Cut to a seedy alley behind a Chinese restaurant in Rome: A dozen mobsters menace a slight young man who suddenly pulls out a pair of nunchucks. He swings the traditional stick-and-chain weapons and makes quick work of his enemies, who fall one by one, groaning in pain.<\/p>\n
The comedic, legendary action scene<\/a> is from the 1972 film \u201cWay of the Dragon,\u201d written, directed and starring Bruce Lee. The martial arts star was a trailblazer, allowing Asian Americans to see themselves represented in a strong, positive light on screen. <\/p>\n And now he has secured a place in California history, becoming the first Chinese American in state history to have a day designated in his honor. <\/p>\n Lee was born in 1940 in San Francisco. His mother was of European descent and his father was a Cantonese opera star who was on tour in the city, affording his son birthright citizenship. <\/p>\n Lee grew up in Hong Kong, where he followed his father\u2019s path as a performer, acting in more than a dozen films as a child and studying the close-quarters southern Chinese martial art Wing Chun.<\/p>\n On May 17, 1959, an 18-year-old Lee returned to San Francisco and eventually made his way to Hollywood. He went on to influence an industry that was at the time bereft of Asian American talent, and helped to popularize the genre of martial arts films and ignite Western interest in Hong Kong action cinema.<\/p>\n In recognition of his contributions, state Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill<\/a> designating May 17 as \u201cBruce Lee Day\u201d in California. The bill, signed into law Tuesday<\/a> by Gov. Gavin Newsom, encourages schools and communities to honor Lee\u2019s life and cultural impact.<\/p>\n Haney has described Lee<\/a> as a \u201csymbol of pride, resilience, and possibility for generations who rarely saw themselves reflected with strength and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee, who saw himself not only as an actor but also as a poet and philosopher, encountered repeated barriers. Up for the main role in the 1970s television series \u201cKung Fu,\u201d for example, he was rejected in favor of white actor David Carradine. <\/p>\n In 2020, filmmaker Bao Nguyen sought to show how Lee dispelled anti-Asian sentiment and long-held stereotypes of emasculated Asian men in his ESPN documentary \u201cBe Water.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Asian male was the face of the enemy to many Americans,\u201d Nguyen told The Times<\/a> in 2020. \u201cIt was this vicious cycle of society reflecting media and culture, and media and culture reflecting society. There had to be some kind of intervention there and Bruce, in a way, was that intervention. He was the hero that we hadn\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee learned much about the systemic oppression that Black Americans faced from his first student, Jesse Glover, who had been a victim of police brutality. <\/p>\n And scholars have pointed out that, although his films had far-from-perfect politics, they touched on themes of fighting oppression. The 1971 movie \u201cThe Big Boss\u201d showed Lee battling alongside laborers. \u201cFist of Fury\u201d saw him opposing Japanese colonialism and discrimination.<\/p>\n Lee died young<\/a> in 1973, at age 32 \u2014 before he was able to witness the full extent of his stardom. He died just one month before the release of \u201cEnter the Dragon,\u201d which was a box office sensation and is considered a masterpiece of martial arts filmmaking<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cut to a seedy alley behind a Chinese restaurant in Rome: A dozen mobsters menace a slight young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-384347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}