A Posthumous Tribute to the Man Behind the Lens
Young Kwok “Corky” Lee was a familiar face around Chinatown. No matter what the event, he was there. He documented every Asian and minority-American activist movement that few outlets – if any – covered, and gave his life to the community. “But,” director Curtis Chin said, “he never got his solo show.”
The creation of “Dear Corky” reflects that. Chin initially shot the footage as part of a documentary about gentrification in the country’s Chinatowns. Lee, whom Chin had known for years, agreed to be profiled as one of New York Chinatown’s local artists.
The trust between the two men, who were active in the New York Asian advocacy movement, drew rare candid moments from Lee, who in the documentary talks about moving on after the death of his wife, Margaret Dea. He further confesses that although photographing every event pertaining to a swiftly-disappearing Chinatown is a worthy mission to dedicate his life to, it has taken its mental and physical toll on him.
Lee passed away from COVID in 2021, and many suspect that he caught the virus at a protest against anti-Asian hate. Chin put the gentrification-focused documentary on hold and instead created “Dear Corky.”
Throughout his life, Lee inspired many. His photographs hang in places like Yu and Me Books, the first woman-owned bookstore in Chinatown. The Chinatown Mural Project has painted his portrait on Doyers Street. Young photographers like Cindy Trinh have learned from him through workshops and events, and gone on to document not just Chinatown, but the further Chinese enclaves of New York in Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “But to go to every single event?” Chin asked. There are many potential Corky Lees, he said, but it may be years before someone could put in the same amount of attention and time, and sacrifice financial gain to do so.
Corky Lee mural on New York Chinatown’s Doyers Street. (Image Credit: Peach Tao)
The documentary intersplices B-roll of Corky Lee at work – his camera always at his side – and the result of his treks. No subject is too small or insignificant for him to capture – not even the before and after photographs he took of a row of mailboxes in a Bayard Street apartment.
More importantly, no human was inconsequential in his eyes. “I knew Corky for over thirty years,” Chin said in an interview with the Asian American Journalists Association. “In that time, he’s taken me to a number of his favorite restaurants in Chinatown. He knew all the backstories of every restaurant!”
Chin, similar to Lee, has advocated for Asian Americans since college. He co-founded the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Asian Pacific Americans for Progress. His upcoming memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” will be released in the fall of 2023.
“Dear Corky” screened at the 45th Asian American International Film Festival. It will premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival in May 2023.