How birthright citizenship shaped Bruce Lee’s path from Chinatown to Hollywood

When Bruce Lee was born at San Francisco’s Chinese Hospital in 1940, his citizenship was guaranteed under the 14th Amendment at a time when Asian immigrants were still barred by exclusion laws.

Jeff Chang’s new book, “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America,” argues that this accident of birth shaped Lee’s ability to move between Hong Kong and the U.S., creating opportunities in martial arts and film that were closed to earlier generations of Chinese migrants.

Lee himself acknowledged the contingency of his status, once remarking, “That I should be an American-born Chinese was accidental,” and adding it “might have been by my father’s arrangement.” Chang stresses that if today’s challenges to birthright citizenship had existed in 1940, “Bruce would have been deportable today.” That legal protection allowed Lee to return to the U.S. as a teenager, study in Seattle, and later establish martial arts schools in Oakland and Los Angeles.

Even with citizenship, Lee faced persistent racial barriers, especially in Hollywood, where Asian actors were often limited to minor or stereotyped roles. “For somebody to walk into Hollywood and be able to break down massive barriers to portraying Asians and Asian Americans in a positive light, it was really extraordinary,” Chang told the San Francisco Chronicle. He adds that Lee’s experience shows how birthright citizenship, now under renewed political challenge, remains central to Asian Americans belonging in the U.S.