The transcript below is from the video “Bruce Lee couldn’t swim” by SPH Razor.
SPH Razor (YouTube Channel, online television service in Singapore that broadcasts live News videos, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Food & more interesting):
Bruce Lee’s siblings – elder sister Phoebe and younger brother Robert – reveal some “secrets” about the late martial arts legend, like how he could not swim, nor ride a bicycle.
Both are guest speakers athe One Fighting Championship’s Asia Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) summit which begins here today, at Marina Bay Sands.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Today, we’re here in Marina Bay Sands to speak to Robert and Phoebe Lee, the siblings of the legendary Bruce Lee. Let’s see what they have to say about their brother.
Q:Â What is the one lasting memory you have of Bruce?
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):Â
It’s not easy to forget, I drowned him.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
 Trying not to drown him. Bruce never knew how to swim.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Oh, okay, okay.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
So they went to, actually she would push him under water and…
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
No, because…
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
Was playing, not really drowning.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
Yep, yep. He just liked teasing people. Yeah, teasing and he teased me all the time. Then we go to play on the bay and I said, “Look, the water is shallow. Shallow, it’s not too deep.” I said, “You come, you come, you come in.” You come also.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
Drive there, yes. I’m chauffeur.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
And then I pull, I could swim with my sister and Peter. Then I pull him under the water. He was drinking a lot of water. He just beat me up, chasing me and my mom said, “Don’t bully your sister.” Until now, I just remembered. He was a really..
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Inaudible] [01:16]
 Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):Â
I think it is a traveling…
Q:Â Did Bruce learn how to swim in the end?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
No, he never did learn how to swim, no.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
No.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Never, eh? So, was he…?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
No.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
No, mother…Â I remember mother taught him in a what she called a…
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
In a made-up public pools, yes.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
…swimming pool because she didn’t like water.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Right.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
Even though he don’t know how to ride a bicycle.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
He doesn’t ride a bicycle?
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
No.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
He doesn’t, none at all.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Why?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
Yeah.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
He fell down two, three times in one.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
It is Bruce. Like he knew his limitations. He knew what he could do, what he shouldn’t do, and whatnot to do.
Q:Â What did Bruce like to do?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
He’s a very entertaining guy, you know. Like he just loves to practice with people and like to show people what he could do, and stuff like that.”
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
Bruce liked to teach me dancing.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Ohh…
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
That is the Cha-Cha.
Chan U-Gene (Journalist at The Straight Times Razor TV):
Cha-Cha?
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
Before, he liked to teach me Wing Chun. He hit me all the time and then I’d get a bruise. He really hurt me. He grabbed you…
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
Oh yeah.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
…and have a bruise that doesn’t go away. That’s why I don’t want it, yeah. Then, he liked to teach people. Yeah, and he used to ask me, “Do you want to learn the Cha-Cha? Of course, you’re in.” He liked to be a teacher.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee):
Yeah.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister):
And he teach him, and he teach me and teach me and my sister.
Q:Â Being Bruce’s youngest brother, did he use to beat you up often?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee)
Oh no, he wouldn’t beat me up but he would use me as a practicing… I hate to use the word, dummy, which I was because I mean I’m not a martial artist. So he would use me to try to develop new techniques and stuff like that. I remember back in 1969, when I went over to the United States to Los Angeles to stay with him. He just finished The Green Hornet. I was watching TV…
So, Bruce went to the kitchen, took out a kitchen knife, a big one. He came to me and said, “Take it.” I said, “Okay.” He said, “Stab me.” I said, “For fun, right?” He said, “Really stab me for real.” I said, “How can I stab you, you’re my brother?” He said, “Don’t worry. You can’t even touch me.” Before I could even move, the knife was knocked out of my hands.
Q:Â Did he play pranks on you often, too?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee)
He loves to play pranks all the time.
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister)
Yeah.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee)
He was showing me what he was doing, martial arts. He was showing me different things and that. Then he took out a pair of nunchakus and he was demonstrating real fast, just like the movies. He said, “Well, how you like that?” I said, “Wow! What is that?” He said, “Those are nunchakus,” so he explained. So and he put it back to where it came from. Then he turned around and said, “Okay, let’s go out there and have some tea.
So I turn around without looking or paying any notice but all of a sudden, he called out my name. He said, “Robert!” I turn around and boom! There was this nunchuck right in my face, on my head! I felt that I was going to die, but no. He was using a pair of foam nunchakus. Scared the heck out of me! I will never forget that.
Q:Â What is the greatest show of strength you have ever seen in Bruce?
Phoebe Lee (Bruce Lee’s elder sister)
I bring him to Su Hon-san Sifu and also Ip Man. He went to, he asked him, and Master Lee said, “Can I be your student?” Master Lee said, “I don’t take usually today.” Because of the man is the same as Master Lee. “Well, you can come to learn it.” Then he continued for two weeks. Yeah and after that, he learned it. He told him after two weeks, “You don’t come in anymore.” A few months later, he did go back to Master Lee. He said, “He was as good as the people for ten years to how good he was.
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee)Â
He’s very inventive, creative, like in the nunchaku. Like in the movies that Bruce used that weapon. It was taught to him by Sifu Dan, Dan Inosanto. He was one of his students, you know. He showed Bruce how to do the nunchakus, the basic techniques and so forth. Bruce, at the end, would say, “Okay, got me. I’ll borrow your nunchakus until our next session,” which is like the following week because Bruce would teach him once a week.
So, one week later and this was actually told to me by Dan Inosanto. He said, “Bruce worked out some brand new techniques that he and I hadn’t even thought of or seen. It was so much better than the original, the classical techniques.” So, that’s Bruce!”
Q:Â What is the biggest misconception the public have about Bruce Lee?
Robert Lee Jun-fai (Hong Kong musician, younger brother of martial artist Bruce Lee)
A lot of people say he’s cocky, but Bruce is just trying to be straight with people. When he tells people, “You know I can do a lot of things and I can really beat you up. I can easily beat you up.” And, he means the truth. I mean it’s not because he’s boasting or anything. Bruce always say one thing, he said, “You try to learn how to swim, you cannot do it on ground. I mean like on flat ground and no water. You have to be inside to really test your skills in the water.”
So, that’s Bruce. I mean he always talked straight and the way he talks, like it’s that special… the way he does it. People have a false sense that he’s being cocky but that’s how he speaks. That’s how he is. That’s his personality.
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