Meet the Author: Jeff Chang – Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America
July 9, 2026 6:00 pm
Jeff Chang on Bruce Lee, culture, and Asian America at Oakland Public Library
Oakland Public Library is a good fit for this kind of night. The Main Library has that steady civic feel, a place where a room can get quiet fast when the conversation is worth hearing.
On Thursday, July 9, Jeff Chang comes to the library to talk about Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. Chang is known for writing about art, race, politics, and culture in a way that connects the dots without making the reader feel lectured. If you know Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, you know he can take a cultural moment and open it up into something much bigger.
This conversation centers on Bruce Lee, but it also reaches into fame, identity, representation, and the making of Asian America. Librarian Ian Hetzner will join Chang for the talk, so expect more of a real conversation than a scripted book event.
Go if you are into Bruce Lee, Bay Area cultural history, Asian American studies, or smart public talks that leave you with something to think about on the walk back to the car or BART.
When: Thursday, July 9, 2026, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Where: Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St, Oakland
Registration helps the library plan, though it does not guarantee a seat. Masks are encouraged and will be available.
Jeff Chang is a writer, host, and organizer known for his work at the intersection of the arts, politics, and race. His latest book is Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, a cultural biography. In it Chang “reveals the man behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows how Lee’s growing fame ushered in something that’s turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.”
Chang is a master of digging into the details of a particular moment in time and space, and using it to drive home a broader analysis of US society and culture (see also: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop), and Water Mirror Echo does exactly that. It is both a definitive Bruce Lee biography and something much deeper in scope.
Chang will be joined by Librarian Ian Hetzner for a far-reaching conversation about Chang’s career in cultural criticism, and Water Mirror Echo more specifically. It should make for a wonderful, compelling night.
Please register to receive updates and reminders. Registration assists with planning; however, it does not guarantee a seat. Additionally, masks are encouraged and will be provided.
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