“It was his writings that saved me because I was really suffering”
By Thomas Lee
Editorial Director of “We Are Bruce Lee”
Shannon Lee talks to author Jeff Chang about her new book, “Be Water My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee,” at a virtual book event at Green Apple Books on October 10th, 2020.
Shannon Lee has worked hard to secure her father's legacy. She has given countless interviews and talks on what it was like to be the daughter of the famed martial arts legend.
But people often forget that Shannon Lee was only 4 when Bruce Lee died in 1973. (How many of us still remember a lot of things at such a young age?) So perhaps it doesn't come as a particular surprise that her father's greatest impact on her wasn't any particular memory but rather his words.
Bruce Lee wrote extensively on philosophy and it was those writings that prompted her to write "Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee" (Flatiron Books).
Image: Flatiron Books
"One of the things I really wanted to express in this book is how much of a deep thinker and philosopher my father really was," Shannon Lee told author Jeff Chang during a virtual event hosted by Green Apple Books in San Francisco.
"I mean, everybody knows the Bruce Lee, the action hero, the martial artist, they have that picture in their mind, but they don't understand that the reason he's so captivating on screen is because there is this foundation of deep, personal work that he was engaged in," she said. "And that he was real, honest to god philosopher. He didn't just have a few cool quotes. He was deeply read."
Central to Bruce Lee's philosophy is the idea that we should emulate water. Specifically, just as water is fluid, shapeless, and natural, people should adopt a flexibility that would allow them to adapt to whatever turbulence life throws at them.
Though Shannon Lee studied martial arts for a time, it was her father's Be Water philosophy that truly impacted her.
"I've matured and grown over time in big part trying to live into his words, the way that he tried to live into these thoughts and principles as well," Shannon Lee said. "Yes, he approached them more through like a martial doorway, and I approached them more through just like trying to live in this world."
"But it's where we meet," she said. "It's where we intersect. And what's meaningful to me. I wanted to tell stories about him, but also to tell stories about me so that the reader could understand, with these lessons of philosophy weaved in so we can understand that these things work and that they have power."
Shannon Lee talks to author Jeff Chang about her new book, “Be Water My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee,” at a virtual book event at Green Apple Books on October 10th, 2020.
Bruce Lee's words certainly comforted her after the tragic death of her brother Brandon Lee.
"The truth of the matter is that my father's writings really came to me and I really started to delve into them, after my brother died," Shannon Lee said. "And it was his writings that saved me in a way, because I was really suffering."
"If you had met me at that time, I was trying to have an acting career. I was married. I was going to parties and hanging out with friends," she said. "Who you saw on the outside looked fine, looked normal, looked like I was great. But on the inside, I was in so much pain every single day. And I didn't know how to live. I didn't know how to go on moving forward, honestly. I thought: 'I'm in my 20s and I'm supposed to live like this for the next, what, 60 something years? This is crazy.'"
"I've been in dark places where I literally didn't understand how the world was still operating and functioning," Shannon Lee continued. "And that there's the thing in the book where my father, one of his quotes is, ‘Everybody wants to learn the way to win, but nobody wants to learn how to lose.’ And it's like, we all lose maybe not something big but we all have losses in life. And they're hard to deal with. But we have to deal with them in order to heal through them and move through them.”