Lee fought for everyone
央视热播50集电视剧《李小龙传奇》 作者：CHARLIE SHIFFLETT & XU WEIWEI 时间：2008-10-24
来源：21世纪英文报第776期
adversary敌手
adversity灾祸
cockiness骄傲自大
dynamics动力
gut胆量
hesitancy犹豫
imperialist帝国主义者
instill慢慢地灌输
killing spree 疯狂杀戮
mire陷入
ninja忍者
objective客观的
protagonist主角
repugnant不一致的
slack off 松懈, 偷懒
meditation冥想
optimism乐观主义
parallel相似物
prejudice偏见
prescription处方
rekindle重新点燃
sinew 肌肉
snatch攫取
steely似钢的
subservient屈从的
swelling肿的
Taekwondo 跆拳道
testicle睾丸
undaunted大无畏的
underdog失败者, 受压迫者
undescended 未降到阴囊的
vengeful报复的
BONUS
Expression
Here’s how you can describe different type of action movie actors in simple sentences:
Bruce Lee 李小龙
Small and muscular, Lee is the protective hero capable of lethal violence.
小个子肌肉男，拥有致命力量的保护神。
Clint Eastwood
科林伊斯特伍德
Tall, lean and darkly handsome, he is the anti-hero admired by men and women for his macho cool.
个高修长，暗色的皮肤让他更为帅气, 他以男子汉的冷酷成为人们崇拜的反面英雄。
James Bond 詹姆士邦德
Suave and sophisticated, this sexy killer is adored by females and countless fans.
温和而又老道，这位性感杀手是女性和无数粉丝心中的偶像。
Arnold Schwarzenegger
阿诺德施瓦辛格
Hollywood’s biggest action hero with more muscles than brains. He always plays the goodie.
好莱坞最大牌的动作明星，有了如此强壮的肌肉还需要所谓智取吗？他总是以正面形象出现在大银幕之上。
Harrison Ford 哈里森福特
Tough and rugged, Ford is the reluctant hero who best embodies American masculinity.
坚强甚至有些粗鲁，福特总是在迫不得已时挺身而出，而这正是美式男子气概的最佳体现。
BRUCE Lee, the US-born martial arts master, became famous for kicking and punching his adversaries to the ground. But Lee, who died in 1973 at 32, proved to be far more than an action hero. He was, after all, a teacher. And the new 50-part CCTV series on the master’s life promises to deliver his lessons to a whole new generation.
That’s not to say that today’s young people have never heard of him. Jai Harman, a 23-year-old from the UK, first met Bruce Lee when he was just 5 years old. It was Christmas, and his family sat around the living room watching Lee’s film Enter the Dragon. Jai listened as his grandfather told stories about Lee and, before he knew it, he was training in martial arts.
“At 6, I began to learn Taekwondo,” said Jai, who went on to study Japanese ninja kungfu. He is now in China training with Wang Zhipeng, one of Ip Man (Ye Wen)’s students. Ye Wen is Lee’s master (Shifu). “[This training] has given me the mental ability to believe I can overcome any difficulty, that if I work hard, then I can do anything.”
And that’s the brilliance of Lee’s life. He did more than entertain; he spoke to people about timeless values and inspired them as he did it.
The US-based Bruce Lee Foundation, for instance, was built on Lee’s “legacy of undaunted optimism in the face of adversity” and continues to operate on that princeple today.
Jai, meanwhile, credits Lee with giving him both his love for martial arts and his hate of prejudice: “Lee was an honorable man, not only for his kungfu skills, but also for fighting for the right reasons. He never abused his ability for the wrong end, and he had no prejudice against anybody – he fought for both Chinese and foreigners.”
Lee’s call for equality has touched people all over the world. It even echoed into urban and southern black communities in the US during the 1970s, noted Asia scholar David Desser in his paper The Kungfu Craze: Hong Kong cinema’s first American reception.
Lee’s on-screen enemies may have been the Japanese imperialists, but that didn’t stop African Americans from finding parallels with their own struggles and, in turn, taking up martial arts.
Brian Harrison, founder of the Bruce Lee UK Fan Club, believes the new CCTV series will go a long way towards reintroducing Lee to the world.
“Many young people visit my site [BruceLee.org.uk] and use the information for their essays at college,” he said. “But you had to live in the 1970s as a teenager to grasp what was happening in the Chinese movie world.”
Thanks to CCTV, young people all over the globe will get a chance to re-live that important era, and sit at the feet of one of the world’s great teachers.
In Le's films, taking revenge comes with a price
Q: What was Bruce Lee’s philosophy?
A: Lee majored in philosophy at the University of Washington. What set him apart from other martial artists was his understanding of the human dynamics of change.
Most traditional martial artists taught a style of fighting that was set in stone. In the traditional view, change is imperfect. Denying this style, Lee took an objective look at his life and his art, and sought to improve himself. Other martial artists might improve themselves to the standards of a fixed style, but Lee measured himself to the standards of human potential and creation: “Style concludes. Man grows.”
The philosophy promoted by Lee was repugnant to many people already mired in traditional habits of thought.
Q: How are Lee’s kungfu movies different from Western action movies?
A: Typical Hollywood action movies have lots of explosions and a hero with a love interest. After a series of chase scenes and an epic battle at the end, the hero rides off into the sunset with his girl at his side.
Bruce Lee’s protagonists, on the other hand, usually fight for revenge. The protagonist resists fighting at the beginning of the movie but after several attempts to keep the peace – and several deaths of the protagonist’s friends – he goes on a vengeful killing spree.
The movie always ends with the protagonist either dying or being arrested. Love interests cannot be fulfilled, and the protagonist pays the price for his quest for revenge.
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