“No national form of fighting approaches Chinese boxing in the diversity and profundity of its forms. Traditionally, Chinese boxing has either been taught by verbal instruction, without books, or taught by secrets handed down by teachers to trusted students.  Although effective as a means of transmitting a worthwhile system, this method was vulnerable to amateurs’ stealing and modifying part of the corpus.  My intention has been to reflect the real, so that the reader may be equipped to reject the chicanery of the charlatans and their associates in the media.  What passes in the West as kung fu (even the name is a distortion) is ludicrous by comparison.”
Robert W. Smith, Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods, 1974

Robert W. Smith (December 27, 1926 – July 1, 2011) was an American martial artist and writer, most noted for his prodigious output of books and articles about the Asian martial arts and their masters. Smith’s writing was an important factor in the spread of Asian martial arts such as judo, karate, and taijiquan into the postwar United States.

“People don’t get the kind of speed and power that is required in effective Gung Fu from just doing techniques.  Bruce’s power was the result of his body development which he pushed to such a high level that he was approaching maximum human tolerances…The hard work and dedication that this kind of effort requires prevents most people from becoming good martial artists…Many people who practice Gung Fu think there is something  magical in the movements of the forms that will turn them into heavy punchers and kickers.  The best that any style can give you is a loose structure and guidelines which can result in the smooth application of the movements involved in a particular system.  If your desire is to do a high speed dance, then the practice of forms will do it for you.  If, on the other hand, you desire blinding fast movements, with powerful kicks and punches you must go far beyond the methods that are taught in formal classes.”

Jesse Glover, Bruce Lee Between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do

Be like water, my friend.
Bruce Lee

In 1971, Bruce Lee was at another crossroads.

He’d been a child actor in Hong Kong, then moved to the states (where he had citizenship, having been born in San Francisco) and studied at the University of Washington (Drama major). He’d started teaching and trading skills with a group of young men in Seattle, and through one of them, met James Yimm Lee, an Oakland resident with whom he found a kindred spirit in their take on martial arts (whatever works).

He moved to Oakland and opened a school there (under his Chinese name, Jun Fan). Again, a connection he made here led him to meet Ed Parker, an LA resident and martial arts enthusiast. He went down to LA and did some demos at Ed Parker events and met a producer and this led to a part in the TV show The Green Hornet.  A year later, he was getting a few parts here and there thanks to his friends, but not enough.  His student, Sterling Silliphant, wrote him into a dream part on the TV show Longstreet, but then that was over too.

His producer friend recommended he go make a feature film in Hong Kong (who were making him offers, off his Green Hornet fame), which he could then show to US Producers and to prove his box office viability.  He make a 2 picture deal with Golden Harvest and the rest is history.  This interview was right after his first HK film, The Big Boss was released.  It was a smash hit.

The film was an instant success, taking just 3 days to reach HK$1 million, and a week to reach HK$2 million. By the end of its relatively brief run (ending on 18 November), The Big Boss had made HK$3.2 million, shattering the previous record held by The Sound of Music by more than HK$800,000. An estimated 1.2 million people in Hong Kong, out of a population of four million, had paid to watch the film. It remained the highest-grossing film of all time in Hong Kong until Lee’s second film, Fist of Fury, was released in March 1972.
Wikipedia