Walking Bruce Lee's Oakland with Jeff Chang

"Bruce only lived in The Town for around a year, but it's where he met some of the earliest mixed martial arts masters from Hawaii and where he and James opened up their gung fu school on Broadway, where they trained and developed the spectacular, brutally efficient fighting style that Bruce would go on to make famous on screen."

"Bruce moved here from Seattle at an intense and volatile moment, when a protest movement was emerging at UC Berkeley; when young Japanese American, Chinese American, and Filipino American activists in the East Bay were about to forge an Asian American movement; when a pair of Merritt College students were thinking up the Black Panther Party."

"The story has often been told of him as an Asian - a Chinese person - or as an American. But Chang wanted to tell the story of Bruce as an Asian American."

In 1964, 23-year-old Bruce Lee moved to Oakland during a transformative period for the city and Asian American activism. While teaching dance and training in a garage with James Yimm Lee, he developed the efficient fighting style that would define his career. Oakland's cultural moment—marked by UC Berkeley protests, emerging Asian American activism, and the Black Panther Party's formation—provided the backdrop for Lee's work. Though Lee spent only about a year in The Town, he trained mixed martial arts masters from Hawaii and opened a gung fu school on Broadway. Cultural critic Jeff Chang's biography explores Lee's story through his various places and times, emphasizing his significance as an Asian American figure rather than solely as an Asian or American icon.

Read at The Oaklandside