Creative Changemakers: Bruce Lee
You don't have to be an artist to be a Creative Changemaker. But you do need the mindset of an artist.
Visionaries, people who transform our world, all have the habits that my art programs promote.
By cultivating the Studio Habits of Mind through the process of artmaking, we can become, and raise our children to become, the Creative Changemakers the world needs.
Let's review the 8 Studio Habits of Mind, also known as SHoM.
The Studio Habits of Mind is a framework published in 2003 by Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of Education. This is a series of 8 “habits” that researchers saw being taught, implicitly and explicitly, in strong visual arts programs. They saw similar habits being used across academic subjects.
The 8 Studio Habits of Mind are:
So what does Bruce Lee have to do with this?
On the surface, martial arts expert Bruce Lee seems like an unlikely choice for a Creative Changemaker. I mean, he’s just a guy who fights a lot, right?
Bruce Lee was born in the year and hour of the Dragon, November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, while his native Hong Kong parents were there on tour with the Chinese Opera. This made him an automatic dual citizen.
Bruce was raised in Hong Kong and watched as his family and country went through oppressive years of being ruled by Japan during WWII. After he got in trouble for fighting at school, his parents introduced Bruce to martial arts, called gung fu. He studied and practiced diligently, winning high school championships.
Early on, Bruce noticed that his interests in dance, acting, and fitness supported his gung fu. He had the idea to create his own form of gung fu combining several physical, philosophical, and mental disciplines, including fencing, boxing, the balance of yin and yang, focus, decisiveness, flexibility, and most importantly, self-expression.
At the age of 18, Bruce moved to Seattle, where he opened a martial arts studio teaching gung fu (renamed kung fu for the American tongue), and met his future wife Linda. Bruce and Linda married and moved to Oakland, where they opened a second martial arts studio.
The Chinese community in California did not like that Bruce was teaching kung fu to non-Chinese students. They felt that kung fu was an important part of their culture and shouldn’t be shared and dishonored. At the time, kung fu was not widely practiced in the US, and it was unheard of to teach it to non-Asians. Bruce had to physically fight the local kung fu master in order to keep his studio open. Bruce felt it was very important to share his blended, unique form of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do, and its message of self confidence and self expression, with the world. He taught that when the right habits of mind are cultivated, everyone can use these tools to handle challenging life situations.
Through a demonstration at a Karate Tournament, Bruce met William Dozier, a Hollywood film producer. Soon, Bruce began teaching Jeet Kune Do to film stars, athletes, and celebrities. But he still longed to be an actor, writer, director and producer.
Bruce decided if he couldn’t get a lead role in the US, he would try someplace else. In 1970, on a trip to Hong Kong, Bruce signed with production studios there to make two films, “Fists of Fury” and “The Way of the Dragon”, both of which were huge box office successes. In 1972, Warner Bros. signed Lee to create the first American / Hong Kong film co-production, “Enter the Dragon”. These movies changed the way Asians were presented in American films, defying the previous stereotypes of submissive servants or threatening predators.
Bruce Lee died from an allergic reaction to a prescription painkiller on July 20, 1973, one month before the US premier of “Enter the Dragon”.
Today, the Bruce Lee Foundation continues to help people strive for self expression in alignment with mind, body and spirit, through summer camps, martial arts classes for underprivileged youth, museum exhibits, programs focused on inclusion and diversity, and organizations that confront Asian hate.
Let's take a look at how Bruce Lee embodied the SHoM
Bruce Lee was a creative changemaker. He saw problems in our world, desired change, gathered knowledge and resources, and worked to bring about solutions.
What Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) do you see in Bruce Lee’s life story?
Develop Craft - Bruce developed his craft using multiple disciplines, including dance (in fact he was the Hong Kong Cha Cha Champion!), weightlifting, fencing, emotional balance, focus, and more.
Engage & Persist - Bruce persisted through many challenges from discrimination to stereotyping. But he believed in himself.
Envision - Bruce had a clear vision of how he thought the world should be, and everything he did was a step towards that.
Express - Self expression was the defining tenet of Bruce’s work and life. He created his own brand of martial arts and infused meaning into it.
Observe - Bruce was an acute observer, noticing how multiple disciplines combined to forge a new one.
Reflect - Bruce constantly reflected on and improved his programs as he learned new things.
Stretch & Explore - Bruce was the first person to teach martial arts to non-Asians. That decision was the “stretch” that propelled him to work with Hollywood stars. The second "stretch" to make his films in Hong Kong gave him worldwide influence.
Understanding Worlds - Understanding the cultures of both Hong Kong and the United States helped Bruce bridge important gaps in the portrayal of Asians in films and society.
