Angry Asian Man, You Are Not Alone.

Bruce Lee’s not the only angry Asian man around. This is Beau Sia, one of my favorite spoken word poets, performing on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam (sorry for the low quality).

Sia said in an interview that he actually prefers performing for non-Asian audiences, because of the opportunity to present a new voice, and not just reiterate frustrations with which Asian-American community is already familiar. This means this piece was written as a direct address to a non-Asian audience; it’s deliberately confrontational, reactionary.

So how does this angry Asian man compare with the one we’ve seen kicking ass in Enter the Dragon? For starters, there’s the image that each chooses to portray. Bruce’s powerful, muscular, battle-scarred body is a direct contrast to the hunched, fragile-looking Yellowman of Broken Blossoms. Beau, on the other hand, chooses to go with the fluffy pink turtleneck. Baffling at first, but one can compare the sweater to Bruce’s often-imitated falsetto yells. A comedian in an earlier video post claimed that Bruce Lee was the only person in the world that could make those noises and still be scary. Similarly, I think Beau Sia’s got to be the only guy who can wear that sweater and still be just as badass.

We discussed how Bruce Lee seems to portray himself as almost superhuman-- or at least otherworldly. He chooses to abstain from sex and alcohol, and he promotes the art of “fighting without fighting,” which is a noble statement (on top of being plain ol’ magic). Whereas Beau seems to scream that he is just as human as everyone else. He doesn’t claim to be above sex-- just better at it. Bruce Lee’s character (though significantly more impressive) still retains much of the oriental exoticism we’ve addressed-- yet in his hands it seems more like an expression of pride in Asian culture than an exploitation of it. After all, the “finger pointing at the moon” line isn’t just kung fu movie hocus-pocus, but comes straight out of Buddhist scripture.

One sequence of Enter the Dragon that I found interesting was the final fight scene with Han. In its final moments, Bruce literally becomes lost in a maze of images, and is confused by the multiple shifting reflections of himself and of his enemy. He is only able to defeat Han by shattering the phantom images in order to confront the real villain. The scene is a powerful statement. We, too, must first study and become absorbed by the images of our own bodies that are projected around us. But studying them isn’t enough. Our ultimate goal has to be to destroy these images, and thereby to get at the social problems that underlie them.

As a final parting gift, here’s another fantastic clip from Beau Sia, this time addressing pop culture in general.

Orientalism and the Illusion of Third World Solidarity in Enter the Dragon

Despite being filmed in Hong Kong and the presence of Bruce Lee at all stages of the production, Enter the Dragon is a film that pays no respect to anything Chinese. The China of Enter the Dragon is no more than a bastardized pastiche of Orientalist tropes, starting with the very beginning with Lee’s character at the Shaolin temple. Despite ostensibly being a monastery, complete with bald Buddhist monks in orange robes, Bruce Lee speaks of only of the trite “philosophy” of combat. Throughout the film, Lee displays a thoroughly cocky attitude and a crypto-fascist fascination with violence (recall the scene of the mantis fight). Despite his little spiel about the art of fighting without fighting, at no time does Lee even give an opportunity for Han’s minions to turn tail and flee.

The scene of the banquet is travesty. Complete with sumo wrestlers, acrobats, caged birds, and a Chinese orchestra, the banquet is nothing more than a mythologized white Asia, an Asia that is commodified for foreign consumption. Even Chinese people are commodified—it is implied through the body language the white Roper and the two Chinese women servants who flank him, that the women are available for sexual favors. Compare this to the representation of Chinese men, who basically huddle to themselves. In the cases where Chinese men and women are together interacting, as in the brief scene at the 36:30 mark, they are actually engaged in friendly conversation instead of nonchalantly smiling like Roper. Note the difference in body language as well. The woman that the two Chinese men are conversing with stands over them, while Roper sits above his women in a clear display of dominance.

Like the other two protagonists, the character of Williams is equally problematic. Introduced as an inner city martial artist linked to pan-Africanism and black power, he is potentially the most politically radical character, and he makes several moves in this direction. First, he fights the racist cops in a physical act of standing up for his community. Later, as he enters Hong Kong, he goes on foot instead of being taxied around on rickshaw like Roper. And he even makes a comment about the misery of the Hong Kong slums, seemingly a show of solidarity. However, this veneer quickly wears transparent. When he is offered the predominantly-Asian gaggle of sex slaves by Han’s assistant, he does not hesitate for a moment and becomes the buck mandingo of white fantasies. In one swoop, he uncritically replicates the exploitation of women, of Asia and the Third World, and of the underclass. His sense of class solidarity and consciousness of exploitation either does not extend to women or is dropped the instant he can turn an advantage and become an exploiter himself. Later, as Williams watches the execution of the poor guards, whose leniency towards his violation of Han’s rules invited a death sentence, his face does not betray the slightest bit of shock or compassion. In the end Asians, and by extension the Third World, are faceless, voiceless, and serve as nothing but fodder to the West.

Bruce Lee as the model minority

To expand Clarissa’s post regarding Fu Manchu vs. the Model Minority, I would like to bring up the question of language. Clarissa wrote, “In true Fu Manchu-mode, Han is an urbane, evil genius who aims to infiltrate Western society and bring about its moral collapse.” The fact that Han is an urbane genius should be explored further. In my view, it is no coincidence that Han’s English is near flawless, with a slick sonorousness that is befitting of a ruler, while Lee’s English is heavily accented and somewhat mousy to boot. Lee’s character never has the booming vocal presence of Han, and his exaggerated screaming is at times cringe-worthy.

The point of such a distinction is that the figure of the Oriental madman, as an emblem of the Yellow Peril, is threatening for the very reason that he is able to blend into white society. He is capable, if he chooses, of threatening the cultural exclusivity of white assimilation. By the same token, the model minority is never threatening because he is always marked by demeanor and speech as ineluctably foreign. It is reminiscent of early gangster films, in particular Scarface (1932), starring Paul Muni as the titular character. In that film, Scarface represents a dangerous model of assimilation—he abandons his first-generation Italian mother, speaks a slangy, urban English, and shortens his given name Antonio to simply Tony. Tony Calmonte buys all the luxuries of American life, including an Anglo girlfriend. Han, incidentally, also has a blonde white woman as his closest assistant. About midway through Scarface, we are shown a citizens’ meeting in which various representatives of an urban community gather to discuss Calmonte’s crime spree. The representative from the Italian-American community, speaking only at the end when the Anglos have had their bits, shakes his fist and rattles off “That’sa true-a, he’sa disgrace-a to my people!” It is a typical device in these films to contain the threat of the alien by marking the “ideal” ethnic citizen with traits that are foregrounded and superficially apparent. In being largely incapable of speech and more or less inhuman in fighting prowess (Bruce Lee is never seriously challenged in any of his matches), Lee is inadvertently playing into a construction of racial otherness that is contained by whiteness.

This is the same sort of contained racialization that allowed whites to appreciate non-white fighters like Joe Louis, whose manager John Roxborough forced to be on his “best behavior” at all times, outlined by the following seven commandments:

1. He was never to have his picture taken along with a white woman.

2. He would never go into a nightclub alone.

3. There would be no soft fights.

4. There would be no fixed fights.

5. He was never to gloat over a fallen opponent.

6. He was to keep a dead pan in front of the cameras.

7. He was to live and fight clean.

Joe Louis was loved by whites for the reason that he was not Jack Johnson, who held the championship from 1908-1915. Johnson lived large, boasted, boozed around, and married white women, essentially living his life just to piss off the white man. In Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee is Joe Louis to Han’s Jack Johnson.

This is not to say that Bruce Lee's other films are devoid of conscious radicalism. This one is just a real stinker, even though it has some of the greatest martial arts sequences ever filmed.

Bringing sexy back... to Bruce Lee

Well, a lot of people pointed out that the character Lee has been pretty much castrated in Enter the Dragon, so I'd like to start with a moment of zen from comedian Steve Byrne (NOT work safe):



So this was the first time I had ever seen a Bruce Lee movie, but I saw that act by Steve Byrne a few weeks ago and was doubling over laughing even though I hadn't the shadiest clue what a Bruce Lee movie really looked like. And as I read through the posts here, I find out I'm not the only non-initiated viewer. It's amazing that our whole view of The Legendary Bruce Lee has been formed from pretty much a single movie. To think of all the places he could've led cinema if he had lived... I don't think Bruce Lee would've let the crazy kungfu chicken calls reverberate through the halls of history.

Seeing as how it was pretty much Bruce's first cautious step into American cinema, of course there's so much wrong with this film (though at the same time, I seriously enjoyed it). The role of women was pretty laughable (and by laughable, I mean I'm ready to torch its effigy) and the way it presents race was woefully confusing and incomplete. From that chapter in Prashad's book, it's clear Bruce Lee was going to go somewhere with the representation of race in his movies, but the idea was never allowed to develop in later movies he might have made so we're left dangling and confused. Step one was getting Warner Brothers to actually release the film, and step two... well, he never quite got there.

It's funny that Bruce Lee never did become the Asian hero he wanted to portray, and yet we've taken what he has done and turned THAT into an Asian hero. Every scrawny Asian boy suddenly had a role model: if they weren't strong, they could at least by FAST like Bruce Lee. And yeah, this is all wrapped up in a nicely desexualized package... that's why we get a kick out of imagining the on-screen Lee having sex.

But still, I like what Bruce Lee did in Enter the Dragon. It was the beginning of an alternate portrayal of manhood that was obviously needed (given Bruce Lee's continuing popularity). Unfortunately, I don't really see Jackie Chan and Jet Li re-sexing the role Bruce Lee created (though if you watch some of Jackie Chan's HK movies... man, that's a different story). We still haven't given Bruce Lee back his manhood yet.

Ambivalence and Enter the Dragon

To be completely honest, I don’t know exactly what to make of Enter the Dragon and find myself to be ambivalent. Therefore, please let this entry be a way for me to talk through some points of discussions and if anyone can comment, I would greatly appreciate it. Firstly, I am trying to put into focus the role of women in the film. On the most superficial level, the women were objects to be enjoyed and used by the men in the film. For example, when the girls were brought into the rooms of Williams, Roper, and Lee. Women were also used as a way to make the situation more dramatic or sympathetic. Two examples illustrate this point, the first being the suicide of Lee’s sister. Was suicide the only option? I honestly don’t believe it was and that her storyline was gratuitous. (The scene was a little too Butterfly for me). The second example is Tania’s (Han’s assistant?) death at the very end of the film. One may argue that Lee’s sister’s death was needed to give Lee’s storyline more emotional depth; however, Tania’s death seemed more of an afterthought, though it too was used to give Roper sympathy. Nevertheless, her character’s role was ambiguous. Was she helping Han? Was she actually on the “good guy’s” side? This ambiguity made her death lack depth. Mei Ling also seemed to lack any particular role except to release the men at the end which could have easily been done by any other character. Needless to say, there were other examples of women as objects.

Moving from gender, I would like to discuss race in the film. Chapter 5 from Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting really changed my view of the movie and made me question the impact of Kung Fu/Karate on American culture. However, I wished the chapter had addressed the commercialization of it which taints our view nowadays. Furthermore, I had no idea that so many organizations existed and cooperated with each other, but I question how biased the book is. Additionally, though I enjoyed William’s character the most, I also question his death. Would the film have worked if Roper had died instead of William? As a last comment on William, I found his lines the most observant out of all the characters especially the one on the fact that ghettos all look the same. The film also made me wonder about Lee’s role. One could see the film as Asian against Asian and therefore Han serves as bad Asian and Lee as good Asian, but I think I’m making the film too simplistic? Lastly, Chapter 5 also seemed to celebrate the film and no doubt there are aspects that should be celebrated but I found the film to be incredibly dated, more so than the other movies we have seen (except for Flower Drum Song). Therefore, I find myself both agreeing with the chapter and disagreeing with it.

Finally, I would like to comment on the film’s structure. Firstly, the flashbacks as the men approached the ship were formulaic and did anyone else notice that the music stopped when there was fighting? I hope that class will help to pull some themes together to at least give me a position on the film. Also, I found the essay in Alien Encounters to be enlightening as far as giving Pulp Fiction more merit. Furthermore, could we discuss if there is a tie between pulp fiction and Enter the Dragon?

-Christopher Huynh

Response: Enter the Dragon

First of all I, like many other posters, am really glad we got to watch this movie because it became clear to me how pervasive its influence has been. From the plot of Mortal Kombat (which is said to have been based on this film) to the villain in the cartoon series Inspector Gadget (an iron-clawed figure always shown stroking a white cat, much like the villain in Enter the Dragon) to the omnipresent shrieking noise (which--I agree with others who have said this--really did cheapen many of the action scenes), this film really seems to have left its mark on popular culture in ways that I was previously unaware of.

As to the film's portrayals of Asian people, I thought it was interesting that both the main bad guy and the main good guy were Asian, rendering Lee's defeat of the main villain free from racial power dynamics. Although we do see Bruce Lee kick some white people's butts (most notably that of Oharra), none of them are truly worthy opponents (Oharra fights unfairly and his death is seen as justifiable anyway because he is responsible for the death of Bruce Lee's character's sister). I can't help but feel that this is not just a coincidence. Would it have been taboo to have depicted Lee triumphing over a white opponent who was actually a real match for him? I for one would have been excited to see such a blatant overturning of racial power dynamics. Unfortunately Enter the Dragon chose not to "rock the boat," opting to take the safe route of pitting Lee against an Asian villain.

Moreover, Lee (as many others have noted) was desexualized in his portrayal. Although I was glad that, unlike the other men, he would not pick a woman from the harem to be his sex slave (soo sexist!), it did set him up as being different and somehow less of a man than Roper and Williams (the other two "good guys"). Even if Lee didn't pick a woman from the harem, I am so used to the heroes of action movies ending up with a beautiful woman that the fact the Lee had no love interest whatsoever seemed strange and reinforced this notion of the Asian man as asexual.

Even so, Bruce Lee's fighting was truly awe-inspiring--so graceful and yet so effective--and I found it gratifying to see such a powerful Asian man in a mainstream American movie. Granted, his fight scenes were made somewhat comic by the ridiculous shrieking noises that seemed to be dubbed in, but Bruce Lee was nonetheless quite a force to be reckoned with, and I have no trouble understanding why he is seen as an icon by many young Asian Americans (particularly boys).

My Chinese American fiance was certainly a fan, although perhaps not Lee's most devoted fan. He admits that he never really liked Lee's American films, feeling that he was always portrayed with more depth of character in the films he made in Hong Kong. He actually has a rather large collection of subtitled Asian movies and has always been more of a fan of the films of Stephen Chow, but I wonder how many other Asian Americans have had that exposure. I suspect that nowadays (owing to globalization, etc.) that number is relatively high, but in the 1970s Bruce Lee may have been one of the few Asian film stars young Asian Americans ever saw. Whether or not this is the case, he was and remains one of only a few Asian actors to make it big in American mainstream cinema, and so I cannot help but feel an affection for Enter the Dragon, even as I reject some of its more problematic elements.

Bruce Lee: the model minority?

In spite of bad acting and cheesy one-liners I generally appreciated the entertainment value of Enter the Dragon. As it was my first Bruce Lee film, I finally understood the origins of the martial arts films, and it was in a sense a mini popular culture history lesson for me. While observing the emasculation and de-sexualization of Bruce Lee, I also realized how far more recent kung fu movies starring Asian men such as Jet Li or Jackie Chan have come in terms of a more masculine portrayal (although they are not much better).

The major issue I had with the Asian American men in the movie was that, like Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, they are inserted into a plot with very extreme roles. Whether it be as one of the villains or the emasculated comedian, these men almost have to compensate for the fact that they are Asian or "different" by being molded into a stereotype. In doing so, they often create or perpetuate different stereotypes of Asian American men that is neither fair nor accurate. Like so, Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon represents the American audience's captivation with martial arts at the time and can be viewed more as a symbol than an actual human being. His uncanny ability to fight and kill dozens of men with mere scratch here and there is not new to an American action flick hero, but unlike 007 or Superman, he does not have a leading lady by his side either. Perhaps Bruce Lee's role as an "asexual" marital arts extraordinaire demonstrates the idea of Asian Americans as a model minority. Without his ability to be a sexual character, the Asian male is not a threat to the sexuality of the White male- an interesting departure from the predatory image of the Asian male that preceded it.

Throughout the film, Bruce Lee is not given much of a voice. After the first half of the movie being a meager attempt at creating a plot, the last half is pure action, perhaps after the realization that an actual plot may never materialize. After a few lines in the first half of the film, the only sounds that come from Lee are the high-pitched noises that have made him so famous. Without all the fighting, one could easily assume that Roper is the leading male, as he was the only person whose character development reached an acceptable level.

“Waaaaaaa!!!” It’s Bruce Lee

Was anybody else annoyed/humored/confused by the ridiculous dubbed piercing squeals and shrieks when Bruce Lee was fighting?

Bruce Lee poises an interesting image for Asian American masculinity, one of physical strength, brute force, and bulging muscles. In essence, he is the opposite of the “yellow man” in broken blossoms.

At the same time, Bruce Lee is not sexualized in the way (even though sexism, misogyny, and women as objects are highly problematic in this film). Both Williams and Roper (the other antagonists) sleep with women every night since they arrive on the island. Choosing which woman/women to sleep with is like choosing candy from a candy store for these men (soooo problematic) however, Bruce Lee does not engage in this behavior showing a troublesome conflict: he is depicted as moral and desexed.
I’m not suggesting that Bruce should sleep with many women in the film (a way masculinity is commonly constructed), but I just question how he’s constructed in comparison to other main male characters in the film, specifically Williams and Roper.

I also want to bring up the male body in the film- there’s a bit of objectification and homoerotic undertones in this film around the male body.
Even though there’s all this male-on-male ass kicking in the film, there is something about the way Bruce Lee is visually shown especially when he’s fighting. To me there’s this sense of desirability in the male body that’s shown in scenes like Bruce Lee fighting (mostly with no shirt on) and when Williams is putting on his robe after having sex with many women.

Power to the "other" through Kung Fu

My younger brothers both have Bruce Lee posters taped on their bedroom walls (though the 15-year-old one has recently replaced his with images of UFC favorites), and apparently a whole generation of Asian American males has done the same. Watching “Enter the Dragon” this week was my first Bruce Lee experience, and I could easily see why so many of my peers (or a handful of Asian American male friends at Brown) have admitted to modeling their lives on his. Lee’s character is strong, fearless, composed, and confident; he garners respect for his skill in martial arts and also for his unquestionable morality. Bruce Lee is a challenge to the media and advertising industry’s favorite “all-American” man, whose blonde hair and bulky muscles make him look so very natural with a football in hand.

Vijay Prashad’s “Kung Fusion” article shed light on the polycultural appeal of kung fu, especially within Asian American and black communities. He writes: “Kung fu gives oppressed young people an immense sense of personal worth and the skills for collective struggle. Kung fu, Bruce pointed out…‘develops confidence, humility, coordination, adaptability and respect toward others.’” (133) The respect and confidence underdog youths seek through martial arts (as Prashad describes) is something I know well.

My youngest brother, now a freshman in high school, is probably at the height of awkwardness and identity-confusion. Tall and lanky, he has immense disdain for the football players that pick on him and the “jocks” who make fun of his being Chinese (which baffles me, by the way, considering we live in a relatively diverse and absolutely liberal part of NorCal). He found martial arts a few years ago and with it discovered a new kind of confidence, bordering on cockiness. The skills have actually distanced him, more than anything, from what he considers the “mainstream,” and I doubt he is alone in this experience.

Drawing from this week’s sources and personal observations, I can say that martial arts has become an outlet for the “other” in American culture, which includes the oppressed. It provides a sense of empowerment, but at the same time further cements one’s status within that “other” category. So it makes sense on many levels that Bruce Lee is the image of strength that Asian American males can most easily (or acceptably) aspire to match: he is an Asian face, is anything but the norm, and has no desire to prove strength the “all-American” way. Being the “other”, then, is a good thing—it’s just too bad that all these images are so polarizing.

Enter the Dragon: Kung Fu 007?

Bruce Lee's kung fu moves in Enter the Dragon doubtlessly inspired generations of young American kids to learn martial arts. However, I found the film problematic for several reasons, namely, in its portrayal of Asian men, its rampant sexism and objectification of women, and the fact that it seemed to lift a lot of its material from the James Bond series.

The tournament arranged by Han, the arch, sinister villain of the movie, brings together martial arts masters of various races and nationalities. The noteworthy characters are Williams, an African-American man, Roper, an white American playboy (who looks *suspiciously* like Sean Connery), and Oharra, a white man of dubious nationality, who is also happens to be Lee's nemesis. Han's games are held on his private island, where the masters are invited to stay, and are provided with liberal food, hospitality, and promises of sexual encounters with exotic Asian females.

Han's army of martial artists, all Asian men, do not really have speaking roles in the film. His guards are nameless and identity-less; they are there to provide Lee a chance to show off his prowess. In the first glimpse we see of Han's extravagant hospitality, Asian men sumo wrestle as exotic dishes are carried around by waiters. Lee's voice, when he exclaims while making his kung fu moves, has been dubbed over with a strange, high-pitched squeal -- is this meant to parodize Asian men? I'm not quite sure. Lee, I must say, is really bad-ass, and an excellent hero. However, I was rather flummoxed that the American army had to come in and save the day... why couldn't Lee have all the glory?

The women in Enter the Dragon, with the exception of Lee's sister (who is driven to kill herself by Han's men and Oharra in a flashback at the start of the film), are submissive, silent, and slave-like. They are, essentially, sex slaves for Han and his male cohorts. In addition, we learn that Han has been drugging beautiful women with heroin/opium, and keeping them captive in his underground lair. These women we encounter are mostly white -- I suppose this is meant to signify white slavery by an evil Asian opium den lord.

I'm a big James Bond fan, and I know that many of the Bond films predate Enter the Dragon. Therefore, I was a little annoyed that this movie seemed to borrow so much from Bond -- it clearly would be able to stand on its own, I think, and many of the Bond elements seemed cheesy or out of place. The music, for example, sounded quite Bond-esque, but it clashed with the more "Chinese" music at the beginning of the film. The styling and shots were also very Bond. And Han's white cat? Totally Doctor No. Also, the fact that Roper so closely resembles Sean Connery was probably no accident. One thing that was different: Lee refused to use guns, and this made me happy. It prevented the film from veering into Asian-remake-of-Bond territory and made Enter the Dragon really unique.