An early photo of Mr. Parker and James Ibrao

 

50 years after his death, Bruce Lee remains a star, a role model, an enigma

(article by Mark Magnier July 20th, 2023)

The legacy of martial arts legend Bruce Lee has endured at the 50th anniversary of his death in part because there are so many Bruce Lees.

Since his (July 20th) 1973 death under mysterious circumstances at age 32, Hong Kong has embraced Lee as a native son, China as an anti-Japanese nationalist, Asian-Americans as a role model, blacks and Latinos as a fighter of white oppression, the developing world as a foil against colonialism.

“Think about how many people try to own Bruce Lee and how many narratives there are,” said Paul Bowman, cultural studies professor at Cardiff University and lead editor of Martial Arts Studies, an academic journal. “He functions as a kind of fantasy object or muse for people in different contexts.”

At Thursday’s half-century mark, there are conferences, double features, special memorabilia and exhibitions – including the Hong Kong Heritage Museum’s “Bruce Lee: a Timeless Classic” – amid little sign his legacy is fading.

In a 2022 survey by Laaunch, an anti-discrimination non-profit, respondents rated Lee among the three most prominent Asian-Americans of all time, with the others, actors Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu, still alive.

“He’s the only Asian actor to become an international icon, up there with Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe,” said Matthew Polly, author of the 2018 biography Bruce Lee: A Life. “Not many who died have generated so many who pretend to be Bruce Lee, like Elvis impersonators.”

Even when his star has waned, interest has roared back and taken new forms – befitting his “be like water” fighting mantra – initially tracking China’s rise, later in response to anti-Asian attacks in the US and Asians’ increasingly prominent global role.

“Interest in Bruce Lee has skyrocketed since Crazy Rich Asians and the rise of Asian pride,” said Andre Morgan, a former executive with Golden Harvest, which produced Lee’s Enter the Dragon and Game of Death films. “Bruce Lee’s legacy is to all the young, non-white children of the world.”

Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s only living child, who was four when her father died, safeguards his image assiduously, having battled numerous lookalikes, fakes and depictions, some sanctioned, many not. She sees no reason that his legacy won’t endure, even as artificial intelligence threatens to create new, more convincing mock-ups.

“I definitely think there’s another 50 years here,” said Lee, an actress, film producer and chief executive of the Bruce Lee Family Companies. “There’s been a lot of Bruceploitation things happening … It’s a scary and very interesting place to be.”

While Lee’s martial arts talent, on-screen charisma, ambition, choreography and acting skills have fueled his enduring reputation, he also benefited inordinately from timing.

The late 1960's and early 1970's witnessed an explosion in social consciousness, civil and minority rights and interest in Eastern culture as race-based immigration policy ended and newly independent countries emerged.

Those who knew Lee, and the industry of experts created since, say he was not driven by politics, although the image of a person of colour in the early 1970s fighting and defeating whites was in itself a dramatic political statement embraced by long-suffering minority communities.

When his popularity waned in the 1980s, Lee’s films and their many imitators became a staple of daytime TV reruns watched by black and Latino kids, helping inspire hip hop and the hugely influential Wu-Tang Clan after 1992.

Meanwhile, widespread film piracy was imprinting Lee globally as a symbol of anti-colonialism, a fighter who attacked and beat white overlords. And in the aftermath of the brutal Balkan wars, when Croatia sought a unifying theme to ease the ethnic hatred, it settled on Lee.

The outlines of his life echo on San Francisco’s steep Chinatown streets as biographer Charles Russo retraces Lee’s footsteps.

Born in San Francisco in 1940, raised in Hong Kong, obsessed with martial arts, Lee was sent back to northern California in 1959 to sever his ties with local gangs.

Brought up wealthy, he felt humiliation as a restaurant busboy, Russo recounts, pointing out the low-end flat he lived in, Chinese theatre where he performed and fraternal associations he defied.

“He never got on well with the martial arts culture in Chinatown,” said Russo, author of Striking Distance: Bruce Lee and the Dawn of Martial Arts in America, standing in front of Chinese Hospital where Lee was born.

“He was very critical of a lot of the stuff that he saw was just overwrought nonsense.”

Over the next decade, Lee bounced between San Francisco; Seattle, where he started his martial arts school; Hong Kong, where he made three films; and Los Angeles, where he achieved his dream of starring in a Hollywood feature, only to die days before it became a smash hit.

Along the way, he built up his jeet kune do martial arts philosophy; embraced Zen Buddhism and Daoism; engaged in tempestuous fights with rivals; honed his choreography; and brought emotion to the wooden, slapstick world of fight films that ultimately redefined the genre.

Further fueling the legend has been boundless speculation over his early death from brain swelling – one more figure who burned bright and died young in an era of political assassinations and celebrity overdoses. His demise in Hong Kong has been variously attributed to heat exhaustion, an allergic reaction, Spanish fly, a curse, mafia revenge.

“Dying early is so useful for iconic status because you don’t have the messiness of three divorces, four stints in rehab,” said Polly. “That’s what the point of being an icon is, to be used by people for what they need.”

For mainland China and Hong Kong, his legacy has been problematic. On one hand, his scenes defeating whites and Japanese dovetail well with nationalistic themes.

In 2008, CCTV, along with Shannon Lee and Beijing’s propaganda ministry, produced a 50-part Legend of Bruce Lee series showcasing Chinese culture and unity before the Olympics.

But reported illegal drug use, extramarital affairs and a headlong quest for wealth have made Lee a challenging Chinese role model.

Also incongruous has been his defiance of Confucian hierarchy and smorgasbord approach to martial arts, seen as more typical of American pragmatism than traditional Chinese culture.

A statue erected in 2005 on Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront was initiated by fans, not officials; his Kowloon home reportedly became a rooms-by-the-hour hotel before it was demolished; and a permanent Lee museum never got off the ground.

The ambiguity only increased after pro-democracy students embraced Lee’s “be water, my friend” approach during 2019 protests.

The legend’s global expansion has resulted in legions of copycats, pirates, wannabes and cheesy souvenirs.

There are Lee bobble heads and aftershave, “genuine autographs” on rent checks and credit card receipts, auctions for his scuffed white platform shoes – hardly fashion’s finest moment – and a 1969 manifesto he wrote outlining his goals: become the highest paid US “Oriental superstar”, achieve world fame and make US$10 million by 1980.

“Everyone is seeing Bruce as a symbol of universality,” said Jeff Chang, an author and cultural critic working on a Lee biography. “You’re really trying to sell the nail clipper and so you put an image on it that people recognize.”

Lee’s legacy has made the family millions after his daughter fought to regain control of his intellectual property, film rights and domain names. Since then, Bruce Lee Enterprises has marketed its own memorabilia and challenged views it believes tarnish his image.

Some say the legend and adoration risk going too far.

“This deification that the family is trying to project, he’s not a god,” said Morgan, adding that he carried Shannon Lee in his arms when her father died.

“I have no axe to grind, but I’ve never met a god and never met a living god. I’ve worked with a lot of actors who hoped they were a living god.”

Projects the family have authorized include a 2008 commercial for Nokia showing a Lee double playing ping-pong with nunchucks, and a 2013 “Water, it’s like instincts. Shapeless, formless, fluid” Johnnie Walker whisky advertisement with a Lee lookalike conversing in Mandarin, which he did not speak well.

Shannon Lee is suing a fried chicken chain in China for US$30 million over a marketing image it says looks like Lee, and has criticised director Quentin Tarantino after he depicted her father as a pompous loser in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

“I’m tired of hearing from white men in Hollywood that he was arrogant,” she wrote in a 2021 rebuttal.

Among her recent projects are an executive producer role on the martial arts series Warrior, which is based on “Bruce Lee’s vision”, and a planned Lee biopic with Taiwanese director Ang Lee that she hopes will launch once the Hollywood writers and actors strike ends.

“My voice is just one among many, and Ang Lee is an auteur filmmaker and has his own perspective on things,” she said.

Over the years, Lee has inspired a raft of books, conferences, scholarly papers and exhibits.

Memorabilia collector Jeff Chinn walks tourists and fans through San Francisco’s Chinese Historical Society of America, recounting the new-found respect he and other Asian-American schoolkids received when Enter the Dragon opened, even as Lee fought barriers, seen in an early 1970s movie poster.

“You’ll see that the artist gave Bruce Lee extra slanty eyes and those stereotypical eyebrows,” Chinn said. “It’s stuff that he had to face in order to succeed in Hollywood.”

Much of the aura surrounding Lee has been frozen in time, his notebooks the musings of a seeker as a hippie-tinged society sought spiritualism from an Asia viewed as exotic, mysterious, enlightened.

“It was pop philosophy,” said Chang. “To reduce the idea of dissolving the ego to the notion of the most efficient way of crushing your enemy, it’s a leap.”

Endless debate among obsessive fans centres on whether Lee ever lost a fight and whether traditional martial arts communities, including tai chi master Wong Jack Man, fought him for teaching non-Asians.

While some were certainly against his sharing, experts say, he also had an arrogant streak that invited challenge.

“The whole fight with Wong Jack Man is just ludicrous; all along he said ‘I was teaching Westerners,’” said Bowman, a martial arts practitioner for more than 40 years. “Bruce Lee was like a hothead. He tried to say he was the best and it annoys people.”

Said Russo in front of the Great Star Theatre: “They want their teacher to be seen as the unbeatable master. Well, that doesn’t happen in sports, right?

“It doesn’t mean you’re still not the best ever.”

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3228277/50-years-after-his-death-bruce-lee-remains-star-role-model-enigma

If You Knew Elvis As They Knew Elvis

(article by Mufi Hannemann August 28th, 2013)

Aug. 16, 1977, forever will be remembered by Elvis fans everywhere as “the day the music died.” I was studying in New Zealand at the time and was bummed beyond comparison as I took a break from classes that day to mourn the loss of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Since then, all we have are memories of Elvis Presley, who had a special place in his heart for Hawaii. I certainly have my share of Elvis memories. I enjoyed every one of his films and television specials, know all the words to his songs (even the obscure ones), and sat in awe watching him perform live in Las Vegas in his prime. As president of my high school student council, I arranged to have a contribution made to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund because Elvis was asking, and I even made the pilgrimage to Graceland before Uncle Tom Moffatt (who brought Elvis to Hawaii) made his first trip there.

As fans worldwide commemorate the 36th anniversary of the King’s death this month, not too many can say “Elvis was in the house!” The Parker sisters, Beth Uale of Hawaii Kai and Sheri Pula of Southern California, share many fond memories of Elvis – like when he came rolling into their driveway in a black limousine one summer afternoon in 1974.

“I was really excited that I ran to Elvis Presley’s limo, rolled on his furry floors and I realized I was lying on dark-brown mink,” says Sheri. That was the day Elvis gave her mother Leilani an $11,000 full-length mink coat, which Sheri since has inherited. Elvis was known to share his wealth with ordinary people and gave away cars, jewelry and houses to people he trusted.

“He loved bearing gifts and making people happy,” explains Beth.

Sheri and Beth’s father is the late Ed Parker Sr., who grew up in Kalihi. Parker was known as the Father of American Kempo Karate and Elvis’ martial arts instructor/bodyguard. Says Sheri, “Dad never considered himself a bodyguard. He always said he was a ‘protective companion’ and a friend to Elvis.”

When Sheri was just 8 years old and Beth was sweet 16, Elvis visited the Parker family home in Pasadena, Calif. He played their piano, belting out gospel music.

“It was the neatest thing to hear him sing in our large living room with great big panes. I thought the windows were going to break,” recalls Sheri of Elvis’ powerful singing voice. She remembers sitting on his lap with her younger sister Yvonne. “Elvis asked if I was a good girl, and when I said yes, he gave me $10,” says Sheri, who purchased Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs with the money.

Their dad, a Kamehameha Schools classmate of Don Ho, wasn’t much of a fan of Elvis’ music, but he was a fan of “Elvis, the spiritual giant,” as he recounted in his New York top five bestselling book, Inside Elvis. The singing sensation was up all hours of the night, such that he needed his sleep during the day. That’s why he wore those dark E.P. (his initials) glasses. Because the two buddies shared the same initials, Ed inherited a couple pair of Elvis’ shades. According to Elvis, both bonded because they were “rebels” – Elvis, a rebel in the rock ‘n’ roll business; Ed, a rebel in the martial arts industry. The men spent many nights conversing about the eternities and subjects of spiritual nature.

“Dad believed that Elvis had a sixth sense, and he would always call on our father when he felt he needed extra protection,” says Beth.

The day Elvis bought Ed Parker a Cadillac Fleetwood, Elvis rode the white, gold trim and top, with gold velvet interior luxury car back to Pasadena with Ed from Las Vegas. It just so happened that they passed the church that Beth and her sister Darlene were attending at 6 a.m. the following morning.

“Dad told Elvis we attended church before we start school every day; he was intrigued and wanted to visit us. We were pulled out of class, and he gave my sister and me a big hug … when I went back to class, I couldn’t even breathe, and nobody believed me that Elvis Presley was outside our classroom until there was a knock at the door,” recalls Beth.

It was Elvis, who wanted to know if he could briefly say hi to the class. With Beth’s seminary teacher weakening at the knees, shaking like a leaf and the jaws of students dropping to the floor, Elvis addressed the group: “I want to commend you kids for doing this and getting up so early … and I believe in Jesus Christ, too. Take care and thanks for letting me interrupt your class.” Because of that experience, nobody missed early morning seminary classes for months in hope that their idol might drop by again. “The students who slept in that day regret not attending.”

And there was the Disneyland concert experience in Anaheim, when Elvis sent a limousine to fetch the Parker family.

“My recollection of the concert is it was past my bedtime so I fell asleep,” says Sheri, who was age 6 at the time.

“After the concert, we all hung out with Elvis at his penthouse, when we met a shy Lisa Marie for the first time. He gave us some of the scarves that he threw out into the audience, he kissed us, and we hung out with him as we saw dozens of screaming fans from a bird’s-eye view,” adds Beth.

Elvis came one last time to Hawaii in 1977, when he rented a house in Kailua and Beth’s dad took her to visit with him. Sheri and Beth say Elvis clearly loved the people of Hawaii. He felt more at home in the Islands, according to them, because local fans, by and large, were “respectful” of his privacy. In fact, their father often said that Elvis was “Polynesian at heart.” That’s why he enjoyed the company of Ed Parker and his ‘ohana. They knew him for who he was and not for what he had. They respected him for more than being a rock star, and knew him as a compassionate and gentle soul.

To the Parker sisters, Elvis will live forever in their thoughts and hearts.

https://midweekkauai.com/lifestyle/if-you-knew-elvis-as-they-knew-elvis/

Now that's what I call "controlling your kick"

Mr. Chris Crews 

 

A story about Mr. Parker on the cover of Inside Kung Fu magazine

(recently told on Facebook by Mr. Rich Hale)

In the mid-eighties, I had a weekly Wednesday 10 am lesson with Ed Parker at his home in Pasadena. 

One morning I get to the house, and the first thing he says is, "Look at this!" and he shows me an issue of Inside Kung-Fu with him on the cover.

I go, "Wow! You're on the cover of Inside Kung-Fu!" 

He then shouts, "No, look at it!" 

I looked again, and all I could think was, damn, you're on the cover of Inside Kung-Fu; what could possibly be the problem?

Again he says, "Look, look closely." 

Okay, now I have no idea what I'm supposed to see and Mr. Parker is kind of yelling at me to see something important, but I just don't see it . . . I think I'm going to die!

Then he finally says, "They reversed the picture! My patch is on the wrong side!" 

Now, as much as I wanted to jump on board with Mr. Parker and be really pissed that they reversed the image, all my little brain could get around was - damn! You're on the cover of Inside Kung-Fu!

Years later when I was putting together a poster of the magazine covers Mr. Parker had been on, I realized the issue he was so upset with was from 1974. Yet, ten years later, he was still so pissed he brought it up to me as if the magazine had just hit the stands.

I guess that's what we had in common. We were both perfectionists . . . he was just a lot better at it than me.

Old IKC patches

An interesting photo from the old school days, 1968. (information from Facebook says the kenpo practitioners are Jerry Meyers and Jim Kozlovich)  

Notice the International Karate Championship patches are being worn on the sleeve, instead of where we are used to seeing the patch worn today.

Was the sleeve the original placement for the IKC patch?

Mr. John La Tourrette on some of the history of Kenpo katas

(posted on Facebook a few years ago)

Historical Note: All original Katas were developed using traditional Kenpo Self-Defense Techniques. “American Kenpo” did not begin to exist until almost 10 years later. This is why there are so many differences between the way the techniques in American Kenpo are done and the way they are done in the Katas in American Kenpo, because in American Kenpo the Katas came first, often preserving the more original version of the technique, but only in the Kata.

1. Nihanchi 1-2 - James Mitose - 1937

2. Finger Set - First Kata/Set created by Ed Parker - 1959

The Finger Set ties together many of the hand or finger movements of Kenpo and was designed by Ed Parker to be used as a demonstration set when you wanted 20-30 people to move in unison. The only problem is if one person does something wrong it makes the whole group look bad.

3. Moving Finger Set—more about this set later

There are more versions of Moving Finger Set than any other Kenpo Kata. We teach the most common version. Never a major set, it is primarily still taught so that it will not be lost.

4. Two Person Set - James Lee - 1959-60

This is the Kata that replaced The Panther Set (Book Set) in Ed Parker's book Secrets of Chinese Karate. Black Belt Set or 2 Person Set got the name Black Belt Set because it was the highest Kata required when Katas began to be required for promotion to Black belt (1960-61). The set is also known as "The Two Man Set" or "The Two Man Black Belt Set". In the early days of Kenpo (1956-62) this was the most advanced set taught as a requirement for "Black Belt".

There are two halves of this Kata, both of which are taught and demonstrated separately and together. Since this is a two person Kata it is very exacting and must be practiced over and over with the same partner (so be sure to choose a partner who will be around for a while). It is also an excellent tool for learning to make adjustments to new and different partners. The set is a great one to perform at demonstrations because the audience can see the actual application of each move, as opposed to most Katas where the audience only sees ambiguous or dance-like movements.

5. Panther Set (Book Set) - Bunji - James Woo

The nickname "Book Set" comes from the fact it was meant to be the Kata featured in Ed Parker's Book, Secrets of Chinese Karate. Because of problems developed between Ed and James Wing Woo* (the man who had been helping with the book) this set was removed from the book and replaced with "The Two Person Set".

*Historical Note: James Wing Woo was given the cover and a feature article in the November 1990 issue of Inside Kung-Fu magazine. As you can see from the list on this page, he had the single largest influence in the development of our Kenpo Katas. Others of note who had an influence in the development of our Kenpo system include: James Lee, Professor T. Y. Wong of the Sil Lum system, Bruce Lee, Ralph Castro, Rick Jason and Joe Lewis, just to name a few.

6. Five Section Punching Set - James Woo

7. Eighteen Section Punching Set - James Woo

8. Tam Tui - James Woo

This is a classic "Chinese Set" also spelled Tan Tui. There are at least 10 different major versions of this training set. Some systems teach as few as 6 sections and others have as many as 18. The correct number of sections is 12. The Chinese Muslims** have their own version which has 10 sections. This set is known for its development of strong legs and stances. Done properly it provides an excellent workout in conjunction with many beneficial martial arts hand and leg movements. The set is comprised of a series of repeated movements done in a straight line. You do as many of the repeated movements of each section as you have room for in your training area, with 6-8 being the standard.

**Historical Note: When China was ruled by Genghis Khan and his followers they ruled with such a bloody hand that many of the Chinese officials were hesitant to enforce laws against their fellow religious believers. Genghis Khan solved this by bringing in Muslims who considered all the Chinese as infidels and had no qualms about shedding blood.

9. 2 Man Tam Tui - James Woo

10. Tai Chi - Yang Style - James Woo

11. Tiger and Crane - James Woo

This Kata was developed in the 1800's by Wong Fei-Hung of the Hung Gar Kung-Fu system. The Chinese Master Lam Sai-Wing, who studied directly under Wong Fei-Hung, subsequently published three books on the Hung Gar System. If you compare drawings from his book, you can see how close most of his movements are to our version even after almost 200 years.

There has been some misunderstanding about the use of the Tiger and Crane as a "Classic" Kenpo set. The "Tiger and Crane" (Fu Hok Seung Ying) is the definitive form of the Hung Gar system containing all the complete self-defense hand movements of the style. The "Tiger and Crane" is the bridge between the system we have now and the original system that Professor Chow learned and passed on to Ed Parker. Ed, in turn, introduced Kenpo taught to him by Professor Chow to the United States mainland. As modern as the "Kenpo" system is, this Kata keeps us aware of one origin of our art, namely the Katas of Kenpo. For this reason we continue to teach the "Tiger and Crane". It should be noted the "American Kenpo" system does not have or teach this Kata.

Done properly, the "Tiger" section alone of the "Tiger and Crane" is one of the most beautiful and powerful of all Katas. For this reason it is possible to get high scores in competition even from Japanese or Korean judges, even though the form is Chinese.

Tiger and Crane (only the Tiger section is usually performed) is the #1 winning Kenpo Kata in the United States for tournament competitions and demonstrations. If you want to develop one winning Kata for competition, this is it.

After the above Chinese Sets (Katas) were introduced into Kenpo the following Katas were created for Kenpo, using many theories and movements from these classic Chinese Forms or Sets.

1. Short #1 (4 Shields) - 10 Pattern Kata - Woo & Parker

2. Short #2 (Cat Set) - Star Pattern

3. Short #3 (Single Escape set)

4. Black Belt Set

Historical Note: The above 4 Katas were the original and first Kata requirements for "Black Belt"

5. Long #1 (Shield and Mace)

6. Long #2 (Continuous Set)

7. Long #3 (Double Escape Set)

All the techniques in this Kata are defenses against grab attacks (chokes, wrist grabs, waist grabs, etc.) This Kata marks the transition into the format of the advanced Kenpo Katas that will follow, as from this point on most of the Katas will require the techniques to be done on both sides. It is by far the most difficult Kata up to this point (as it precedes Tiger & Crane).

8. Long #4 (Definitive Set)

This is "The Classic Kenpo Kata". Comprised of 20 sections of self-defense techniques and basics, it takes between 2 minutes and 30 seconds to 3 minutes to perform. It is Ed Parker's masterpiece—developed in the early 1960's. If you perfect* only one Kenpo Kata, let it be this one.

The Kata is always taught the same, but each student will have a slightly different interpretation. This is the way it should be in Chinese Sets or Katas.

9. Staff Set (#3 Staff Set or Chinese Staff) - Created by Chuck Sullivan

10. Long #5 (Takedown or Transition Set)

11. Long #6 (Weapons Set) - There are several versions of Long #6

Historical Note: Ed Parker created Long #5 and Long #6 in the mid 1960's—after Ed Parker and James Woo went their own separate ways. Ed Parker would not create any more Katas for almost 20 years until he created #7 and #8.

12. Long #7 (Advancing Set)

13. Long #8 (The Twin Set)