Black Belt started working with Bruce Lee before he was a star — witness our October 1967 issue, which featured him on the cover at a time when his name was deemed less attention-getting than the phrase “Green Hornet’s ‘Kato’: Does he really practice kung fu?” Since he passed away, the magazine has continued to work with the Lee family to keep readers up to date on all the projects that are in the works. In that vein, we present our annual interview with his daughter Shannon Lee, who has her hand in so many projects that it’s hard to imagine her ever resting.
First of all, could you make a few comments about Bruce Lee in Black Belt, the book that Black Belt Publishing is about to release?
I think this is going to be a real treat for people, even for myself, to have all this content in one place. We have such an amazing long history with Black Belt. The magazine gave a voice to my father way back in the 1960s and ’70s, and we continued this relationship over 50-plus years. There’s been a lot of content, and now for all that to be in one place — I just think it’s exciting.
The exciting thing for us is that it also deals with those iconic first-generation students who became well-known masters — like Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo. It’s a continuation of the work your father started.
It’s like a tree. It starts