Nine things you need to know about Bruce Lee

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee was the first global Chinese film star, known for his distinctive roles in the Hong Kong kung fu classics of the early seventies.

Radio 4’s ‘Chinese Characters’ takes a look at his extraordinary life, and the impact it had on the perception of China in the wider world.

Here are nine fascinating facts about Bruce Lee - the warrior of the silver screen.

Bruce Lee was born Lee Jun-fan in San Francisco in 1940. His parents then moved back to Hong Kong, where he spent his childhood.

As a schoolboy, Lee was known for getting into trouble and for his love of fighting. So when he was 19, his family moved him to the US – fearing that he would get himself arrested on the streets of Hong Kong. It was in America that he was able to channel his energy into organised combat, and – in particular – martial arts.

Lee started college in America but dropped out to concentrate on running his own martial arts school, with techniques that drew on what he’d learned in Hong Kong.

Lee cultivated his own style of the martial art, which became known as Jeet Kune Do – “The way of the Intercepting Fist.”

Lee’s school of martial arts led him to make connections in the world of stage and screen, and through these connections he started to appear in US television programmes. One of these was Batman and the Green Hornet, in which he played the Hornet’s sidekick, Kato. Lee returned to Hong Kong to find that the show, which had lasted for just one season in the US, had been a huge success in his hometown – and his portrayal of Kato had won Hong Kongese hearts.

6. His first film in Hong Kong was a triumph at the box office

Back in Hong Kong, Lee signed up with major studio Golden Harvest Productions and made his first movie, The Big Boss, in 1971.

It was a huge hit at the box office. His second film, Fist of Fury, was an even bigger blockbuster.

Lee’s final film - Enter the Dragon - is adored my martial arts aficionados. But the artist himself never saw it. On 20th May 1973 he was due to have dinner with James Bond actor, George Lazenby, but that afternoon he complained of a headache, went for a nap – and never woke up. His cause of death was a cerebral edema, caused by an allergic reaction to painkillers. He was just 32.

Bruce Lee’s films were some of the most influential ever made, because of the way they projected the land of his heritage and caused a genuine shift in the perception of China in the wider world. Before Lee, Chinese roles in Hollywood films were reserved for the bookish, or opiate-addicted. But his alternative image – of a wiry, skilled fighter with immense physical prowess – helped to change the way Asians were presented in American films.

Cementing his status as a Hollywood movie icon, Lee’s star sits in the Hollywood Walk of Fame - although his major films were made in Hong Kong, in Cantonese.

Download the podcast of Chinese Characters - a series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.