His story begins with Lee as a scrawny runt in a Chinese immigrant family. He gets bullied so often he yearns to be like the kung fu heroes he sees in the movies. He becomes a Marine to prove himself, but the horrors of war make him wonder what it would take to achieve peace. He joins the CIA’s clandestine service, only to see his career threatened in an ordeal that makes him reevaluate his life purpose, leading him to chase his dream to study Chinese medicine. Along the way, he apprentices with top martial arts masters, and opens a school to pass on what he’s learned.
In this straightforward, often humorous memoir Lee narrates his adventures from the streets of Chinatown to the battlefields of Vietnam, and from the corridors of CIA headquarters to the acupuncture clinics of Shanghai.
While his journey seems to take divergence paths, those familiar with stories about the knights of ancient China will recognize he’s traveling a singular path – a four-fold one of Scholar Warrior Teacher Healer, with Spy thrown in.
