Influenced by Bruce Lee's 1973 martial-arts film Enter the Dragon, many Americans in the 1970s became obsessed with kung fu and Asian martial arts. What it all meant was difficult to discern. Was the kung fu craze an unconscious acknowledgment of the American defeat in Vietnam and an attempt to master new skills in order to beat the Asians at their game? Was it because so many of the skills featured the subtle use of force, was it yet another passive/aggressive skill cultivated during the me decade? Was it simply another exotic form of violence imported by a nation obsessed with violence? Was it a reflection of rising crime rates? Or a ghetto revenge fantasy? Whatever it meant, it was popular: almost every American city and suburb boasted a storefront gym wherein karate, kung fu, judo, jujitsu, aikido, or some other form...