How One Fight Completely Changed Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu Style

One fight in Bruce Lee’s life completely changed his kung fu style. Long before his evolution into a martial arts legend, Lee had a now-famous fight with Wong Jack Man in 1964. Their conflict with each other was the focus of the 2016 Bruce Lee biopic, Birth of the Dragon. The actor is known for creating his own approach to kung fu, which is referred to today as Jeet Kune Do. Designed as a system of ideas about martial arts – rather than a true kung fu “style”, Jeet Kune Do was designed for the purpose of giving the practitioner a way to react to any combat situation, as opposed to forcing them to rely on the traditional stances and moves associated with most ancient kung fu styles.

As for what he practiced before developing Jeet Kune Do, the actor employed a popular Chinese style known as Wing Chun during his youth. As a teenager, he learned Wing Chun kung fu while under the tutelage of Ip Man, the renowned martial arts master who was played by Donnie Yen in the four Ip Man movies. It was in the mid-1960s when Lee started to leave Wing Chun behind in favor of coming up with his own fighting style. What motivated this decision was the fight that Lee had with Wong Jack Man, a martial artist who had trained in Xing Yi Quan, Northern Shaolin, and Tai Chi.

Supposedly, the two fought as a result of a challenge from Chinese kung fu masters, who wanted Lee to stop teaching Kung fu to non-Chinese. Exactly who won is up for debate as a result of conflicting accounts, but Lee’s own comments on the matter confirm one thing about the fight, which is that it made him realize that his current fighting style wasn’t working for him. The difficulties he faced in beating Wong caused Lee to rethink his commitment to Wing Chun. Without mentioning Wong Jack Man by name, Lee said in an interview that he figured out Wing Chun’s flaws while fighting a “kung fu cat” who was trying to get away from him

during their match [via All That’s Interesting]. He claimed that because his opponent had turned his back on him to escape, Lee was forced to attack him from behind. According to Lee, his hand swelled from repeatedly striking the back of Wong’s head. He explained that this was the moment when it occurred to him that Wing Chun wasn’t practical. After the fight, Lee revaluated his fighting style, abandoned Wing Chun, and started working on the principles that would define Jeet Kune Do. Regardless of what actually happened when Lee and

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Wong Jack Man they came to blows on that day in 1964, and there is no doubting the impact their fight had on the former’s fighting style and martial arts philosophy. It was through his fight with Wong that Lee came to understand that traditional kung fu styles limited martial artists and prevented them from taking the steps necessary to win. With this realization, Lee decided it was important to develop a system that would allow the fighter to adapt to the situation at hand. This philosophy is reflected in many of Bruce Lee’s ideas, including his quote “be water.”