How Bruce Lee made it 'cool' to be Chinese growing up in America
Jeff Chinn is rightly very proud of his extensive collection of Bruce Lee memorabilia - he is also proud to be Chinese, thanks in no small part to the late martial arts legend.
Jeff Chinn is rightly very proud of his extensive collection of Bruce Lee memorabilia - he is also proud to be Chinese, thanks in no small part to the late martial arts legend.
Chinn, 54, has been collecting Lee-related items since his fascination for the kung fu artist took hold more than 40 years ago.
Today, he has almost 10,000 items in his "Bruce Room" in San Francisco, 230 of which are now on show at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin until July 20, 2018, as part of a larger exhibition, "Bruce Lee: Kung Fu Art Life".
Chinn's collection, however, is far from being just a material obsession; it is a personal story of how his idol Lee made being Chinese "cool" and inspired an American-Chinese boy growing up in a climate of racial discrimination in the 1970s.
"Before [seeing Bruce Lee], I was always ashamed of being Chinese," Chinn said.
"When you look at the stereotypes ... In films, when Caucasian people played Chinese, they would tape their eyes," he added, stretching his eyes to create the obligatory "slits".
"But seeing Bruce Lee made me very proud to be Chinese … this came at a time when I truly wished that I was white."
When Chinn was 11, he was bullied at school in Daly City, California, and would look to his childhood hero for consolation.
"On my bed, I would stare at my Bruce Lee poster after school, after being bullied, and although I never met Bruce Lee, it was almost like he was talking to me, giving me hope," he said.
Chinn loved going to see Lee's films at the cinema and of his entire collection his most prized possessions were the newspaper cuttings he excitedly cut out as a child before going to see Lee's movies.
He showed us an on-set photo of a scene from , made in 1972 and the first Bruce Lee film he saw. It was the scene where Lee's character was stopped at a park sign that read "No dogs and Chinese allowed".
"But Bruce Lee spoke with his fists," Chinn said excitedly holding out his own clenched hands. "He kicked the sign down and everyone in the audience cheered, including me."
Asked whether he believed racial problems still exist for ethnic Chinese in the United States and beyond, Chinn said: "Once in a while, there are problems but there is a better support system… [Racism] is more subtle now."
