In Jeff Chang’s prolific book Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, he gives us one of the most insanely comprehensive deep dives into one of the most – if not thee most influential, trailblazing Asian American in history.
The dense, 500-plus page book is busting at the seams with stories, details, first-hand accounts, archival interviews and anything and everything else you can think of when it comes to Bruce Lee. Part IX of the book that spotlights Lee’s life between 1968-1970. Chang intros this section with a quote from artist Charles Gaines:
Marginalization is a word with two edges: as we use it to attack racism, we wound our villain downstroke, but each time we raise the sword for ourselves we wound ourselves… and there is no possible victory, for to be marginal is to be in the battle.
The quote above is the result of my annotations in the book. I am an overzealous annotator when I read books. I have a never ending supply of sticky tabs that I actively use when I read books.
See what I mean?
Gaines’s quote is a representation of what Lee was going through as one of the AAPI “firsts” in the U.S. He was not only a successful actor, but he brought cultural Asian nuance to the masses via martial arts and his Jeet Kine Do, fighting an uphill battle to prove the AAPI diaspora is not a monolith.
Chang showcases Lee with as unbiased as an eye as possible, showing Lee’s successes, challenges, joy, mistakes, arrogance, pride, kindness, love for his family and friends, his dedication to martial arts, and his overall cultural impact in the U.S. and the world. He reframed stereotypes that often plagued Hollywood and fought the good fight for Asian Americans before the term “Asian American” even existed. With that, Lee broke ground by breaking the mold, changing the perception of Asian Americans as he grappled with the complexities of his identity as he navigated his life and career began to thrive in the States and in Hong Kong.
The title, Water Mirror Echo is part of Lee’s “Be like water” philosophy. He says “move like water, reflect like a mirror and respond like an echo, a mantra of adaptability, self-reflection, and lasting influence. The mantra has continued to be a touchstone.
The fact of the matter was that Lee was more than the God-like martial arts abilities that white America tends to tack on to his name. His charisma, power, inescapable influence, and even his flaws help heavily shape the perception of Asian Americans beyond the caricatures that culture pushes forward.
“For me and many others, the idea of Asian Americans and the idea of Bruce Lee were inseparable. He made us real,” writes Chang.
