This book is not concerned with Jeet Kune Do. That is the final product of Sijo Bruce Lee's studies. He did secret researches that he did not want to divulge, because he saw it fit to conceal the sources of his knowledge that led him to the creation of his own personal system. There are many excellent books on the market that treat Jeet Kune Do in terms of fighting, scientific and philosophical, but this book is not about that. Instead, this book concerns Sijo Bruce Lee's Gung Fu root. This is, therefore, dedicated to the true connoisseurs of Gung Fu. For this, I did not limit my research to the final aspect of Jeet Kune Do, but I have also investigated, studied, and reported the stories of the different lineages that Sijo Bruce studied in books or with masters; all experiences that he did not reveal but took part in his culture and his martial background. This book is the result of my many years of practice and analyses on Sijo Bruce's martial system, which I have acquired a thorough framework that flows from anthropological research from documents, translations of Chinese manuscripts, old Chinese and American magazine articles, photographs, drawings, and even interviews and news reports from those who knew him personally. I will treat all of these as part of a whole, telling Sijo Bruce Lee's experiences and noting the sources of information. Moreover, regarding some of his original photos taken fifty years ago, I wanted to make a living and colorful image by changing the background of the pictures, giving the reader a heady Bruce.
Author Biography:
Gianfranco Mento was born in Italy on August 25, 1975. Since his childhood, he became fond of and took the path of martial arts. He followed different masters in different martial arts, spe¬cifically, Japanese Karate and Chinese and Vietnamese Gung Fu. From the beginning, he combined practice with theory and was interested in the histories of the different martial arts and then be-came infatuated with Bruce Lee's myth. He decided to investigate Bruce Lee's true martial path, and, in particular, his Gung Fu. His re¬search led him to study philosophy, science, and history and to meet important people (friends of Bruce Lee). In 1995, he met Master Dan Inosanto for the first time, and since then, has followed him in his stages both in Italy and at his Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts in Los Angeles. In 1997, he met Master Gianfranco Russo, allowing to become a teacher at NPIAMA (Nino Pilla International Academy of Martial Arts) under Sifu Nino Pilla, representative of the Inosanto school in Italy and Australia. His research led him to Seattle and meet Master Taky Kimura, an important person in his research, that led him to San Francisco and Oakland, studying, with the help of various ex¬perts and old masters of Gung Fu from San Francisco, the periods in which Bruce Lee's life was in this area. For thirty years now, he has been immersed in the world of mar¬tial arts and has been recognized and appreciated by so many Gung Fu masters worldwide as a historical and tireless researcher of Bruce Lee's background, who has given value to the old traditions of Gung Fu. Not stopping at the surface of information obtained by Sijo Bruce Lee's direct students, he wanted to travel to the East to China, Foshan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines, to track Bruce Lee's Gung Fu as much as possible. Since then, he has continued to study and improve himself with Sifu Nino Pil¬la and other respected teachers of Dan Inosanto and Taky Kimura's schools in Jun Fan Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do. He has studied different styles of Gung Fu with Sifu James Valenti¬no Santi, representative of Sifu Leo Fong, mastering techniques and forms that are part of Sijo Bruce Lee's Tao of Chinese Gung Fu.
