The transcript below is from the video “Betty Ting-Pei and the Cause of Bruce Lee’s Death” by Bruce Lee Forever.

Bruce Lee Forever:

The hostess of a popular Chinese television talk show went to Hong Kong to have an exclusive interview with Betty Ting-Pei. Ting-Pei revealed the truth of Bruce Lee’s death in the interview.

Did Bruce Lee use drugs? Did he use electrical muscle stimulation? What was his special soup to help to exercise his muscles? As the closest confidant of Bruce Lee, Betty will explain in detail.

Interviewer:

Would you mind I ask you a question that people may be curious about? Many fans would ask… was Nora Miao his girlfriend at that time?

Betty Ting-Pei:

No. She was his brother’s girlfriend.

Interviewer:

But.

Betty Ting-Pei:

His brother Robert Lee. She was Robert’s real girlfriend, not Bruce’s. Do you know his brother?

Interviewer:

I know he had a younger brother, but I didn’t know his name.

Betty Ting-Pei:

His younger brother named Robert Lee. Miao was Robert’s girlfriend. They had been together for several years. So, Miao knew Bruce Lee pretty well. Most fans don’t know that, and think Miao was Bruce Lee’s girlfriend. Actually I was thinking that Miao was very kind and so beautiful. Why does he like me, not Nora Miao? Nora scarcely used makeup and she looked pretty. I don’t understand why he chose me. I’m thinking about that. Then, my daughter said, ‘I think you are better.’ Why should he like Nora Miao? But I am still confused about this.

Narrator:

Not only Ting kept such a question in her mind and also Lee’s fans seem hard to understand Lee, why Lee didn’t choose Nora Miao presenting an image of pure and good girl but turned to Ting who was completely different. Growing up with foreigners, Ting was quite westernized. Under such a conservative environment at that time, she made no bones about wearing a bikini on camera. From skimpy outfits to doing things her own way and her affair with Lee. Ting was labeled with ‘coquette’,’bad woman’ and ‘carnal pron star’ by the media. Ting said, these words were quite polite. There were more disgusting things. It was really confusing that when Ting’s negative reports were so pervasive, Lee still took it very calmly and remained the same. What was Ting like in Lee’s eyes.

Betty Ting-Pei:

He thought I was pretty good, well educated, and with a high class. I was good in his mind. There were many people who said bad things about me in front of him. He didn’t care. They asked him not to contact me, because I seemed quite…
When I was young, people took me as a fly girl.

Interviewer:

That means bad girl, right?

Betty Ting-Pei:

It refers to those who are bold. In other words ‘fly girl’, ‘fly’ means free. I had a kind of western style.

Narrator:

Just because Ting was different from most Asian women who were bashful and gentle at that time, her western style deeply attracted the attention of Lee who was born in America. Ting may not have stunning looks while compared with other actresses but she came from an honorable family and held outstanding temperament. Only a few people know that this wild girl’s uncle is Chang Hsueh-liang and her grandfather was the police chief of Beijing during the warlord era. The first car that appeared in China belonged to Ting’s family. During the interview, Ting showed precious photos with family memories to the public, for the first time.

Interviewer:

This is Chang Hseuh-liang. Um… Mrs. Zhao.

Betty Ting-Pei:

Yeah. This is Mrs. Zhao. This is my aunt’s mother, Chang-Hsueh-liang’s sister.

Interviewer:

Ah, they look alike. Chang Hsueh-liang’s elder sister.

Narrator:

Ting grew up in an affluent and privileged environment. As early as the 1960s, she had a sports car to drive to the set. At that time, wealthy Ting had no dream nor taking acting as her career, but a hobby. Just before knowing Lee, Ting was going to be married in Switzerland. However she was unable to adapt to the local life and decided to return to Hong Kong. It was this decision that pushed her to the most special man in her life, Bruce Lee. Though Ting and Lee were together for only one year, this short and eternal time left a deep mark in Ting’s life and thoroughly changed her life.

Narrator:

What was the real reason that caused the sudden death of strong Lee, at the age of 33? Did he take the extreme way to train his muscles perfect? Lee’s friend uncovered Lee’s special diet. As the only witness, how will Ting respond to the sudden death of Lee?

Interviewer:

What do you think is the real reason? You must be thinking it over and over again for years. For instance he was in poor health, what did he eat on that day, or he fell into a sudden disease. What is your answer?

Betty Ting-Pei:

For this question, I think, as far as I am concerned now it was quite a natural thing.

Interviewer:

You mean, he naturally passed away.

Betty Ting-Pei:

Of course it naturally happened. There can’t be other reasons, can it?

Interviewer:

But I don’t think it is possible that a young man would suddenly die, if he did not fell into some sudden disease.

Betty Ting-Pei:

He must have a heart problem. Heart stopped. I think he grew up in poor health, because he got the nickname Sai-fon. The name was picked for his poor health. If he was in poor health and he exhausted himself by using electricity or something else he would naturally arouse heart problems.

Narrator:

Ting’s saying was approved by Lee’s other friends. Lee did use extreme way to practice martial arts.

Bruce’s Friend:

Sometimes he would use electric current. He was really mad giving himself electric shocks voluntarily. He was fighting with electricity. Of course we couldn’t do it. I do not know how many volts the electricity was, he was challenging the electricity.

Narrator:

Training by this high voltage electric muscle oscillator made in Japan needs to connect electric wire to the body and rapidly vibrate muscle. Vibrating for 10 minutes is equal to 10 hours of training. After Lee’s death, this machine was forbidden to sell in Japan. As reported in the investigation in Japan, this training method destroys the harmony of Human’s nervous system and physiologic system. Ting said, Lee even exteriorized his sweat gland. It was Ting who accompanied Lee to take this surgery in Hong Kong. Except that in order to maintain his good shape, Lee made a special drink. Bruce’s friend: At the time when we were not making movies, we would go to his house. He showed us how he ate beef, raw beef from the US. He put the raw beef into the blender, added milk,7 eggs and then he gulped that thing down. We were terrified. He was amazing. Meanwhile, to enhance fighting ability, Lee has intensive physical training every day.

Linda Lee:

He had a program for every single day. So he did aerobic type things. He rode his bike. He rode his stationary bike. He ran. He jumped rope all those kinds of things for aerobic conditioning. And then he did sit ups forever… wonderful washboard abs. And he did strength exercises with weights all the time and he was very specific, he read books kinesiology, so he would know how to develop his body.

Narrator:

The training enables Lee to maintain superhuman strength and striking agility. He was so fast that the camera failed to capture his fist, even slowing down the speed to a quarter. On the set Lee always kept improving,and saw everything himself. From the script to every actor’s fighting actions all these would be carefully designed by Lee.

Jim Kelly:

Lee asked me to do the response, like this, shaking my head, hitting hard. He said, he wanted to feel the wind of the fist. Not only did films bring him severe pressure, he also bore enormous stress outside his career. He said he was often challenged. Sometimes while walking on the street, he would turn around and look behind… I knew he often went on the street with a pistol.

Narrator:

With enormous pressure and physical exhaustion, his body gave alarm. Lee started having headaches frequently. Before the accident, Lee had escaped a danger spot.

Betty Ting-Pei:

He had fainted once, but nobody told me. His wife knew it. Raymond Chow knew it. Nobody told me.

Narrator:

On May 10,1973, Lee suddenly fainted and was rushed to hospital.

Co-Actor:

When we were shooting Enter the Dragon, we found a man lying outside the washroom. It was Bruce Lee! I remember his lips were trembling badly, just like an epilepsy attack.

Doctor:

When he was sent to hospital, he was in a serious condition, awfully bad. He was diagnosed as having edema, cephaledema. We immediately carried out the rescue. He was really really lucky. If he were late for hospital for tens of minutes he would have no chance to see people.

Narrator:

Lee was saved and he intentionally concealed this accident from many people including Ting. He returned to the United States for a complete physical checkup and the doctor said he only got minor problems. So Lee threw himself into intensive working again. Unexpectedly, 2 months later, the accident happened again. However, Lee didn’t get luck this time. The thing that people gave sighs the most was that Lee’s last film happened to be named the Game of Death. In the film the treasure box that Lee received after clearing difficulties contained a sentence. Life is a process of waiting for death. This line was also a personal thinking about life’s terminal problem for Lee, who was a graduate from the school of Philosophy.

Narrator:

He indicated that his favorite song was a transcription of Christina Rosetti’s poem. When I was dead. Lee wouldn’t think that death was so close to him. One week after his sudden death, his first Hollywood film, Enter the Dragon in which he played a leading role, was released overseas. The film embraced unprecedented success stirring up an upsurge of martial arts and forging him into an international super star, Lee finally realized the goal he set when he was alive. Be the first oriental superstar with the highest pay, and win the world approval.