Water Mirror Echo
Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America
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- $379.00
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- $379.00
Descripción editorial
Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly
Named a Best of the Year by NPR, Vogue, Kirkus Reviews
"This book is as celebratory as it is incisive, as it is, at times, heartbreaking. A massive achievement." — Hanif Abdurraqib, National Book Award-winning author of There’s Always This Year and A Little Devil in America
A cultural biography, both sweeping and intimate, of the legend Bruce Lee, set against the extraordinary, untold story of the rise of Asian America—from the author of the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and one of the finest culture observers of our era.
More than a half-century after his passing, Bruce Lee is as towering a figure to people around the world as ever. On his path to becoming a global icon, he popularized martial arts in the West, became a bridge to people and cultures from the East, and just as he was set to conquer Hollywood once and for all, he died of cerebral edema at age thirty-two. It’s no wonder that Bruce Lee’s legend has only bloomed in the decades since. Yet, in so many ways, the legend has eclipsed the man.
Forgotten is the stark reality of the baby boy born in segregated San Francisco, who spent his youth in war-ravaged, fight-crazy Hong Kong. Forgotten is the curious teenager who found his way back to America, where he embraced West Coast counterculture and meshed it with the Asian worldviews and philosophies that reared him. Forgotten is the man whose very presence broke barriers and helped shape the idea of what being an Asian in America is, at the very dawn of Asian America.
Water Mirror Echo—a title inspired by Bruce Lee’s own way of moving, being and responding to the world—is a page-turning and powerful reminder. At the helm is Jeff Chang, the award-winning author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, whose writing on culture, politics, the arts and music have made him one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices of our time. In his hands, Bruce Lee’s story brims with authenticity.
Now, based on in-depth interviews with Lee’s closest intimates, thousands of newly available personal documents, and featuring dozens of gorgeous photographs from the family’s archive, Chang achieves the nearly impossible. He reveals the man behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows Lee’s growing fame ushering in something that’s turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Chang (Can't Stop Won't Stop) recounts the life of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee in this panoramic biography. Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee grew up in Hong Kong, where he started acting at age six. As a teen, Lee developed a penchant for street fighting, spurring him to learn martial arts, a skill he would later teach in the U.S. and popularize through his films. Chang illustrates how Lee struggled to land gigs in Hollywood, as racist stereotypes limited Asians' roles on screen. He caught a break when he was cast as the sidekick in the 1966 TV series The Green Hornet. Acting on both sides of the Pacific led to an identity crisis, however; in China, Lee was, in his own words, "the superstar," while in the U.S., he was "the exotic Oriental support player." The 1973 release of the major Hollywood film Enter the Dragon launched him into international stardom, but his career was cut short: Lee died the same year, at 32, from massive brain swelling. Peppering the narrative with rich historical details and poignant analyses, Chang persuasively argues that Lee's presence on screen helped shape the idea of what it means to be Asian in America. This definitive account cements Chang as a preeminent chronicler of Asian American history. Photos.
