B2 Reading: Bruce Lee, More Than a Fighter
Read the article about Bruce Lee and fill in the gaps.
Half a century after his death, Bruce Lee is still one of the most recognisable faces on the planet. Yet his goes far beyond fast kicks and famous films.
Lee was born in San Francisco in 1940, while his father, a Cantonese opera star, was on tour, but he was raised in Hong Kong. A child actor by the age of ten, he was also a teenager who kept getting into street fights. To keep him out of trouble, he began training in the Wing Chun style of kung fu under the master Ip Man. When his fights became a serious problem, his parents sent him to the United States at 18 with little more than $100 in his pocket.
In Seattle, Lee worked as a waiter, studied philosophy at university and began teaching martial arts. He soon a reputation for astonishing speed and strength. But he never wanted simply to follow tradition. He the idea that one style was the best and developed his own approach, Jeet Kune Do, which encouraged fighters to take what was useful from different styles and throw away the rest. Many people now see him as an early of mixed martial arts.
Hollywood, however, was slow to accept him. After playing a supporting role in the TV series The Green Hornet, he to get leading roles, partly because studios were reluctant to cast an Asian actor as a hero. , he returned to Hong Kong, where films such as The Big Boss and Fist of Fury broke box-office records across Asia. Hollywood finally took notice, and Warner Bros co-produced Enter the Dragon.
Tragically, Lee never saw the film's worldwide success. He died suddenly in July 1973, aged just 32, only days before it was released. His early death only added to the surrounding him.
Today, Lee is remembered not just as a martial artist but as a cultural who challenged stereotypes about Asian men in Western films. His philosophy also continues to people far beyond the world of martial arts. In a famous TV interview, he told viewers to "be water": to stay and take the shape of whatever situation they are in. For many, that advice is as today as it was fifty years ago.
Lee was born in San Francisco in 1940, while his father, a Cantonese opera star, was on tour, but he was raised in Hong Kong. A child actor by the age of ten, he was also a teenager who kept getting into street fights. To keep him out of trouble, he began training in the Wing Chun style of kung fu under the master Ip Man. When his fights became a serious problem, his parents sent him to the United States at 18 with little more than $100 in his pocket.
In Seattle, Lee worked as a waiter, studied philosophy at university and began teaching martial arts. He soon a reputation for astonishing speed and strength. But he never wanted simply to follow tradition. He the idea that one style was the best and developed his own approach, Jeet Kune Do, which encouraged fighters to take what was useful from different styles and throw away the rest. Many people now see him as an early of mixed martial arts.
Hollywood, however, was slow to accept him. After playing a supporting role in the TV series The Green Hornet, he to get leading roles, partly because studios were reluctant to cast an Asian actor as a hero. , he returned to Hong Kong, where films such as The Big Boss and Fist of Fury broke box-office records across Asia. Hollywood finally took notice, and Warner Bros co-produced Enter the Dragon.
Tragically, Lee never saw the film's worldwide success. He died suddenly in July 1973, aged just 32, only days before it was released. His early death only added to the surrounding him.
Today, Lee is remembered not just as a martial artist but as a cultural who challenged stereotypes about Asian men in Western films. His philosophy also continues to people far beyond the world of martial arts. In a famous TV interview, he told viewers to "be water": to stay and take the shape of whatever situation they are in. For many, that advice is as today as it was fifty years ago.