" Water Mirror Echo is a remarkable story of a man the traditions and communities that created
him and the new worlds he made possible. Like Bruce Lee himself Jeff Chang is blessed with
the vision to see things we do not yet see thinking and writing with a restless
chasm-crossing almost prophetic ambition." — Hua Hsu Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Stay
True: A Memoir "This book is as celebratory as it is incisive as it is at times
heartbreaking. A massive achievement." — Hanif Abdurraqib National Book Award-winning author
of There’s Always This Year and A Little Devil in America A cultural biography both sweeping
and intimate of the legend Bruce Lee set against the extraordinary untold story of the rise
of Asian America—from the author of the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and one
of the finest culture observers of our era. More than a half-century after his passing Bruce
Lee is as towering a figure to people around the world as ever. On his path to becoming a
global icon he popularized martial arts in the West became a bridge to people and cultures
from the East and just as he was set to conquer Hollywood once and for all he died of
cerebral edema at age thirty-two. It’s no wonder that Bruce Lee’s legend has only bloomed in
the decades since. Yet in so many ways the legend has eclipsed the man. Forgotten is the
stark reality of the baby boy born in segregated San Francisco who spent his youth in
war-ravaged fight-crazy Hong Kong. Forgotten is the curious teenager who found his way back to
America where he embraced West Coast counterculture and meshed it with the Asian worldviews
and philosophies that reared him. Forgotten is the man whose very presence broke barriers and
helped shape the idea of what being an Asian in America is at the very dawn of Asian America.
Water Mirror Echo —a title inspired by Bruce Lee’s own way of moving being and responding to
the world—is a page-turning and powerful reminder. At the helm is Jeff Chang the award-winning
author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop whose writing on culture politics the arts and music have
made him one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices of our time. In his hands Bruce
Lee’s story brims with authenticity. Now based on in-depth interviews with Lee’s closest
intimates thousands of newly available personal documents and featuring dozens of gorgeous
photographs from the family’s archive Chang achieves the nearly impossible. He reveals the man
behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows Lee’s growing fame ushering in something
that’s turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.
