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Like Water: A Cultural History of Bruce Lee

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Daryl Joji Maeda unpacks Lee’s global impact, linking his legendary status as a martial artist, actor, and director to his continual traversals across the newly interconnected Asia and America.

Image courtesy of interviewee. February 21, 2024

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The speaker originally intended to write a quick sabbatical book on Bruce Lee after completing their second publication. However, their fascination with Lee expanded the project over a decade, culminating in a book released in 2022. The speaker, an Asian American who grew up in the 1970s, found Lee to be a significant role model and an iconic figure whose life illustrates broader cultural and migratory themes.

The process involved extensive research, including watching all Lee's films, reading biographies (notably Matthew Polly's), and exploring martial arts records. The central metaphor of the book is water, reflecting Lee's adaptability and fluidity, both in martial arts and philosophy, famously encapsulated in his quote about being "formless, shapeless like water."

The speaker emphasizes that Lee's global appeal stemmed from his unique heritage—being biracial and raised in a British-occupied Hong Kong—coupled with the influence of American culture during his time in the U.S. Although Lee faced racism that limited his Hollywood opportunities, he successfully revolutionized Hong Kong cinema by blending various cultural influences.

Ultimately, the speaker hopes readers recognize the importance of Lee's legacy beyond his cinematic contributions, understanding how his life story reflects larger societal dynamics and the potential for cultural hybridity. They encourage celebrating cross-cultural exchanges, asserting that learning from one another is essential for human connection and creativity.

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00:00.575 --> 00:02.495
I thought this was going to be a sabbatical book.

00:02.655 --> 00:04.415
I had just finished, you know,

00:04.785 --> 00:06.215
publishing my second book,

00:06.275 --> 00:08.135
and I was looking for a project

00:08.205 --> 00:10.295
that I could do quickly in about a year.

00:11.115 --> 00:13.375
So I thought, man, maybe there's a book

00:13.375 --> 00:14.935
to be written about Bruce Lee.

00:15.515 --> 00:17.615
So I start, I started during sabbatical,

00:18.195 --> 00:21.615
and, I fell into a hole.

00:21.855 --> 00:24.175
I just got more and more fascinated with him.

00:24.175 --> 00:28.095
Everything I learned turned into another avenue to pursue.

00:28.725 --> 00:32.375
This was in 2012, and the book came out in 2022.

00:32.675 --> 00:35.255
So clearly it took a little bit longer than I thought.

00:36.035 --> 00:38.415
But one of the things that motivated me

00:38.575 --> 00:42.215
to think about Bruce Lee is he's really an iconic,

00:42.265 --> 00:43.375
Asian American figure.

00:43.915 --> 00:47.615
And for me growing up as a Asian American boy in the 1970s,

00:47.615 --> 00:50.455
that, you know, there were really only so many,

00:50.455 --> 00:53.135
Asian American male role models out there.

00:53.315 --> 00:58.095
So he was very influential to me and my cohort, my peers.

00:58.955 --> 01:03.735
Um, and ultimately what, what convinced me that I needed

01:03.735 --> 01:08.175
to write this book is that his is a story about,

01:08.325 --> 01:12.215
that helps us to understand the larger forces in the world

01:12.525 --> 01:16.975
that have contributed to the creations of cultures,

01:17.115 --> 01:21.135
and migrants and different ways of people interacting.

01:21.715 --> 01:25.655
So for me, Bruce Lee really was, a figure

01:26.435 --> 01:28.695
to use as a way to understand the world.

01:28.825 --> 01:32.815
First of all, I did watch all of his movies,

01:33.195 --> 01:38.135
and also, his, all of his appearances on us television

01:38.785 --> 01:42.495
shows like, long Street, his,

01:42.595 --> 01:46.615
his television series, the Green Hornet, I read everything

01:46.715 --> 01:48.575
that's been written about him in English.

01:48.575 --> 01:52.175
That is, I don't reach Chinese. So I wasn't able to do that.

01:52.875 --> 01:55.215
And there have been so many things written about him,

01:55.435 --> 02:00.135
so many biographies, many of them being,

02:00.555 --> 02:04.215
fan, work that's very fawning.

02:04.635 --> 02:07.975
The one exception is Matthew Polly's biography,

02:08.545 --> 02:11.215
which is called, Bruce Lee a Life,

02:11.435 --> 02:14.055
and it's a very serious and excellent piece of work.

02:14.875 --> 02:18.015
Um, I also read all of the memoirs of people

02:18.075 --> 02:19.255
who had encountered him.

02:19.875 --> 02:23.095
Um, I read, newspaper accounts

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of him in the United States,

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and in the English language, Hong Kong press.

02:28.715 --> 02:33.415
Um, I looked at martial arts magazines from the 1970s,

02:33.525 --> 02:35.215
including Black Belt Magazine

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and other martial arts magazines.

02:37.835 --> 02:40.375
So I really got a, a comprehensive picture of him

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through a lot of written work.

02:42.515 --> 02:44.935
And, you know, everybody who ever met him,

02:44.995 --> 02:48.415
it seems has written about him in their memoirs.

02:48.515 --> 02:51.015
So there's lots of, angles,

02:51.205 --> 02:53.095
different perspectives on him.

02:53.835 --> 02:56.175
And then I also, went to Hong Kong,

02:57.015 --> 02:59.845
and one of the most important pieces of work I was able

02:59.845 --> 03:03.005
to do there was to the Hong Kong Film Institute,

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which has a terrific archive of important,

03:06.345 --> 03:07.365
Hong Kong cinema.

03:07.905 --> 03:10.245
And I was able to watch, many of the movies

03:10.245 --> 03:11.445
that he appeared in.

03:12.065 --> 03:16.895
Um, as a, as a child actor in Hong Kong, I also,

03:17.515 --> 03:20.775
was convinced that there's something important

03:20.875 --> 03:24.335
to be learned about how people move.

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And I didn't want to ignore the actual, specifics

03:29.715 --> 03:31.775
of the style of Kung Fu

03:31.775 --> 03:33.215
that he learned when he was a young boy.

03:33.835 --> 03:38.175
And so I studied, wing Chang Kung Fu for about a year,

03:38.525 --> 03:41.295
just enough to get, you know, the very, very basics.

03:41.715 --> 03:46.215
But it really convinced me that in order to understand,

03:46.835 --> 03:48.815
who he was, you have to understand

03:49.035 --> 03:51.135
how he moved as a martial artist.

03:51.585 --> 03:54.895
Water is a central metaphor for the book

03:54.975 --> 03:57.935
because it was a central metaphor for Bruce Lee

03:58.555 --> 03:59.855
and the way that he thought

04:00.155 --> 04:02.415
and the way that he moved in the world.

04:03.275 --> 04:05.335
You know, clearly he was somebody who,

04:05.595 --> 04:07.415
who traveled incessantly.

04:08.155 --> 04:12.815
He flowed, he absorbed all

04:12.815 --> 04:14.495
of the influences around him,

04:15.395 --> 04:19.855
and it really captures the, the ability of, of Bruce Lee

04:19.955 --> 04:22.935
to adapt to whatever was around him.

04:23.635 --> 04:28.535
So I really wanted to pay homage to the importance of water

04:28.555 --> 04:33.055
for him philosophically, poetically,

04:33.475 --> 04:36.135
in terms of the way that he moved his body in

04:36.155 --> 04:37.295
his martial arts.

04:38.075 --> 04:40.975
And, you know, he, one of his most famous quotes was,

04:41.355 --> 04:43.615
be formless shapeless like water.

04:43.715 --> 04:45.775
And Bruce Lee was exactly that.

04:45.875 --> 04:48.575
He was able to flow, he was able to resist.

04:48.995 --> 04:51.215
He was like water, both powerful

04:51.715 --> 04:55.535
and acquiescent by turns at various points in his life.

04:55.715 --> 04:59.415
And I wanted to capture that fluidity and that adaptability.

04:59.865 --> 05:02.535
There was never Bruce Lee before Bruce Lee, right?

05:02.555 --> 05:04.695
He was a global star who rose up in Asia

05:04.835 --> 05:07.375
and has dominated the world stage for half a century

05:07.785 --> 05:09.735
after his untimely demise.

05:10.475 --> 05:12.695
And so, fundamentally, the book is interested in

05:12.695 --> 05:14.295
exploring how he came to be.

05:14.955 --> 05:19.775
And the big answer is transnational trans oceanic travel.

05:20.395 --> 05:23.215
So we can think about how capitalism and colonialism

05:23.235 --> 05:26.775
and militarism created a transpacific zone

05:26.775 --> 05:29.455
of contact in which people and nations

05:29.555 --> 05:33.175
and cultures intermixed in various and in new ways.

05:33.275 --> 05:37.695
And I'm really interested in using culture in the form

05:37.695 --> 05:41.095
of Bruce Lee and his martial arts, as a way

05:41.095 --> 05:43.415
of studying the hybridity that emerged.

05:43.915 --> 05:46.055
So he was biracial,

05:46.115 --> 05:49.015
and that ancestry resulted from Dutch traitors

05:49.515 --> 05:50.855
who came to Hong Kong.

05:51.555 --> 05:53.695
Of course, he grew up in Hong Kong, which is,

05:53.745 --> 05:57.175
which was a British colony that combined British culture

05:57.705 --> 06:00.765
and Chinese culture in really fascinating ways.

06:02.225 --> 06:05.525
Um, even the martial art that he learned as a, as a

06:06.335 --> 06:09.165
young boy in, in Hong Kong,

06:09.955 --> 06:14.525
wing Chang kung fu didn't evolve in, just in,

06:14.665 --> 06:17.565
you know, what we would say in in quotes, ancient China.

06:18.225 --> 06:21.685
But the evolution of modern wing Chun came about

06:22.075 --> 06:26.125
because of, it was a response to,

06:26.425 --> 06:29.365
the modernization that China, underwent,

06:30.275 --> 06:32.425
which was wrought by western colonialism.

06:33.495 --> 06:34.955
He was born in San Francisco

06:35.075 --> 06:38.835
because of the migration, not only of, of miners

06:39.135 --> 06:41.755
to Gold Mountain gusan, as they called it

06:41.935 --> 06:43.555
during the California gold rush,

06:43.895 --> 06:46.395
but also of the culture that they brought with them.

06:47.195 --> 06:48.375
So his mother was pregnant,

06:48.675 --> 06:50.095
and she was accompanying her husband,

06:50.275 --> 06:52.655
who was an opera performer as,

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as their opera company was touring the United States.

06:55.395 --> 06:58.775
That's why Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco,

06:59.035 --> 07:01.895
and that's why he had American citizenship

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and was able then to come back to the United States, as,

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as an 18-year-old.

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So when he came back to the United States,

07:11.095 --> 07:14.695
I was very interested to learn that he entered,

07:14.895 --> 07:18.975
a martial arts scene that was deeply influenced by,

07:19.315 --> 07:21.255
United States Cold War militarism.

07:21.265 --> 07:23.695
There were people, soldiers who,

07:23.875 --> 07:28.135
and sailors who had been stationed all around Asia in,

07:28.835 --> 07:32.975
in, Japan, in the Philippines, in Korea.

07:33.555 --> 07:36.175
And they all brought these different fighting forms back

07:36.175 --> 07:37.455
to the United States, and,

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and then fought

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with each other using these various different styles.

07:42.785 --> 07:44.605
Um, Bruce was exposed

07:44.625 --> 07:46.285
to martial arts styles in the United States

07:46.285 --> 07:48.085
that he never would've encountered had he

07:48.085 --> 07:49.645
stayed in Hong Kong.

07:50.305 --> 07:53.205
And what he discovered is that each martial art brought

07:53.205 --> 07:55.925
with its certain strengths, certain vulnerabilities,

07:56.745 --> 08:01.125
and he wanted to be able to adopt the strengths of every,

08:01.495 --> 08:04.045
every martial arts style so that he would be prepared

08:04.105 --> 08:05.965
for all sorts of different situations.

08:06.915 --> 08:09.805
When he came to the United States, he hadn't even,

08:10.115 --> 08:11.685
started lifting weights yet.

08:11.825 --> 08:15.005
So his, his, famous physique

08:15.545 --> 08:17.645
was not something he brought with him from Hong Kong,

08:17.745 --> 08:20.405
but instead he met

08:20.625 --> 08:24.565
and hung out with, Asian American bodybuilders,

08:24.865 --> 08:27.125
who really taught him about how

08:27.285 --> 08:29.325
to build his body into an the most

08:29.795 --> 08:31.245
effective fighting instrument.

08:33.095 --> 08:35.475
You know, the other thing that I really think is important

08:35.615 --> 08:39.035
to think about here is the way that, his dreams

08:39.095 --> 08:42.635
of becoming a Hollywood star were stymied in the

08:42.635 --> 08:47.515
United States by, US racism that really tried

08:47.515 --> 08:51.195
to constrain him to secondary roles, to being a sidekick.

08:51.535 --> 08:52.755
And he chafed against that.

08:52.775 --> 08:57.445
He always wanted to present a, a truly human,

08:57.955 --> 08:59.605
character on screen.

09:00.305 --> 09:04.605
And so when that opportunity was closed off to him,

09:05.145 --> 09:08.645
he returned to Hong Kong, not the place where he was born,

09:08.645 --> 09:09.685
but the place where he grew up.

09:10.425 --> 09:14.775
And he was able to actually revolutionize Hong Kong cinema,

09:15.625 --> 09:19.825
particularly, Hong Kong martial arts cinema

09:20.485 --> 09:24.705
by bringing with him a, a number of influences,

09:24.975 --> 09:26.785
from his time in Hollywood.

09:27.165 --> 09:32.025
So, for example, he brought in, a, a very,

09:32.565 --> 09:36.625
highly desirable male body

09:36.725 --> 09:40.625
that's on display in all of his movies in, in each

09:40.625 --> 09:41.625
of his movies, right?

09:41.655 --> 09:45.385
He's very, quiet, meek, character

09:45.995 --> 09:48.865
until something bad happens and he rips his shirt off.

09:49.365 --> 09:50.585
And it's at that moment,

09:50.635 --> 09:55.345
right when he reveals this cut chisel just

09:56.035 --> 09:58.795
flawless body that we know he's a very serious

09:59.655 --> 10:00.675
and capable person.

10:01.095 --> 10:03.995
So he was able to, to, to change

10:04.655 --> 10:07.875
how Hong Kong cinema really depicted the male body.

10:09.455 --> 10:12.035
And ultimately, he was able to do this

10:12.035 --> 10:15.955
by bringing together influences both from his upbringing in,

10:16.015 --> 10:18.635
in Hong Kong, his Chinese culture,

10:19.015 --> 10:23.955
and combining the many cultures he encountered

10:23.955 --> 10:25.795
in the United States and,

10:26.295 --> 10:29.275
and synthesize them into something altogether new.

10:29.935 --> 10:34.435
But what makes him so appealing universally to people

10:34.615 --> 10:38.515
around the globe is that he created these universal,

10:38.825 --> 10:41.355
universally relatable characters.

10:41.545 --> 10:44.195
He's the little guy who's caring for his family,

10:44.575 --> 10:47.395
for his friends, for those around him, his community,

10:48.385 --> 10:51.875
he's going up under against overwhelming odds,

10:52.925 --> 10:56.905
and he takes on everything fearlessly using only

10:57.565 --> 10:59.465
the one tool that he has available to him,

10:59.465 --> 11:00.545
which is his body.

11:00.805 --> 11:04.065
And I think that's so relatable to people around the world.

11:04.445 --> 11:07.105
The first thing I hope is that readers

11:07.655 --> 11:11.865
take away from the book the idea that Bruce Lee is worthy

11:11.965 --> 11:13.545
of serious consideration.

11:14.535 --> 11:19.225
He's much more than a historical anomaly or footnote,

11:20.245 --> 11:23.665
but instead, understanding how he came to be helps us

11:23.685 --> 11:27.145
to see the impact of these large scale drivers

11:27.775 --> 11:29.185
that create migrations.

11:30.925 --> 11:33.785
It helps us to understand how ordinary human beings make

11:34.295 --> 11:38.345
meaning out of unjust and even cruel circumstances,

11:39.205 --> 11:41.785
and how they create their own forms of resistance

11:42.125 --> 11:44.505
and even beauty within the world.

11:46.055 --> 11:49.345
So the second thing that I hope people take away is

11:49.345 --> 11:52.705
that the world is a wondrous place. It's full of

11:52.705 --> 11:56.405
People and cultures and histories and philosophies,

11:57.545 --> 12:01.325
and the most innovative things come about when we come

12:01.525 --> 12:02.845
together for whatever reasons.

12:03.515 --> 12:04.565
When we converse

12:05.105 --> 12:07.875
and exchange with each other, it's inevitable

12:07.875 --> 12:10.555
that when we encounter people who think in different ways

12:11.145 --> 12:13.995
than us, we are influenced by them,

12:14.415 --> 12:15.995
and we in turn influence them.

12:17.455 --> 12:19.945
Hybridity is a necessary human condition.

12:20.645 --> 12:23.905
We should celebrate border crossings, not fear them.

12:25.275 --> 12:27.015
Really, the thing

12:27.015 --> 12:29.455
that I hope people take away from this book is

12:29.455 --> 12:32.255
that we all have so much to learn from each other.

Exploring Bruce Lee's Cultural Impact and Legacy

00:00:00 - I thought this was going to be a sabbatical book. I had just finished, you know, publishing my second book, and I was looking for a project that I could do quickly in about a year. So I thought, man, maybe there's a book to be written about Bruce Lee. So I start, I started during sabbatical, and, I fell into a hole. I just got more and more fascinated with him. Everything I learned turned into another avenue to pursue. This was in 2012, and the book came out in 2022.
00:00:36 - But one of the things that motivated me to think about Bruce Lee is he's really an iconic, Asian American figure. And for me growing up as a Asian American boy in the 1970s, that, you know, there were really only so many, Asian American male role models out there. So he was very influential to me and my cohort, my peers. and ultimately what, what convinced me that I needed
00:01:08 - that helps us to understand the larger forces in the world that have contributed to the creations of cultures, and migrants and different ways of people interacting. So for me, Bruce Lee really was, a figure to use as a way to understand the world. First of all, I did watch all of his movies, and also, his, all of his appearances on us television
00:01:42 - his television series, the Green Hornet, I read everything that's been written about him in English. That is, I don't reach Chinese. So I wasn't able to do that. And there have been so many things written about him, so many biographies, many of them being, fan, work that's very fawning. The one exception is Matthew Polly's biography, which is called, Bruce Lee a Life,
00:02:14 - I also read all of the memoirs of people who had encountered him. I read, newspaper accounts of him in the United States, and in the English language, Hong Kong press. I looked at martial arts magazines from the 1970s, including Black Belt Magazine and other martial arts magazines. So I really got a, a comprehensive picture of him through a lot of written work.
00:02:44 - it seems has written about him in their memoirs. So there's lots of, angles, different perspectives on him. And then I also, went to Hong Kong, and one of the most important pieces of work I was able to do there was to the Hong Kong Film Institute, which has a terrific archive of important, Hong Kong cinema. And I was able to watch, many of the movies that he appeared in. as a, as a child actor in Hong Kong, I also,

Understanding Bruce Lee: Water as Metaphor

00:03:20 - to be learned about how people move. And I didn't want to ignore the actual, specifics of the style of Kung Fu that he learned when he was a young boy. And so I studied, wing Chang Kung Fu for about a year, just enough to get, you know, the very, very basics. But it really convinced me that in order to understand, who he was, you have to understand
00:03:51 - Water is a central metaphor for the book because it was a central metaphor for Bruce Lee and the way that he thought and the way that he moved in the world. You know, clearly he was somebody who, who traveled incessantly. He flowed, he absorbed all of the influences around him, and it really captures the, the ability of, of Bruce Lee
00:04:23 - So I really wanted to pay homage to the importance of water for him philosophically, poetically, in terms of the way that he moved his body in his martial arts. And, you know, he, one of his most famous quotes was, be formless shapeless like water. And Bruce Lee was exactly that. He was able to flow, he was able to resist. He was like water, both powerful
00:04:55 - And I wanted to capture that fluidity and that adaptability. There was never Bruce Lee before Bruce Lee, right? He was a global star who rose up in Asia and has dominated the world stage for half a century after his untimely demise. And so, fundamentally, the book is interested in exploring how he came to be. And the big answer is transnational trans oceanic travel. So we can think about how capitalism and colonialism
00:05:26 - of contact in which people and nations and cultures intermixed in various and in new ways. And I'm really interested in using culture in the form of Bruce Lee and his martial arts, as a way of studying the hybridity that emerged. So he was biracial, and that ancestry resulted from Dutch traitors who came to Hong Kong. Of course, he grew up in Hong Kong, which is,
00:05:57 - and Chinese culture in really fascinating ways. even the martial art that he learned as a, as a young boy in, in Hong Kong, wing Chang kung fu didn't evolve in, just in, you know, what we would say in in quotes, ancient China. But the evolution of modern wing Chun came about because of, it was a response to,

Bruce Lee: Cultural Impact and Transformation

00:06:30 - which was wrought by western colonialism. He was born in San Francisco because of the migration, not only of, of miners to Gold Mountain gusan, as they called it during the California gold rush, but also of the culture that they brought with them. So his mother was pregnant, and she was accompanying her husband, who was an opera performer as, as their opera company was touring the United States. That's why Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco,
00:07:02 - and was able then to come back to the United States, as, as an 18-year-old. So when he came back to the United States, I was very interested to learn that he entered, a martial arts scene that was deeply influenced by, United States Cold War militarism. There were people, soldiers who, and sailors who had been stationed all around Asia in, in, Japan, in the Philippines, in Korea.
00:07:36 - to the United States, and, and then fought with each other using these various different styles. Bruce was exposed to martial arts styles in the United States that he never would've encountered had he stayed in Hong Kong. And what he discovered is that each martial art brought with its certain strengths, certain vulnerabilities, and he wanted to be able to adopt the strengths of every, every martial arts style so that he would be prepared
00:08:06 - When he came to the United States, he hadn't even, started lifting weights yet. So his, his, famous physique was not something he brought with him from Hong Kong, but instead he met and hung out with, Asian American bodybuilders, who really taught him about how to build his body into an the most effective fighting instrument. You know, the other thing that I really think is important
00:08:39 - of becoming a Hollywood star were stymied in the United States by, US racism that really tried to constrain him to secondary roles, to being a sidekick. And he chafed against that. He always wanted to present a, a truly human, character on screen. And so when that opportunity was closed off to him, he returned to Hong Kong, not the place where he was born,
00:09:10 - And he was able to actually revolutionize Hong Kong cinema, particularly, Hong Kong martial arts cinema by bringing with him a, a number of influences, from his time in Hollywood. So, for example, he brought in, a, a very, highly desirable male body that's on display in all of his movies in, in each

Bruce Lee: A Cultural Icon and Influence

00:09:41 - He's very, quiet, meek, character until something bad happens and he rips his shirt off. And it's at that moment, right when he reveals this cut chisel just flawless body that we know he's a very serious and capable person. So he was able to, to, to change how Hong Kong cinema really depicted the male body. And ultimately, he was able to do this
00:10:16 - in Hong Kong, his Chinese culture, and combining the many cultures he encountered in the United States and, and synthesize them into something altogether new. But what makes him so appealing universally to people around the globe is that he created these universal, universally relatable characters. He's the little guy who's caring for his family,
00:10:48 - he's going up under against overwhelming odds, and he takes on everything fearlessly using only the one tool that he has available to him, which is his body. And I think that's so relatable to people around the world. The first thing I hope is that readers take away from the book the idea that Bruce Lee is worthy of serious consideration. He's much more than a historical anomaly or footnote,
00:11:23 - to see the impact of these large scale drivers that create migrations. It helps us to understand how ordinary human beings make meaning out of unjust and even cruel circumstances, and how they create their own forms of resistance and even beauty within the world. So the second thing that I hope people take away is that the world is a wondrous place. It's full of
00:11:57 - and the most innovative things come about when we come together for whatever reasons. When we converse and exchange with each other, it's inevitable that when we encounter people who think in different ways than us, we are influenced by them, and we in turn influence them. Hybridity is a necessary human condition. We should celebrate border crossings, not fear them.
00:12:29 - that I hope people take away from this book is that we all have so much to learn from each other.

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