicking was allowed. Given the graceful movements, which

would later be spectacularly displayed in his fi lms, it is no surprise

that Bruce was also a terrifi c dancer, and in 1958 he won the Hong

Kong Cha Cha Championship. He studied dancing as assiduously

as he did gung fu, keeping a notebook in which he had noted 108

diff erent cha cha steps. It is easy to see that Bruce possessed the traits

of self-discipline and hard work which would later hold him in good

stead, even though at this stage he was not among the best academic

students in the class.

In addition to his studies, gung fu and dancing, Bruce had another

side interest during his school years. He was a child actor under

the tutelage of his father who must have known from an early age

that Bruce had a streak of showmanship. Bruce’s very fi rst role was

as a babe in arms as he was carried onto the stage. By the time he

was 18, he had appeared in 20 fi lms. In those days movie making

was not particularly glamorous or remunerative in Hong Kong, but

Bruce loved acting. His mother often told stories of how Bruce was

impossible to wake up to go to school, but just a tap on the shoulder

at midnight would rouse him from his bed to go to the fi lm studio.

Movies were most often made at night in Hong Kong in order to

minimize the sounds of the city. (See Filmography)

At the age of 18, Bruce was looking for new vistas in his life, as were

his parents who were discouraged that Bruce had not made more

progress academically. It was common practice for high school

graduates to go overseas to attend colleges, but that required excellent

grades. Bruce’s brother and sister had come to the United States on

student visas for their higher education. Although Bruce had not

formally graduated from high school, and was more interested in

gung fu, dancing and acting, his family decided that it was time for

him to return to the land of his birth and fi nd his future there. In

April of 1959, with $100 in his pocket, Bruce boarded a steamship in

the American Presidents Line and began his voyage to San Francisco.

His passage was in the lower decks of the ship, but it didn’t take long

for Bruce to be invited up to the fi rst class accommodations to teach

the passengers the cha cha. Landing in San Francisco, Bruce was

armed with the knowledge that his dancing abilities might provide

him a living, so his fi rst job was as a dance instructor. One of his fi rst

students was Bob Lee, brother of James Y. Lee, who would become

Bruce’s great friend, colleague in the martial arts, and eventually

partner and Assistant Instructor of the Oakland Jun Fan Gung Fu

Institute.

Bruce did not stay long in San Francisco, but traveled to Seattle where

a family friend, Ruby Chow, had a restaurant and had promised

Bruce a job and living quarters above the restaurant. By now Bruce

had left his acting and dancing passions behind and was intent on

furthering his education. He enrolled at Edison Technical School

where he fulfi lled the requirements for the equivalent of high school

graduation and then enrolled at the University of Washington. Typical

of his personality traits, he attacked learning colloquial English as he

had his martial arts training. Not content to speak like a foreigner,

he applied himself to learning idiosyncrasies of speech. His library

contained numerous books, underlined and dog-eared on common

English idiomatic phrases. Although he never quite lost the hint of

an English accent when speaking, his ability to turn a phrase or “be

cool” was amazing for one who did not speak a word of the language

until the age of 12. Bruce’s written English skills exceeded his spoken

language abilities at fi rst because he had been well tutored in the

King’s proper English prose in Hong Kong. When his wife-to-be met

him at the University of Washington, he easily edited her English

papers for correct grammar and syntax.

At the university, Bruce majored in philosophy. His passion for gung

fu inspired a desire to delve into the philosophical underpinnings of

the arts. Many of his written essays during those years would relate

philosophical principles to certain martial arts techniques. For

instance, he wrote often about the principles of yin and yang and how

they could translate into hard and soft physical movements. In this

way he was completing his education as a true martial artist in the

time-honored Chinese sense of one whose knowledge encompasses

the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the arts.

In the three years that Bruce studied at the university, he supported

himself by teaching gung fu, having by this time given up working

in the restaurant, stuffi ng newspapers or various other odd jobs. He

and a few of his new friends would meet in parking lots, garages or

any open space and play around with gung fu techniques. In the late

‘50’s and early ‘60’s, “gung fu” was an unknown term; in fact, the only

physical art that might be listed in the yellow pages was Judo. Even

the name “karate” was not a familiar term. Th e small group of friends

was intrigued by this art called gung fu. One of the fi rst students in

this group was Jesse Glover who continues to teach some of Bruce’s

early techniques to this day. It was during this period that Bruce and

Taky Kimura became friends.

Not only would Taky become Bruce’s gung fu student and the fi rst

Assistant Instructor he ever had, but the friendship forged between

the two men was a source of love and strength for both of them. Taky

Kimura has continued to be Bruce’s staunch supporter, devoting

endless hours to preserving his art and philosophy throughout the 30

years since Bruce’s passing.Th e small circle of friends that Bruce had

made encouraged him to open a real school of gung fu and charge a

nominal sum for teaching in order to support himself while attending

school. Renting a small basement room with a half door entry from

8th Street in Seattle’s Chinatown, Bruce decided to call his school the

Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. In 1963, having established a dedicated

group of students and having given numerous demonstrations at the

university, Bruce thought he might attract more students by opening

a larger school at 4750 University Way where he also lived in a small

room in the back of the kwoon.

One of his students in 1963 was a freshman at the University of

Washington, Linda Emery. Linda knew who Bruce was from his

guest lectures in Chinese philosophy at Garfi eld High School, and in

the summer after graduating, at the urging of her Chinese girlfriend,

SueAnn Kay, Linda started taking gung fu lessons. It wasn’t long before

the instructor became more interesting than the lessons. Bruce and

Linda were married in 1964. By this time, Bruce had decided to make

a career out of teaching gung fu. His plan involved opening a number

of schools around the country and training assistant instructors to

teach in his absence. Leaving his Seattle school in the hands of Taky

Kimura, Bruce and Linda moved to Oakland where Bruce opened his

second school with James Lee. Th e two men had formed a friendship

over the years with each traveling frequently between Seattle and

Oakland. James was a gung fu man from way back, but when he saw

Bruce’s stuff he was so impressed that he wanted to join with him in

starting a school. Th us the second branch of the Jun Fan Gung Fu

Institute was founded.

Having now been in the United States for fi ve years, Bruce had

left behind any thought of acting as a career, and devoted himself

completely to his choice of martial arts as a profession. Up to this

time Bruce’s gung fu consisted mostly of wing chun techniques and

theory he had learned from Yip Man. Gradually though, because of

his burgeoning interest in the philosophy of martial arts and his desire

for self improvement, he was expanding his repertoire. A particular

incident accelerated his process of self-exploration. In 1964 Bruce was

challenged by some gung fu men from San Francisco who objected to

his teaching of non-Chinese students. Bruce accepted the challenge

and the men arrived at the kwoon in Oakland on the appointed day

for the face off . Th e terms were that if Bruce were defeated he would

stop teaching the non Chinese. It was a short fi ght with the gung fu

man from Th e City giving up when Bruce had him pinned to the fl oor

after about three minutes. Th e signifi cance of this fi ght was that Bruce

was extremely disappointed in his own performance. Even though he

had won, he was winded and discouraged about his inability to put

the man away in under three minutes. Th is marked a turning point

for Bruce in his exploration of his martial art and the enhancement of

his physical fi tness. Th us began the evolution of Jeet Kune Do.

Just as Bruce was cementing his plans to expand his martial arts

schools, fate stepped in to move his life in another direction. In the

preceding years Bruce had made the acquaintance of Ed Parker,

widely regarded as the father of American Kenpo. In August of

1964, Ed invited Bruce to Long Beach, CA to give a demonstration

at his First International Karate Tournament. Bruce’s exhibition

was spectacular. He used Taky as his partner and demonstrated his

blindfolded chi sao techniques. At one point he used a member of the

audience to show the power of his one-inch punch. Such was Bruce’s

charisma that he spoke conversationally, injecting humor into his

comments while at the same time emphatically demonstrating his

power, precision and speed.

A member of the audience was Jay Sebring, a well-known hair stylist

to the stars. As fate would have it, the following week, Jay was styling

the hair of William Dozier, an established producer. Mr. Dozier

mentioned to Jay that he was looking for an actor to play the part of

Charlie Chan’s son in a series to be entitled, “Number One Son.” Jay

told the producer about having seen this spectacular young Chinese

man giving a gung fu demonstration just a few nights before. Mr.

Dozier obtained a copy of the fi lm that was taken at Ed Parker’s

tournament. Th e next week he called Bruce at home in Oakland and

invited him to come to Los Angeles for a screen test.

Bruce’s screen test was impressive, but in the meantime plans for

“Number One Son” had been scuttled. Mr. Dozier was now immersed

in the production of the “Batman” TV series, but still he wanted to

hang onto Bruce. Th e plan was that if Batman was successful for more

than one season, then Dozier wanted to capitalize on the popularity

of another comic book character, “Th e Green Hornet” with Bruce

playing the part of Kato. To keep Bruce from signing with someone

else, Mr. Dozier paid him an $1,800 option for one year.

About this time things were changing in Bruce’s personal life as well.

His own number one son, Brandon Bruce Lee, was born February 1,

1965. One week later Bruce’s father, Lee Hoi Chuen, died in Hong

Kong. Bruce was pleased that his father had known about the birth

of the fi rst grandchild in the Lee family. Given these events and the

arrival of the lump sum option money, Bruce decided it was time

to make a trip to Hong Kong to visit his mother and introduce the

family to both Linda and Brandon. Th ey stayed in the family fl at on

Nathan Road for four months. While there Bruce was able to “play

gung fu” with Master Yip Man and the students of the wing chun

school.

Upon leaving Hong Kong, Bruce and his family traveled to Seattle

where they stayed with Linda’s family for another four months.

During this time Bruce spent a great deal of time with Taky and the

students at the Seattle school. After Seattle, the family moved back

to James Lee’s house in Oakland for several months before making

the move to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he got better acquainted

with Dan Inosanto whom he had known through Ed Parker. It was

not long before Bruce opened his third gung fu school with Dan as

his assistant instructor

During this entire year of traveling and working closely with his best

gung fu colleagues, Bruce was going through a period of intense self

exploration. Bruce was always a goal setter. However, he was never

obstinate about his goals and if the wind changed, he could steer his

life on a diff erent course. He was in a period of transition at this time,

deciding whether to make acting his career or continue on the path

of opening nationwide schools of gung fu. His decision was to focus

on acting and see if he could turn it into a productive career. He often

said his passion was pursuit of the martial arts, but his career choice

was fi lmmaking.

Th e chief reason that Bruce turned his attention to acting was that

he had lost interest in spreading his way of martial arts in a wide

scale manner. He had begun to see that if his schools became more

numerous, he would lose control of the quality of the teaching. Bruce

loved to teach gung fu, and he loved his students. Countless hours

were spent in his backyard or in the kwoon, one on one with students.

Th ey were like members of the family. His love for his martial arts

was not something he wanted to turn into a business.

In 1966, production started on “Th e Green Hornet.” Th e fi lming

lasted for six months, the series for one season, and that was the end

of it. Bruce’s take home pay was $313 a week, which seemed like a lot

of money at the time. When they fi rst started fi lming, the cameras

were not able to record the fi ght scenes clearly because of Bruce’s

speed. Th ey asked him to slow down to capture the action. Bruce’s

gung fu moves thrilled audiences, and the series became a soughtafter

collector item in later years. Bruce maintained a friendship with

Van Williams who played the part of Britt Reid.

Th e years between 1967 and 1971 were lean years for the Lee family.

Bruce worked hard at furthering his acting career and did get some

roles in a few TV series and fi lms. (See Filmography) To support the

family, Bruce taught private lessons in Jeet Kune Do, often to people

in the entertainment industry. Some of his clients included Steve

McQueen, James Coburn, Stirling Silliphant, Sy Weintraub, Ted

Ashley, Joe Hyams, James Garner and others.

A great blessing was the arrival of a daughter, Shannon Emery Lee,

on April 19, 1969. She brought great joy into the Lee household and

soon had her daddy around her little fi nger.

During this time Bruce continued the process he had started in

Oakland in 1964, the evolution of his way of martial arts, which he

called Jeet Kune Do, “Th e Way of Th e Intercepting Fist.” He read

and wrote extensively his thoughts about physical combat, the

psychology of fi ghting, the philosophical roots of martial arts, and

about motivation, self-actualization and liberation of the individual.

Th anks to this period in his life, which was at times frustrating, we

know more about the mind of Bruce Lee through his writings.

Bruce was devoted to physical culture and trained devotedly.

In addition to actual sparring with his students, he believed in

strenuous aerobic workouts and weight training. His abdominal and

forearm workouts were particularly intense. Th ere was rarely a time

when Bruce was doing nothing—in fact, he was often seen reading

a book, doing forearm curls and watching a boxing fi lm at the same

time. He also paid strict attention to his food consumption and took

vitamins and Chinese herbs at times. It was actually his zealousness

that led to an injury that was to become a chronic source of pain for

the rest of his life. On a day in 1970, without warming up, something

he always did, Bruce picked up a 125-pound barbell and did a “good

morning” exercise. Th at consists of resting the barbell on one’s

shoulders and bending straight over at the waist. After much pain

and many tests, it was determined that he had sustained an injury

to the fourth sacral nerve. He was ordered to complete bed rest and

told that undoubtedly he would never do gung fu again. For the next

six months, Bruce stayed in bed. It was an extremely frustrating,

depressing and painful time, and a time to redefi ne goals. It was also

during this time that he did a great deal of the writing that has been

preserved. After several months, Bruce instituted his own recovery

program and began walking, gingerly at fi rst, and gradually built up

his strength. He was determined that he would do his beloved gung

fu again. As can be seen by his later fi lms, he did recover full use of

his body, but he constantly had to take measures like icing, massage

and rest to take care of his back.

Bruce was always imagining story ideas. One of the projects he

had been working on was the idea of a television series set in the

Old West, featuring an Eastern monk who roamed the countryside

solving problems. He pitched the idea at Warner Bros. and it was

enthusiastically received. Th e producers talked at great length to

Bruce about the proposed series always with the intent that Bruce

would play the role of the Eastern wise man. In the end, the role was

not off ered to Bruce; instead it went to David Carradine. Th e series

was “Kung Fu.” Th e studio claimed that a Chinese man was not a

bankable star at that time. Hugely disappointed, Bruce sought other

ways to break down the studio doors.

Along with two of his students, Stirling Silliphant, the famed writer,

and actor, James Coburn, Bruce collaborated on a script for which

he wrote the original story line. Th e three of them met weekly to

refi ne the script. It was to be called “Th e Silent Flute.” Again, Warner

Bros. was interested and sent the three to India to look for locations.

Unfortunately the right locations could not be found, the studio

backed off , and the project was put on the back burner. Th warted

again in his eff ort to make a go of his acting career, Bruce devised a

new approach to his goal.

In 1970, when Bruce was getting his strength back from his back

injury, he took a trip to Hong Kong with son Brandon, age fi ve. He

was surprised when he was greeted as “Kato,” the local boy who had

been on American TV. He was asked to appear on TV talk shows.

He was not aware that Hong Kong fi lm producers were viewing him

with interest. In 1971, about the time that “Th e Silent Flute” failed

to materialize, Hong Kong producer Raymond Chow contacted

Bruce to interest him in doing two fi lms for Golden Harvest. Bruce

decided to do it, reasoning that if he couldn’t enter the front door of

the American studios, he would go to Hong Kong, establish himself

there and come back in through the side door.

In the summer of 1971, Bruce left Los Angeles to fl y to Hong Kong,

then on to Th ailand for the making of “Th e Big Boss,” later called

“Fists of Fury.” Between Hong Kong and Th ailand, producer Run

Run Shaw attempted to intercede and woo Bruce away from Golden

Harvest. But Bruce had signed a deal so he stayed with Raymond

Chow. Bruce’s family did not accompany him on this trip because the

village where the fi lm was made was not suitable for small children.

It was also felt that if this fi lm was not a hit, Bruce might be back in

L.A. sooner than expected. Although the working conditions were

diffi cult, and the production quality substandard to what Bruce was

accustomed, “Th e Big Boss” was a huge success. Th e premier took

place at midnight, as was Hong Kong custom. Chinese audiences are

infamous for expressing their emotions during fi lms—both positive

and negative. Th e entire cast and production team were very nervous,

no one more so than Bruce. At the end of the showing, the entire

audience was silent for a moment, then erupted in cheers and hailed

their new hero who was viewing from the back of the theater.

In September of 1971, with fi lming set to commence on the second

of the contractual fi lms, Bruce moved his family over to Hong

Kong and prepared to sell their Los Angeles home. “Fist of Fury,”

also called “Chinese Connection” was an even bigger success than

the fi rst fi lm breaking all-time box offi ce records. Now that Bruce

had completed his contract with Golden Harvest, and had become

a bankable commodity, he could begin to have more input into the

quality of his fi lms. For the third fi lm, he formed a partnership with

Raymond Chow, called Concord Productions. Not only did Bruce

write “Th e Way of the Dragon,” also called “Return of the Dragon,”

but he directed and produced it as well. Once again, the fi lm broke

records and now, Hollywood was listening.

In the fall of 1972, Bruce began fi lming “Th e Game of Death,” a

story he once again envisioned. Th e fi lming was interrupted by

the culmination of a deal with Warner Bros. to make the fi rst ever

Hong Kong-American coproduction. Th e deal was facilitated mainly

by Bruce’s personal relationship with Warner Bros. president, Ted

Ashley and by Bruce’s successes in Hong Kong. It was an exciting

moment and a turning point in Hong Kong’s fi lm industry. “Th e

Game of Death” was put on hold to make way for the fi lming of

“Enter the Dragon.”

Filming “Enter the Dragon” was not an easy undertaking. Th e

American cast and crew and their Chinese counterparts experienced

language problems and production diffi culties. It was a stressful time

for Bruce too as he wanted the fi lm to be especially good and well

accepted by Western audiences.

“Enter the Dragon” was due to premier at Hollywood’s Chinese

theater in August of 1973. Unfortunately, Bruce would not live to see

the opening of his fi lm, nor would he experience the accumulated

success of more than thirty years of all his fi lms’ popularity.

On July 20, 1973, Bruce had a minor headache. He was off ered a

prescription painkiller called Equagesic. After taking the pill, he went

to lie down and lapsed into a coma. He was unable to be revived.

Extensive forensic pathology was done to determine the cause of his

death, which was not immediately apparent. A nine-day coroner’s

inquest was held with testimony given by renowned pathologists

fl own in from around the world. Th e determination was that Bruce

had a hypersensitive reaction to an ingredient in the pain medication

that caused a swelling of the fl uid on the brain, resulting in a coma

and death.

Th e world lost a brilliant star and an evolved human being that day.

His spirit remains an inspiration to untold numbers of people around

the world.

lSource: website

jeet kune do in Nepal

Friday, September 6, 2013

NEW ELECTED CENTRAL MEMBER OF NJKDMAA on 17th bhadra 2070

Sunday, December 16, 2012

News

Friday, November 9, 2012

Photoes

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Ted Wong Jeet Kune Do

The Founder of Jeet Kune Do

Monday, October 8, 2012

The roots of JKD

Saturday, October 6, 2012

photoes Gyallery