As this is the JKD forum...
I've consistently read where Bruse Lee was challenged because he was teaching non-chinese. Yet Cheng man-ch'ing was teaching tai chi and non-chinese were learning different CMA systems here in the NYC area and throught Asia (see books from Robert Smith, Draeger, etc) well before Bruce Lee. I had read that Guru Dan stated that he (Bruce Lee) was challenged because of not having teaching certification. My questions are:
1 - Was Bruce Lee challenged because he did not have certification and not that he taught non-chinese?
2 - If he was challenged because he was not certiified, where did the reason of teaching non-chinese come into play?
I honestly don't know why, but I think one of the main reasons why they bothered him was because he had a way of not mincing words.
- He thoughts forms and uniforms were complete BS, and he said so.
- He said "chi" didn't exist.
- He created his own "style" of martial art.
These reasons alone had a way of offending most martial artists whose businesses relied on:
- forms and uniforms
- on chi existing
- on people studying only the existing styles
To top it off, Bruce just had a manner that was cocky. That, combined with what I mentioned and what you mentioned, would pretty much make him a target for the martial arts commmunity at the time.
He had better hair than all the other TMA kingpins in N.Cal,combined?
Lee thought chi didn't exist? Could've sworn Jason Scott Lee said "we all have an inner chi" in the movie 'Dragon'.
Or maybe Lee himself was referring to Dillman-esque 'chi balls'? lol
He didn't ask permission from the other Kung Fu associations in Chinatown.
maybe he was just a jerk? :)
wow- christian - you were my instructor when I was at Dan Anderson's academy...quite a few yeears back.. Hope Ronin Athletics is doing well...
he was a poser.
he never completed the wing chun curriculum.
he was like a brazilian purple belt who gets to the usa and is suddenly a black belt.
that and he was a cocky bastard.
^^^Fighting publicly doesn't mean you're a good fighter either.
uh - before we get into an endless back and forth discussion of whether Bruce Lee could really fight ( we weren't there so it's guess work on our part) - the question was if the story was true that he was challenged because he was teaching non asians.
The limited answers seems to be that it is not true.
I do have another question on if JKD was really meant for self defense(i.e. our lives are at stake) or if JKD was meant for fighting other MA which might make it more of an agressive sport (a winner and loser vs someone being dead on the street/battefield).
^^^Good question.
- When JKD came about, it was during a time when martial arts competitions in the USA were limited to point sparring and judo competitions. So, in this sense, it was designed primarily for self-defense, because there wasn't much of an environment in the USA for combat sports that allowed full-contact striking and groundfighting.
- JKD today, as a philosophy of combat, allows the practitioner to take their practice wherever they need it to go. Self-defense or sport, it's up to the individual to take it where they want it to go.
Already In Use - Lee can back up his cockiness. Do you know how fast he was? Didn't think so :)
don't get your bruce lee weenie hurt.
fren, i never said bruce lee lacked fighting skill and konw of his great speed and pound 4 pound strength.
i'm a fan of bruce lee because he was a cocky bastard who backed it up, but i don't consider him a messiah as some people (i'm not saying you do).
bruce could fight, yes, but i'm sure many people could have beaten him.
I remember reading he went back to Yip Man after he started getting famous and asked the old man if he could film him doing the other WC forms Bruce didn't know. Bruce's plan was then to learn them by himself from watching the films. Yip Man refused.
Was that nugget of info from someone who markets himself as a direct student of Yip Man....