Bruceploitation

Bruceploitation (a portmanteau of Bruce Lee and exploitation) refers to the practice on the part of filmmakers in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan of hiring Bruce Lee look-alike actors ("Lee-alikes") to star in many imitation martial arts films in order to cash in on Lee's success after his death. Bruceploitation is an exploitation film subgenre mostly seen in the 1970s after Lee's death in 1973.

When Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973, he was Hong Kong’s most famous martial arts actor. When Enter the Dragon became a box office success worldwide, many Hong Kong studios feared that a movie without their most famous star in it would not be financially successful. So some studios decided to play on Lee’s sudden international fame by making movies that vaguely sounded like Bruce Lee starring vehicles, with actors who looked like Lee--changing their screen names to sound similar to “Bruce Lee,” such as Bruce Li and Bruce Le.

In a tactic similar to deceptive marketing, some of these films were advertised as genuine Bruce Lee movies when in fact they were not. This tactic was very successful in the mid-1970s when many of Bruce Lee’s earlier films such as Fist of Fury and The Big Boss were being released in “Chinese” theaters in America after Bruce’s death, often with alternate and confusing names.

After his death, many actors assumed Lee-like stage names. Bruce Li (黎(Lí)小龍 from his real name Ho Chung Tao (何宗道)), Bronson Lee (from his real name Tadashi Yamashita), Bruce Chen, Bruce Lai, Bruce Le (呂(Lǔ)小龍 from his real name Wong Kin Lung), (黃建龍)), Bruce Lei, Bruce Lie, Bruce Liang (also known as Bruce Leung), Bruce Ly (real name Binhslee), Bruce Thai, Bruce K.L. Lea, Brute Lee, Myron Bruce Lee, Lee Bruce, and Dragon Lee were hired by studios to play Lee-styled roles.

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