New life in America
At the age of 18, Lee returned to the United States. After living in San Francisco for several months, he moved to Seattle in 1959, to continue his high school education, where he also worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant.
Chow's husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee's father. Lee's elder brother Peter Lee (李忠琛) would also join him in Seattle for a short stay before moving on to Minnesota 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 in Seattle).
In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington, majoring in drama according to a 1999 article in the university's alumni magazine, not in philosophy as stated by Lee himself and many others. Lee also studied philosophy, psychology, and various other subjects.
It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife Linda Emery, a fellow student studying to become a teacher, whom he married in August 1964.
Lee had two children with Linda Emery, Brandon Lee (1965–1993) and Shannon Lee (born 1969).
Martial arts career
Jun Fan Gung Fu;
Lee began teaching martial arts in the United States in 1959. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee's Kung Fu). It was basically his approach to Wing Chun. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who continued to teach some of Lee's early techniques. Taky Kimura became Lee's first Assistant Instructor and continued to teach his art and philosophy after Lee's death. Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.
Lee dropped out of college in the spring of 1964 and moved to Oakland to live with James Yimm Lee (嚴鏡海).
James Lee was twenty years senior to Bruce Lee and a well-known Chinese martial artist in the area.
Together, they founded the second Jun Fan martial art studio in Oakland. James Lee was also responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to Ed Parker, American martial artist, and organizer of the Long Beach International Karate Championships, at which Bruce Lee was later "discovered" by Hollywood.
Long Beach International Karate Championships;
At the invitation of Ed Parker, Lee appeared in the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships and performed repetitions of two-finger push-ups (using the thumb and the index finger of one hand) with feet at approximately a shoulder-width apart. In the same Long Beach event he also performed the "One inch punch."
Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately one inch (2.5 cm) away from the partner's chest.
Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair said to be placed behind the partner to prevent injury, though his partner's momentum soon caused him to fall to the floor.
His volunteer was Bob Baker of Stockton, California.
"I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again", Baker recalled. "When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable".
It was at the 1964 championships where Lee first met Taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee.
The two developed a friendship – a relationship from which they benefited as martial artists.
Rhee taught Lee the side kick in detail, and Lee taught Rhee the "non-telegraphic" punch.
Lee appeared at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships and performed various demonstrations, including the famous "unstoppable punch" against USKA world Karate champion Vic Moore.
Lee allegedly told Moore that he was going to throw a straight punch to the face, and all he had to do was to try to block it.
Lee took several steps back and asked if Moore was ready.
When Moore nodded in affirmation, Lee glided towards him until he was within striking range. He then threw a straight punch directly at Moore's face, and stopped before impact. In eight attempts, Moore failed to block any of the punches.
However, Moore and grandmaster Steve Mohammed claim that Lee had first told Moore that he was going to throw a straight punch to the body, which Moore blocked.
Lee attempted another punch, and Moore blocked it as well.
The third punch, which Lee threw to Moore's face, did not come nearly within striking distance.
Moore claims that Lee never successfully struck Moore but Moore was able to strike Lee after trying on his own; Moore further claims that Bruce Lee said he was the fastest American he's ever seen and that Lee's media crew repeatedly played the one punch towards Moore's face that did not come within striking range, allegedly in an attempt to preserve Lee's superstar image.
Fight with Wong Jack Man;
In Oakland's Chinatown in 1964, Lee had a controversial private match with Wong Jack Man, a direct student of Ma Kin Fung, known for his mastery of Xingyiquan, Northern Shaolin, and T'ai chi ch'uan. According to Lee, the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to him to stop teaching non-Chinese people.
When he refused to comply, he was challenged to a combat match with Wong. The arrangement was that if Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school, while if he won, he would be free to teach Caucasians, or anyone else.
Wong denied this, stating that he requested to fight Lee after Lee boasted during one of his demonstrations at a Chinatown theatre that he could beat anyone in San Francisco, and that Wong himself did not discriminate against Caucasians or other non-Chinese.
Lee commented, "That paper had all the names of the from Chinatown, but they don't scare me".
Individuals known to have witnessed the match include Cadwell, James Lee (Bruce Lee's associate, no relation), and William Chen, a teacher of T'ai chi ch'uan.
Wong and William Chen stated that the fight lasted an unusually long 20–25 minutes.}} Wong claims that he had originally expected a serious but polite bout; however Lee had attacked him very aggressively with intent to kill, straight from the beginning of the bout when he had replied to Wong's traditional handshake offer by pretending to accept the handshake, but instead turning that hand into a spear aimed at Wong's eyes.
Forced to defend his life, he had nonetheless refrained from striking Lee with killing force when the opportunity presented itself because it could earn him a prison sentence.
The fight ended due to Lee's "unusually winded" condition, as opposed to a decisive blow by either fighter.
According to Bruce Lee, Linda Lee Cadwell, and James Yimm Leehowever, the fight lasted a mere 3 minutes with a decisive victory for Lee.
In Cadwell's account, "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".
A couple of weeks after the bout, Lee gave an interview claiming that he had defeated an unnamed challenger, which Wong says was an obvious reference to him.[50][52]}} In response, Wong published his own account of the fight in the Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco, with an invitation to a public rematch if Lee was not satisfied with the account.
Lee did not respond to the invitation despite his reputation for violently responding to every provocation, and there were no further public announcements by either, though Lee continued to teach Caucasians.
Jeet Kune Do;
Jeet Kune Do originated in 1967.
After filming one season of The Green Hornet, Lee found himself out of work and opened The Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute.
The controversial match with Wong Jack Man influenced Lee's philosophy about martial arts.
Lee concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency".
He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted, including fencing and basic boxing techniques.
Lee emphasised what he called "the style of no style".
This consisted of getting rid of the formalised approach which Lee claimed was indicative of traditional styles.
Lee felt the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was even too restrictive, and eventually evolved into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist.
It is a term he would later regret, because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connote; whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of parameters and limitations.
Fitness and nutrition;
At 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) and 64 kg (141 lb),Lee was renowned for his physical fitness and vigor, achieved by using a dedicated fitness regimen to become as strong as possible.
After his match with Wong Jack Man in 1965, Lee changed his approach toward martial arts training. Lee felt that many martial artists of his time did not spend enough time on physical conditioning.
Lee included all elements of total fitness—muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. He used traditional bodybuilding techniques to build some muscle mass, not overdone as that could decrease speed or flexibility.
At the same time in balance, Lee maintained that mental and spiritual preparation are fundamental to the success of physical training in martial arts skills. In Tao of Jeet Kune Do he wrote,
According to Linda Lee Cadwell, soon after he moved to the United States, Lee started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest in health foods, high-protein drinks, and vitamin and mineral supplements. He later concluded that in order to achieve a high-performance body, it was akin to maintaining the engine of a high-performance automobile.
Allegorically, as one could not keep a car running on low octane fuels, one could not sustain one's body with a steady diet of junk food, and with "the wrong fuel" one's body would perform sluggishly or sloppily.
Lee also avoided baked goods and refined flour, describing them as providing empty calories that did nothing for his body.
He was known for being a fan of Asian cuisine for its variance, and often ate meals with a combination of vegetables, rice, and fish, and drank fresh milk.
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