2. He made martial arts open to all.
Lee's peers and tutors back in his native China frowned upon martial arts techniques being taught to outsiders.
But when he lived in Seattle in the '60s, Lee opened a kung fu school and openly taught his own system, Jeet Kune Do ('The Way Of The Intercepting Fist'). Pupils included Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
Lee rejected the rigid, classical styles of individual martial arts and conceived Jeet Kune Do as a system that would work in a real fight - a blend of the best bits of boxing, fencing, judo and kung fu.
He called it "scientific street fighting" - see it demonstrated below (and, if you must, in the free-for-all brawls of Ultimate Fighting Championship).
Before Lee, these techniques were arcane and esoteric. Today, you could be enrolled in a class within minutes of finishing this article.
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Comments
RobBuckley
Jun 9th 2009, 12:47
That's true to a certain of the US and Chinese martial arts. But there was a long tradition in the UK and Australia, for example, of Japanese martial arts such as jiu jitsu and judo being taught openly in classes available to everyone. Jiu Jitsu practitioners used to tour music halls in the 19th century and both men and women were taught techniques.
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alowe
Jun 9th 2009, 13:55
Fair point. So was Lee's Seattle school the first outside China? I had a quick rummage around whether Chinese martial arts were taught secretly in the US/UK/Australia before Lee but couldn't get a solid answer.
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