He is one of the world's most iconic movie stars - but even Bruce Lee struggled against racism in Hollywood. Back in the 1970s, a TV show he pitched starring himself as the martial arts lead was rejected with great suspicion that studios wouldn't cast an Asian man in a leading role. Now, 46 years after his death, Lee's daughter Shannon has brought the show to life the WAY he would have WANTED. CGTN's Phil Lavelle has the details.

Bruce Lee never got to see this. Although he was the force behind it.

SHANNON LEE BRUCE LEE'S DAUGHTER "I like to say that this project has been in development for 50 years."

Warrior was his baby. A TV project that he wanted to bring to the screen. But Hollywood had other ideas.

SHANNON LEE BRUCE LEE'S DAUGHTER "My father wrote this TV show for a pitch for himself to star in, he submitted it and they were talking about it and ultimately, they said that 'you know, we don't think at the end of the day that a Chinese man can be the lead in an American TV series.'"

The pitch was shelved. But a year later, this show appeared - called Kung Fu, almost identical to Bruce Lee's idea but with no reference to him and one big difference: The American studio cast a white man in the leading role: a term known today as "yellowface."

SHANNON LEE BRUCE LEE'S DAUGHTER "That was just the way it was done in the day. But yes, it seems insanity to me."

Now, his daughter Shannon, guardian of his legacy, has done what Bruce Lee always wanted to do.

Warrior, set in the 19th century, telling the story of San Francisco's brutal Chinatown gang wars. The lead actor, of Asian descent. The story of a martial arts prodigy who's also an immigrant.

PHIL: "We're talking about immigration, which is a big topic in the current day. What do you think Bruce Lee would have made of the United States in 2019?"

SHANNON LEE BRUCE LEE'S DAUGHTER "He famously said on a TV show, when asked 'do you think of yourself as North American or do you think of yourself as Chinese' and he said 'I like to think of myself as a human being. Because under the sky, there's one family really.' My father was about inclusion, not exclusion. I really feel it would have been a point of pain for him like it is for many of us, what is happening these days."

Hollywood's changed since - albeit slowly. Whitewashing, yellowface, on the way out. Attitudes evolving from Bruce Lee's day.

SHANNON LEE BRUCE LEE'S DAUGHTER "He was like 'I know who I am, I know what I'm doing and I'm going to keep on doing it until somebody gives me the opportunity to do it on a larger stage' which is exactly what happened."

Movies like Crazy Rich Asians proving that white people don't have to take the leading roles for a film to be a success.

And shows like Warrior, now emphasizing it. A legacy, a change, Bruce Lee would never get to see. But one that lives on - in part - through his daughter. Phil Lavelle, CGTN, Los Angeles.