Bruce Lee Was Once Put Down on a Police List After Joining Ip Man’s School

Martial artist Bruce Lee‘s early life primarily consisted of street fights, landing him in grave trouble. Not only that, his rebel-like character became an apple of discord among the Lee family members. His father, Hoi Chuen even barred him from acting as disciplinary action against him. However, Lee gravitated towards martial art later in his life. Hence, he joined master Ip Man’s training school. 

Stirring problems out of thin air became an everyday phenomenon since the actor’s street episodes intensified eventually. Lee’s biography recounts the aftermath of one such incident where Lee literally invited trouble in the form of police officials. What did the Little Phoenix do this time? 

Bruce Lee ran amok the Hong Kong streets calling for trouble with the police

According to the book, Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly, the Hong Kong star joined a Kung Fu school to emulate the craft under the tutelage of a revered master, Ip Man. However, channeling the learnings inside the dark alleys of Hong Kong, Man’s students were driven by their raw and tumultuous patterns of behavior. Lee, too, was one of them. The reputation of “the baddest boys on the street” brought about real distress when Lee and his friend Hawkins were put down by the local police, on the list of “juvenile delinquents.” Since then, the police had set their eyes on the boys for any future escapades.

Additionally, Lee’s parents knew little of his martial arts endeavor until a year later. “Mom and Dad only realized Bruce had been studying Wing Chun about a year later, when they heard about him getting into even more trouble,” his brother, Robert Lee said. 

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Shockingly, their master, Ip Man himself encouraged the boys to go out and try their hands at real street fights. “Don’t believe me, as I may be tricking you. Go out and have a fight. Test it out,” the grandmaster teased, as stated in the book. By the same token, his father once decided to confront him for his insane street acts. And things got really ugly. 

A hurt and concerned father dismissed Bruce Lee’s bad-boy attitude as a waste of time

At one point in time, Lee had crossed all limits. Even after being a trained martial artist, he wouldn’t refrain from amateurish street fights. After a fight with a Kung Fu instructor, the Little Phoenix got home with a blackened eye and a busted lip. Not regretting his actions, he said to Robert, “These are just surface-level wounds on me! You should have seen the other guy.” 

His father was not convinced. Hoi Chuen reprimanded him and called out his stunt as, “embarrassing the family and wasting his life with fighting.” Angered by the remark, Lee swore to make a name for himself in the industry and bluntly put forward that he wouldn’t drift away from fighting. 

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The rest is history. It is difficult to imagine how things would’ve turned out for him if he wouldn’t have pursued his martial arts dream. Besides that, he even triumphed in the film industry and is a torchbearer of action films in the West.