Rearticulating Bruce Lee and his ‘hip hop fury’ in fan-Made videos

Abstract

No Chinese movie star’s name has been perpetuated for so long a time and with such great intensity as Bruce Lee. His bond with hip hop is prominent in his stardom and becomes a visible aspect in his obituary material. This chapter will explore how Lee and his hip-hop-propelled persona are recalled and represented in fan vids, an emergent user-generated cyber media, as an extension of earlier forms of fan-based memorial culture. By examining two fan vids from YouTube, Bruce Lee Tribute Video and Bruce Lee ‘Be Like Water’-A Tribute (40 Year Anniversary), the chapter will argue that fan vids work to sustain Lee’s hip hop connection, allowing him to appear in the global fan circuit as contemporary, compelling, and vibrant even though he has been dead for four decades.