50 years after being closed in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, Bruce Lee’s kung fu studio has been reopened by his students, reports NBC Los Angeles.
The studio is where Lee taught Jeet Kune Do. It has remained largely abandoned since being shut down except for a brief stint as a dental office.
Students in the studio appear to be quite diverse. When Lee first opened his studios in the U.S., many in Chinatown despised him for sharing the Chinese art with non-Chinese students, according to a book by Mathew Polly, entitled Bruce Lee: A Life. Of course, his movies popularized the martial arts to a mass audience. Interestingly, it is a non-Asian student who is carrying on Lee’s legacy at the studio.
Classes there are now being taught by Eric Carr, a disciple of Jerry Poteet who learned from Lee himself. According to NBC LA, Carr grew up poor. After learning Lee’s style of fighting from Poteet, Carr immersed himself in the Taoist philosophy and learned Mandarin Chinese.
“It’s something Jerry used to say to me: ‘You’ve got to complete the circle,'” Carr said.
Students say they’re learning more than just fighting from Carr. They’re learning a philosophy of life.
“I take a moment more to pause to try and reflect and understand what’s going on in my life as opposed to reacting,” Anya Villarreal said.
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