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Showing posts from December, 2020

Where Did Bruce Lee Get the Idea for the "Fighting Without Fighting" Scene in Enter the Dragon?

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  Where did Bruce Lee get the idea for the "fighting without fighting" scene in Enter the Dragon?  Introduction One of my favorite scenes in Bruce Lee's 1973 movie Enter the Dragon takes place during the journey to Han's Island. Another martial artist named "Parsons" who has been bullying the boat's crew confronts Lee. Was this an invention of Mr. Lee, or did he get the idea from someone else? Note that although this is my own investigation, the following basic story has been known for decades.  The Scene Enter the Dragon, 1973 You can watch the scene online , or read the script that follows. Parsons: Do I bother you? Lee: Don't waste yourself. Parsons: What's your style? Lee: My style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting. Parsons: The art of fighting without fighting? Show me some of it. Lee: Later. Alright. Don't you think we need more room? Parsons: Where else? Lee: That island. On the beach. We can take this boat. Parsons

Did Bruce Lee Say Something About Swimming?

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  Did Bruce Lee Say Something About Swimming?  Introduction A fellow member of the Martial Arts Studies Facebook group asked for a source of the following supposed Bruce Lee quote: "If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you." It appears in the usual meme and quote locations on the Internet, so I volunteered to track it down. The Sources Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu , Bruce Lee and John Little, 1997 I checked the  Bruce Lee Library and other sources  and found something like it in volume 2,  Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art . It is from the foreword by Bruce's student Taky Kimura. It reads: "Bruce preached to us about the cold facts of life: for example, if you want to become a swimmer, you cannot do so on dry land, you must enter the water. " Bruce Lee: Words of the Dragon , Bruce Lee and John Little, 1997 I also found something similar in volume 1,  Bruce Le