?Don?t Give a Damn How Much They Pay Me?: Bruce Lee Lost Out on a Number of Roles Once Due to a “Degrading” Chinese Tradition

Martial art legend and actor Bruce Lee rose to fame after facing several hurdles in his career. Initially, he wanted to build his martial art school in America. However, it proved to be an unsuccessful endeavor. By the late 1960s, Lee began taking chances in Hollywood. For the first time, the martial art icon was exposing himself to the western entertainment world, but it did not mean he was comfortable doing everything he was asked. Due to this, Lee lost many opportunities too.?

Bruce Lee was a man of great self-respect. In his biography, Bruce Lee: A Life, author Mathew Polly revealed that during his difficult days, Lee lost many roles because he said no to wearing the “degrading” Chinese pigtail.

Here?s what Bruce Lee thought of the Chinese pigtail

The story of the Chinese pigtail, or queue, dates back to the 1600s. It was originally the hairstyle of Manchu (in north-eastern China). In 1644, the Manchu military conquered China and ordered the Han Chinese to follow their hairstyle. It was a symbol of submission, and later repression.?

As a result, many Hollywood shows used Chinese pigtails to stereotype the image of the Chinese man. However, this was strongly opposed by Lee, and he discarded those roles in 1968. He revealed to director Peter Baldwin while shooting for Blondie that year, ?Most of those shows want me to wear a queue and I won?t do that. I don?t give a damn how much they pay me. Wearing those queues is real degrading.??

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Nevertheless, he also expressed that Chinese men wore it when they were ruled by the Manchus. He further revealed, ?They forced the Chinese natives to wear those damn pigtails to mark them as women.? Indeed, a high self-esteem person like Lee would never wear the queue as it was extremely demeaning for him. From the start of his career, Lee remained himself. However, he learned this lesson at a time, when he was making his Hollywood debut.

Lee?s mistake made him a great actor

In an interview with Hong Kong Press, Lee revealed that when he was on the sets of his Hollywood debut show, The Green Hornet, he found himself being a robot. He stated in his biography, ?When I first arrived [in Hollywood] I did The Green Hornet. As I looked around I saw a lot of human beings, as I looked at myself I was the only robot there, because I was not being myself.???

On his first day on the set, Lee realized that he was only doing the things he was asked to do. He was not being himself. It made him feel overlooked. Therefore, from the next day, Lee began to add a part of himself in every scene he shot. It made him highly noticeable in the western audience.?

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Later on, Lee revealed that in every role he played in his career, he tried to induce an essence of his personality. That?s how Lee stepped out of the ordinary and dominated Hollywood.?