WATER MIRROR ECHO

Martial arts mastery, big-screen immortality.

This expansive biography of an iconic actor doubles as a nuanced history of Asian American empowerment. Chang, the author of books about hip-hop and race, adeptly shows how Lee’s magnetism and physical talents, showcased in Enter the Dragon and other beloved action movies, helped spur “an awakening among racialized minorities.” Lee, whose father was a stage performer, was born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, then a British colony, where he learned gung fu—“kung fu” is an Americanization, Chang explains—and appeared in numerous films as a child. He moved back to the U.S. as a young man, hoping to become an esteemed martial arts teacher. His students included Steve McQueen and Roman Polanski. After his “spinning kicks” and “one-inch punch” impressed Hollywood stars attending a 1964 California martial arts tournament, TV came calling. In a period when white actors frequently portrayed Asian characters, Lee’s appearance as a superhero’s butt-kicking chum on ABC’s The Green Hornet was a breakthrough, though he was discouraged that Hollywood remained mostly closed to Asian American actors. Lee’s eventual fame in Hong Kong–produced movies made him a hero to many, among them Asian Americans shedding “the reflex to obliterate themselves in the presence of whites.” Since the actor died from brain swelling in 1973—and notwithstanding his family’s objections—his renown has been leveraged in so-called Bruceploitation movies with titles like Bruce Has Risen. Chang relates these details against a shifting set of crisply depicted backdrops, from 1960s Asian American student activism to the stylistic debates that shaped martial arts during Lee’s time. Chang perhaps overdoes it when contending that Lee “has come now to represent the necessity of solidarity and the fight for freedom everywhere,” but such minor exaggerations don’t diminish this insightful book’s appeal.

A rousing portrait of a charismatic actor who redefined global stardom.