Corky Lee was a Chinese American activist, community organizer, photographer, and journalist who declared himself the unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate.
Lee’s work chronicled and examined the complexities of Asian American culture, which were frequently ignored and overlooked by mainstream media. His contribution to society is being celebrated through Google Doodle on May 5, 2023.
Who Is Corky? What He Did Do On May 5?
Lee was born on September 5, 1947, in Queens, New York City, to Chinese immigrant parents Lee Yin Chuck and Jung See Lee. Occupation of his parents, His father, had served in the US Army in World War II, owned a laundrette and his mother was a seamstress.
Lee had an elder sister named Fee, as well as three younger brothers named John, James, and Richard. Lee attended Jamaica High School before enrolling at Queens College to study American history in 1965.
He learned about the transcontinental railroad in social studies class when he was a small lad. During the class, he observed a photo commemorating the railroad’s completion, but he noticed a lack of representation of the hundreds of Chinese laborers who helped build it.
Lee later revealed that this incident influenced his life’s work. He later taught himself photography by borrowing cameras because he could not afford his own.
Let’s read about the photographic work of Lee. Lee’s work captured significant events in Asian American political history. The New York Post published his photos of a Chinese American man being abused by NYPD cops in 1975.
On the day the photograph was released, 20,000 people marched from Chinatown to City Hall to protest police abuse.
Lee photographed protests in Michigan following the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin. Chin was a young Chinese American man from Detroit who was murdered by Ronald Ebens, a Chrysler Motors superintendent, and his stepson.
The attackers targeted Chin, who is of Chinese origin, after mistaking him for a Japanese citizen, because Japanese corporations were blamed for the loss of jobs in the American auto industry.
Lee’s self-proclaimed status of “undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate” was never challenged. His images chronicled Asian Americans’ daily life as well as significant events in American history.
By capturing the lives of minority-American cultures and communities, Lee stated his camera was a sword to resist racial injustice, to memorialize and make visible individuals who would otherwise be invisible.
Why Google Doogle Honoured Corky Lee on May 5?
The reason behind honoring Corky Lee on May 5 is, New York City Mayor David Dinkins declared May 5, 1988, “Corky Lee Day,” recognizing Lee’s contributions to New York City communities.
How Corky Lee Died?
During the 1990s and 2000s, Lee contributed images to the weekly local newspapers Downtown Express and The Villager.
Lee became infected with the Coronavirus COVID-19 virus during the disease’s global epidemic. He died on January 27, 2021, at Long Island Jewish Hospital in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, due to viral complications. He was 73 years old.
He was infected with the virus while patrolling Chinatown with neighborhood watch organizations, which were safeguarding locals from the rise in anti-Asian violence. Margaret Dea, Lee’s wife, died from cancer in 2001.
Corky Lee was Awarded Numerous Times in his Life, The list of his honors is as follows:
- 1993, Photographer-Artist-in-Residence Award, Syracuse University.
- 1993, Special Recognition Award, Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
- 2002, New York Press Association Award.
- 2002, Artist-In-Residence, New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program & Institute.
- 2008, Pioneer Award, Organization of Chinese Americans.
- 2009, Susan Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Asian American Journalists Association.
- 2014, UC Regents Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles Asian American Studies Centre and Department & Luskin School of Public Affairs Urban Planning Department.