The martial art legend Bruce Lee underwent a lot of adversities, especially with finances and health in his earlier life. Soon after he was born in 1940, his family moved back to Hong Kong from Chinatown, San Francisco. Significantly, the ‘tiny phoenix’ was only 4 months old when he had to get accustomed to Chinese weather. Reunited with a family of thirteen, little Bruce had to live in a cramped household. Eventually, that is the place where he nearly died.
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In 1941, at the time of World War II, China had gone through struggles, and this family was no exception to that. Like his father, who had to suffer from terrible orders from the Japanese console by then, Lee too had his own fair share of hardships. His fatal illness because of the unhealthy environment impacted his overall childhood.
Bruce Lee’s life-threatening sickness led him to become a frail child
In Bruce Lee: A Life, by Matthew Polly, the author decoded the life of the martial artist-turned-actor. In the rundown of events, we came to know about how Lee’s family went through the ordeal of the war, as well as a cholera outbreak. Taken by the Japanese army, China was fighting to survive, just like the “Litle Phoenix”. As denoted in the book, “Born in San Francisco?s peaceful chill air, the chubby infant boy fell dangerously ill in Hong Kong?s humid, cockroach-infested, wartime environment.”
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A cholera outbreak was wiping out the population of the country. Unfortunately, Lee, then known as Bruce Jun Fan Lee, fell prey to the sickness. He was barely sustaining his life. Lee became so weak and frail that his parents thought he would die. Having lost one kid before, his mother was levitating on her weakened son. Later, she implied, “I think I spoiled him because he was so sick,?
Notably, this sickness impacted Lee’s growth and for a long time, he was not as strong as the children were of his age. In fact, he stumbled while walking even when he was four years old. Finally, with time, and with the incredible gene that he possessed, the “tiny phoenix” recovered and started living a normal life, far from the unhygienic and unhealthy life that he used to live once when the family moved to a comparatively elite society.
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Fighting adversities and defeating them from the very initial stage, Lee aspired to become the embodiment of strength and tolerance. Thus, his larger-than-life personality is still glorified, continuing the legacy of the Little Phoenix.
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Edited by
Debmallya Chakraborty