How kung fu shows cultural merging of East and West

Turn on the TV and you'll see ads like the one for chatnow.com, where a young woman raises her foot menacingly near a man's head while calmly talking to him. There are children's afternoon shows like "Power Rangers," cult reruns of "Xena: Warrior Princess" (who can indeed paralyze someone with a touch of her finger!), the ABC hit series "Alias," and so on. Charlie's new Angels all know martial arts. The new Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, simply employ their fighting skills to beat each other up as their marriage goes awry.

The other day in San Francisco's Chinatown I ate dim sum with a few Chinese friends and we were astounded: Outside in the alley were black and white American martial arts practitioners doing their movements. And the Chinese were the ones with their iPhones taking their pictures. The world has changed radically where East becomes West and vice versa. One only needs to attend kung fu competitions in the US to be convinced: blacks and whites and Latinos compete in larger numbers than Asians.

A refugee to California, I once resigned myself to the idea that incense smoke, gongs, and Confucian dramas were simply an Asian immigrant's preoccupation, a private affair of sorts. But I've since changed my mind.

Language is my weapon

Picture this, my new kung fu moment: I am at my writing desk, typing in the early morning, my oolong tea beside me. But I'm not fully there. I'm in a land where cultures intersect and traditions crisscross, between swords flashing on ancient, lichen-covered temple rooftops and cars zooming down double-tiered freeways.

Like the heroes of old, I carry on my skills, walking a path with determination to tell my stories. Language is my weapon, invention my martial art. I seek to marry the New World to the Old Continent, fantasies to memories, and, like Bruce Lee, re-imagine the hemispheres as one.

Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media. His latest book is "Birds of Paradise Lost," a short story collection published in 2013 and winner of a Pen/Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2014.