My Attachment
As you all know, Bruce Lee is someone I highly admire. Yes,
he is dead but his spirit is living through me. Now there is a video
I watch almost every single day because I just cannot get over the
character of that particular game. It is called Dead or Alive by the
company Team Ninja and the fighting character that I like is called
Jann Lee because his moves are very similar to the ones' of Bruce.
Now I know the game creator see Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do as
a style which is 100% incorrect! I know that and I know the fighter's
mentality is not of a martial artist, but yet I still love watching people
play him. It makes me have to evaluate myself and ask myself why
am I so obsessed with Jann Lee? Is it because I am still insecure?
Is it because I am ashamed to be self-expressive? There is a video
below on his combo training.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjmRjgOE50
I want to learn to get rid of this obsession. In that way, I will not be
attached to Bruce Lee anymore. This video game character is a systematized
version of Bruce Lee and I know that. Is something wrong with me or am I making a
big deal out of it? If anybody can help me through this would be highly appreciated.
That's a tough one, Kang. I think everyone can relate to being inspired by someone, and I'd bet the majority of North American martial artists (not to mention just males in general) have been hugely inspired by Bruce Lee. Certainly a lot of the activities I pursued growing up, including martial arts, and some of the bigger decisions made in my earlier adulthood, including joining Army intelligence, were premised in large part on characters and stories I was exposed to in the media. I guess for me, I eventually came to appreciate that when I bounced these identities and narratives off reality, nothing was matching up. What I'd been told the world was like, through these characters, was not anything like the reality I observed myself. And so I had to eventually set all those characters aside, and start exploring and developing my own hero identity in response to the truth as I perceived it. And I think at forty years old, I'm still growing with that. Video games and spectating in general are not something I can relate well to, but it seems to me that it's obviously about identification with the characters. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I think Bruce Lee himself would have advised you to go in the direction of self-expression, and I know I've heard him talk about how very, very difficult that actually is
ReplyDeleteYeah he is right about that. I think I heard him in an interview saying how difficult it is to express yourself honestly. I can certainly relate to that. It's easy to be control by your own ego and never really know yourself.
DeleteMy advice is to get rid of all Bruce Lee stuff. Put all his movies, books, posters, etc. in a box and put it in the basement somewhere. Spend more time on self reflection and finding sages to admire and learn from and even other Artists. When you see so much talent in the world, then it should slowly draw you away from Bruce and you shall see the humaness in him, it's important not to place him in such a high pedestal, bring him back down and realize that there is so much talent all over the world and within yourself as well, there's no need to obsess over one person.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shi zu. I will definitely do that. I never had Bruce Lee's posters at all. I guess this is one thing tossed out. Lao Tzu is a sage that I admire too. Jesus is another one ,but I do not see Jesus as a God anymore. He is just an awakened person. When you say other artists, do they have to be martial artists or they can be any type of artist? Osho is also an interesting one. Is there a book of Osho you would recommend for me to start with?
DeleteAny Artists, musical artist's, painters, psychologists, poets, dancers, etc. All the Osho books I have read I enjoyed, I recommend all of them but if you can find the hardcover book on "Buddha, Tao, Zen, Tantra." That would be a good one to start with. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068106062X/sr=8-2/qid=1359612280/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1359612280&seller=&sr=8-2
DeleteThe used copy is affordable if you can't find it at the store
I got the used copy! I have watched his videos but never read anything from him. I am so excited to get to know more about this guy. I think I am going to enjoy this book.
DeleteI didn't play DOA 5 yet, on the Ps3 my favorites fighting games are Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade edition, Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur 4 and 5. It's not the first time they make a character that kinda represent a video game version of Bruce, the first i've played was Fei Long in Super Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nes. It's kinda cool and lame at the same time, cool because it's nice to have a Bruce alike character but lame because it's a gimmick and they didn't ask him if he wanted a similar version of him in video games plus he's dead, they are using a dead guy, it's kinda disrespectful but i like to take shit lightly, i don't care much about it, when i play street fighert 4, sometimes i play Fei Long and who cares really, they made him nice, it's not as if they would've made him weak or something. Keep up the good work with your training and have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I will keep working as hard as I can. The first Bruce Lee character that I played was Liu Kang. That was when I first played fighting games. After him comes Fei Long, Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon, Forest and Marshall Law from Tekken... Maxi is also a Bruce Lee character from Soul Calibur. You are right, it is not the first time they create a video game version of Bruce Lee. It is going keep going on and on until people like me stop being obsessed to him. It is kinda disrespectful because he did not want his martial art to be systematized but because he is dead, video game developers, anime creators, and his former disciples will corrupt his expression however they want... Since I feel like I am participating in that type of corruption, this is the reason why I want to draw myself away from that. But if you like to play Fei Long in Super Street Fighter it's cool. Yes Fei Long is an excellent fighter; no doubt about that.
DeleteYou right, i forgot about Liu Kang, Maxi and all of em'. It makes me realize how much Bruce Lee imitations there is out there. How could i forgot about Liu Kang, he's one of my main character, Maxi also. And yeah, guys from Tekken... When you think about it, that's a looott of Bruce Lee look alike.
DeleteI don't know if you watch anime but you will find a lot of Bruce Lee alike in the anime too. Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop, Rock Lee and Might Guy from Naruto...there are tons of them. There is a lot of Bruce Lee look alike. They will keep on creating these for profit.
DeleteIt's funny you mentionned Cowboy Beebop, i watched the entire serie for the first time a month ago, it was good. But i don't know, Spike doesn't make me think about Bruce that much, maybe more Rock Lee. Anyway, yeah it sure is good for profit. I wonder how long Bruce Lee will be used, it's been already 40 years. They might switch, when Jackie Chan and Jet Li will die, they might start using them.
DeleteHaha. that is so true. They just won't stop beating on the dead horse like they say! If Tony Jaa died, they might make a statue of him and make video games based on him too. They just can't stop can they?
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