Bruce Lee and the enduring jeet kune do spirit
Forty years after his death, two of Bruce Lee's siblings reminisce about their famous brother's life and a legacy that is inspiring a whole new generation of fighters. Jo Baker reports
The most highly billed appearances, however, are those of a pair who are not part of the fight club here at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands resort. As the first day of talks wind down, a convention room fills and falls quiet for two unassuming figures in the autumn of their years.
Neither compete, but they are happy to spin some eagerly received yarns about a long-dead fighting legend.
"Bruce was way ahead of his time in martial arts," announces Bruce Lee's younger brother, Robert Lee Chun-fai. "He wanted to show that there really is no set way in fighting and there is no limit. He believed that martial artists should not be bound to only just one or a few styles."
Hong Kong's most famous son is an unofficial figurehead for mixed martial arts (MMA) - not just as an iconic fighter, but as the man who pioneered its founding principles on a global scale. A fledgling but fast-growing sport that mixes fighting styles in showy, caged and sometimes vicious displays, MMA commands an estimated 60-million-strong television audience in more than 70 countries, and has in the past few years begun to reach the Asian mainstream. Its heroes may not be household names yet, but they are beginning to be tossed around in bars, gyms and school grounds, from the Philippines to Japan. And though popular opinion suggests that Lee would have struggled to make it in today's top MMA tiers, 40 years after his death his name evokes a unique sense of affection among fighters.
"To ask the relevance of Bruce Lee to MMA is to ask the relevance of Picasso to modern art," says Melvin Lee (no relation), who works at the Budo Academy in Penang, Malaysia. "You ask any top MMA guy, 90 per cent will say that he inspired them to fight."
