After watching Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), I asked the kids if they would like a Chinese tunic, remembering I had a black one growing up and it was pretty unique. “Be careful, that could be cultural appropriation” warned my daughter.
Cultural appropriation is not a new problem and is linked to racism. It is the adoption of an element or elements of culture or identity of minority cultures by members of a dominant culture or identity turning them into trends, commodities, or costumes, in a manner perceived as without understanding, permission, or respect. Such inappropriate or unacknowledged actions can be exploitative or offensive.
Cultural identity was a problem that Bruce Lee navigated throughout his life. You must have heard of Bruce Lee (1940–1973). The legendary Chinese-American martial artist, philosopher, and filmmaker. One of those rare cultural icons whose ethos and appeal remain timeless, attracting generation after generation of devotees.
Inspired by the core principles of Wing Chun, the ancient Chinese conceptual martial art, which he learned from his only formal martial arts teacher, Yip Man (I highly recommend the films), from the age of thirteen. When Lee left Hong Kong for San Francisco in 1959, Lee adapted Wing Chun into his own version, Jun Fan Gung Fu and popularised it in America, opening three schools and welcoming students of any race. This was much to the displeasure of many in the martial arts community, who didn’t want to water-down their boy culture’s secrets by sharing them with “white ghosts” and other outsiders.
I think Lee’s own outlook was sharpened by his personal experience of racism in China and America. In China, he was criticised for being ‘too westernised’. Throughout his career in America, Lee was side-lined by Hollywood’s studio system, which operated with extreme racial bias and still used white actors in yellowface to portray Asian characters based on one-dimensional stereotypes. Over and over, Lee was told that white audiences simply wouldn’t accept an Asian man as a lead character in a movie. Television was no better. Although he enjoyed limited success as Kato in Green Hornet, Bruce was not chosen for the part in the upcoming series, The Warrior. This series was released in 1972 as Kung-Fu, starring David Caradine.
This ‘othering’ saw him forge a significant connection with the Black Power movement, which saw him as a symbol of non-white empowerment against oppression. Lee had no time for racism, seeing it as an “unfortunate tradition” and dismissing anyone still clinging to racist beliefs as “backwards and narrow”. He opened a second Jun Fan Gung-Fu school in Oakland, California. Oakland was a crucible of antiracist activism, The Black Panther Party, which advocated self defence for black people, would also be formed there two years later.
And there was ample compensation. Bruce Lee was a very successful entrepreneur. By the time of his death, he had opened three institutes and gave private lessons for up to $1000 an hour to celebrities Steve McQueen, James Coburn, James Garner, Lee Marvin, Roman Polanski, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Bruce Lee understood that celebrating his own culture was the best way of fighting the ignorance and discrimination he saw all around him. This is also how we can make sure that we value other cultures today. Cultural appreciation involves respectful exchange, learning, and acknowledging the source and significance, often with permission and compensation for the originating community, rather than just taking.
Bruce Lee died in 1973 at the age of 32 at the height of his powers is and in unexplained circumstances. His official cause of death was cerebral oedema (brain swelling) due to a reaction to a prescription painkiller which he took for a headache. The source of the headaches is unknown. As with any tragic death of a cultural icon, conspiracy theories abound. Was he murdered by triads, a secret society, or a rival martial artist using a legendary “death touch” (Dim Mak), or even a family curse? The latter theory took on new significance when his son Brandon died tragically on a film set at the age of 28 in 1993. Why does it matter? Bruce’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, reminds us at the end of the documentary: “All these years later, people still wonder about how Bruce died. I prefer to remember how he lived.”
I played Assassins Creed: Shadows this year and enjoyed the intense immersion in the customs and traditions of feudal Japanese culture. I wanted to share this and gifted a fine bottle of sake and a set of sake cups to a relative this Christmas. Mindful to avoid any taint of cultural appropriation, I ensured the cups were handmade in Japan and included some information with them to acknowledge their cultural importance for their new owner.
Dealing with other cultures is a matter of sensitivity, common sense and respect. I looked at political correctness in a previous blog and concluded the same thing there. From the little I’ve learned about him, I think Bruce Lee would have taken the whole idea much further. Maybe he would have seen cultural identity as just another tradition, merely a costume for people to wear while they are evolving. Showing only where they have come from, not who they really are.
Richard C Brown MBE – January 2026
World According to Me: 