Water Mirror Echo: The Making and Meaning of Bruce Lee

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"Water Mirror Echo is a remarkable story of a man, the traditions and communities that created him, and the new worlds he made possible. Like Bruce Lee himself, Jeff Chang is blessed with the vision to see things we do not yet see, thinking and writing with a restless, chasm-crossing, almost prophetic ambition."Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofStay True: A Memoir

"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 Theres 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 Americafrom the author of the award-winning classicCant Stop Wont Stopand 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. Its no wonder that Bruce Lees 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 Echoa title inspired by Bruce Lees own way of moving, being and responding to the worldis a page-turning and powerful reminder. At the helm is Jeff Chang, the award-winning author ofCant Stop Wont 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 Lees story brims with authenticity.

Now, based on in-depth interviews with Lees closest intimates, thousands of newly available personal documents, and featuring dozens of gorgeous photographs from the familys archive, Chang achieves the nearly impossible. He reveals the man behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows Lees growing fame ushering in something thats turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.

Author Bio

Jeff Chang's first book, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, was named one of the best American nonfiction books of the last quarter century. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and, among numerous other honors, has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Chang has written three other acclaimed bestsellers on American history and culture, music, and the arts. In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of his award-winning book We Gon' Be Alright for PBS Indie Lens Storycast. Chang was featured in Nguyen's ESPN Bruce Lee documentary, Be Water; the PBS series, Asian Americans; and Lisa Ling's CNN series, This Is Life.