WEBVTT

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(soft music)

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(soft music continues)

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- Where do I begin?

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I generally refer to myself
as an \"ABC from NYC.\"

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Now, if you\'re Chinese,
you know what an ABC is.

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American Born Chinese.

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NYC, well, that\'s really very easy.

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I\'ve been photographing Asian Americans

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in New York City for 50 years.

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Last time I estimated the number
of photographs I\'ve taken,

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it came out to a little over 800,000.

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(camera shutter click)

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- Corky Lee is one of
the main documentarians

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of the Asian American movement.

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Social movements are so hard to capture

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and to put onto paper, or put onto film.

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This is a story that
hasn\'t really been told.

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- The collection he has

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is a testimony of our history,

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and that\'s why it\'s very, very important.

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- With all these events,
and who do you see?

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You see Corky Lee,
(laughs) taking pictures.

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- It isn\'t an Asian Pacific American event

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if Corky Lee isn\'t around.

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- He was doing the work he was doing,

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literally for decades
before he started garnering

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any kind of acclaim.

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He did it because it needed to be done.

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(camera shutter clicks)

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(soft music continues)

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- His photography is beautiful.

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It\'s really making art
and politics come together

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in a way that very few other photographers

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have been able to do.

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- I was amazed just to see the diversity

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of the photographs he had
from so many communities.

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Who else do you know that does this?

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(soft music continues)

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- We exchanged business cards

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and I saw \"The Undisputed, Unofficial

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Asian American Photographer Laureate.\"

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I just never heard of one!

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- I don\'t think anybody
truly knows who Corky Lee is.

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I think they see him in
demonstrations with a camera.

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They see that he is constantly there

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and because of his constancy,

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he\'s almost invisible.

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- Even though he collects
all these photographs,

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that\'s not his full-time job.

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Where does he get the
energy to do all this,

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year in, year out?

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- Corky made a commitment to document

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this Asian American
experience decades ago.

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So why would this pandemic,
Coronavirus, stop him?

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So, you know, he continued his work.

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- Did it require sacrifice? Yes.

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Undeniably it did.

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- His work reminds us,

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there\'s something bigger than ourself.

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- I take photographs that I think matter,

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specifically has to do with
Asian Pacific Americans.

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That\'s something that the
average American does not see.

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And hopefully it opens a dialogue

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about our place in America.

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I don\'t think people need
to remember who I am.

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It is more important that
they remember the images.

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In all my photographs,

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I\'m trying to include pages that should be

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in American history books
that have been omitted.

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I\'m practicing photographic justice.

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(soft music continues)

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(camera shutter clicks)

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(camera shutter clicks repeatedly)

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(film reeling)

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I think I realized I was Chinese

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from the minute I stepped into school.

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Most of the time we were
like the only Chinese family.

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I was born in Queens, 1947.

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My original birth certificate
said \"Lee Young Quoork.\"

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But by the time I was going to school,

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the kids were already calling me Corky.

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Other than my brothers,

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I was probably the only
Asian kid in the class.

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There\'s a lot of bullying
around in elementary school.

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You don\'t have to be Asian.

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You could be a skinny
kid, or an obese kid,

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and you get picked on.

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You\'d be called names and getting taunted

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by kids who had no idea
what being Chinese was

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was a constant.

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(quiet cafe)

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Growing up, reading a lot of comic books,

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I guess I wanted to be somewhat

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like some of those comic book heroes

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in some form or another.

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Not that I can fly like
Superman or anything,

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but I think comic books gave you, kind of,

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a moral compass of what you
might want to do in life.

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But I think the problem is,

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I don\'t really identify
with any superhero.

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Most of the superheroes were all white.

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Didn\'t have any particular
superhero that were Asian.

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(mellow music)

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You believe what you see.

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(mellow music continues)

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In junior high school,

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I first read about Chinese
building the railroad.

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(train whistle blows)
That was the first thing

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in school that I had read that
the Chinese had contributed

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to the country.

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(train bells ringing)

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There was like 12,000 of them.

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They toiled long and hard, and

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a lot of them died along the way.

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And at the time it was a
major engineering achievement.

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It was like the equivalent
of building the Panama

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or the Suez Canal.

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But when they showed the
photograph of the completion

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of the railroad,

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with the two locomotives joining together,

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I didn\'t see any Chinese.

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And I thought maybe it\'s because

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my eyesight was poor.

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I took off my glasses,
looked really close,

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I didn\'t see any,

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so I got a magnifying
glass and then looked.

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I said, \"Damn it, there
aren\'t any Chinese here!\"

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The audacity, they didn\'t want the Chinese

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to be photographed as
part of the celebration.

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And I think it sort of
worked in the back of my head

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for a really long, long time.

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(dramatic music)

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(parade drum music)

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(drum & gong music continues)

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(drum & gong music continues)

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- Happy New Year.

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(marching band music)

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(Asian drumming music)

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(Asian drumming music continues)

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Hey guys, you got another
performance elsewhere?

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- This way.

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- Okay. Happy New Year, guys.

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(Asian drumming music continues)

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- On my memory card, I have 165 images.

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I\'m hoping I get eight decent photographs.

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When you photograph these
parades and cultural events,

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I\'m also networking.

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This is one way of maintaining contact

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within your community.

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On an annual basis,

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I\'ll photograph Lunar New Year
for the Chinese community,

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but there\'s also a Lunar New Year

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that Koreans observe.

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(music)

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March is Holi, or Pagwa if
you\'re from the Caribbean,

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and that\'s basically for Indians.

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April is Thai New Year

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and there\'s a Sikh observance

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of the beginning of their religion.

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May is Santacruzan,

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which is a Filipino festival

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that has Roman Catholic roots.

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But there\'s also the Asian
Pacific Heritage Festival

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that got started beginning in 1979.

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July, you have the Japanese Obon Festival

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to honor the deceased.

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By August, you have
Pakistan Independence Day

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and Indian Independence Day.

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September, you have the annual
Muslim Unity Day parade.

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By October, November,

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you have the Korean Harvest
Parade that takes place.

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And then there was Diwali.

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There\'s an Indian festival
generally towards October,

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going into November.

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But most of the festivals,

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I try to get a context in
which these immigrants are

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in this country, in New York City.

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So the juxtaposition of the
photographs will show something

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of their culture and something
about New York culture,

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or American culture.

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Asian Pacific Islanders
are part and parcel

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of the fabric of America.

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I didn\'t pick up photography until

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after I got out of college.

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When you graduate with American History,

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you could probably become a teacher,

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but I don\'t think I was
cut out for teaching.

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I really didn\'t know what I was gonna do.

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I happened to get a job

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with Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

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as a community organizer in Chinatown.

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Probably 1970.

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I took a series of photographs

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of violations in buildings.

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There was exposed wiring,

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(camera shutter click)

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the lack of proper mailboxes,

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heat and hot water, and
all this sort of stuff.

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I would organize the tenants
to withhold their rent.

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Eventually, the landlord would
agree to make the repairs.

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So then you could show the
tenant in the next building,

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or down the block, \"You
can get this stuff done.\"

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(mellow music)

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That sort of set my course.

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♪ We are the children
of the migrant worker ♪

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♪ We are the offspring of
the concentration camp ♪

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♪ Sons and daughters of
the railroad builder ♪

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♪ Who leave their stamp on America ♪

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- Chinatown in the \'70s was
a really happening place.

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I lived in a commune
with about eight people.

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We formed something called
Asian Media Collective, AMC.

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The purpose of Asian Media
Collective pretty much was

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to document and disseminate

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what was taking place

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within the Asian American Movement,

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as it pertains to New
York or the East Coast.

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♪ Sing a song for ourselves ♪

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- The Asian American movement got started

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in direct response to the
Black Civil Rights Movement

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of the \'60s -

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how to organize, how to rally people,

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fighting for identity, equality,

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equal pay, equal rights.

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♪ We got the right to choose! ♪

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- What Asian Americans realized,

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along with other people of color

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in the late \'60s was that
what was called history

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at that point was not everyone\'s history.

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- Minority communities were not getting

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an even break in the
newspapers or on television.

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Corky was always there.

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He knew when to go, when to get out,

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when to leave the house and go down

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and see what was happening in the street.

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He learned to recognize,

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\"Okay, I may not have
an assignment on this,

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but this is gonna be a story.\"

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(camera shutter click)

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- They were gonna build
this subsidized housing

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in Chinatown called Confucius Plaza.

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But: there were no jobs to
help build this building!

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So we said, \"We need to
do something about it.\"

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- It was one of the first
demonstrations in Chinatown

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in those days.

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There were no Chinese hired
to do any of the construction.

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So Corky was there covering
that demonstration,

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running around with his camera.

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And that was the first instance in my mind

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that I saw Corky and
camera as one and the same.

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(folk music)

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- Construction trades were always

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father/son trades.

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They were all pretty much white.

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They didn\'t allow a lot of minorities.

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So we wanted to get Chinese hired.

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And one of the slogans was,
\"Chinese built the railroad,

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we can build Confucius Plaza.\"

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To see Chinese senior citizens protesting,

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holding placards in
Chinese and in English,

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that got the attention of the media.

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- They did hire people

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from the community

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to build Confucius Plaza.

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So what you see now is partially built

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by the hands of people who lived here.

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That was the biggest reward.

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- The movement meant that
we could change things,

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we could make things happen.

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(mellow music)

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- Corky was really there
at just about every rally,

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and movement, and event,

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and institution that was started

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during the movement era.

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The police brutality rallies

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after this 27-year-old
engineer named Peter Yew

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was beaten by the NYPD.

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It was one of the biggest mobilizations

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in Chinatown\'s history.

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I think, when you look at his photographs,

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you do get a sense of
the excitement and energy

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of the time period.

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(camera shutter clicks)
(crowd shouting)

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- 1975, all the businesses
closed in Chinatown

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at the height of this civil rights protest

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against police brutality.

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The policemen wanted to
move a certain section

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and people weren\'t willing to move.

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So the police started to
push and then eventually,

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one of them swung a billy club

00:14:56.812 --> 00:14:57.646
and hit this individual.

00:14:59.064 --> 00:15:00.900
I had actually been pretty close,

00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:04.987
probably within six feet,
and there was no cause

00:15:04.987 --> 00:15:07.281
to hit the guy.

00:15:07.281 --> 00:15:09.491
Immediately, I called
up \"The New York Times\"

00:15:09.491 --> 00:15:11.076
and they said they had
their photographer there,

00:15:11.076 --> 00:15:13.579
but they didn\'t know of
any outbreak of violence.

00:15:13.579 --> 00:15:14.955
I called \"The Daily News.\"

00:15:14.955 --> 00:15:16.540
They didn\'t wanna see the photograph.

00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:17.875
And then \"The New York Post\" said

00:15:17.875 --> 00:15:19.168
they had their photographer there.

00:15:19.168 --> 00:15:20.419
I said, \"Well, my photographs show

00:15:20.419 --> 00:15:22.046
that somebody got beaten up

00:15:22.046 --> 00:15:24.173
and the police had taking him away!\"

00:15:24.173 --> 00:15:25.132
And then I,

00:15:26.508 --> 00:15:28.177
there was a little bit of
a silence on the other end

00:15:28.177 --> 00:15:30.846
of the phone and then they came back to me

00:15:30.846 --> 00:15:33.682
and said, \"Okay kid, bring it in.\"

00:15:36.602 --> 00:15:37.895
And I made the front page.

00:15:45.069 --> 00:15:47.613
- That photograph in \"The New York Post\"

00:15:47.613 --> 00:15:50.115
that was a breakthrough for Corky,

00:15:50.115 --> 00:15:51.283
and I think for us,

00:15:51.283 --> 00:15:53.786
in terms of representing the issues.

00:15:54.828 --> 00:15:57.998
I think it was the first time
we showed city government

00:15:57.998 --> 00:16:01.794
that the community could
organize into a political force.

00:16:05.965 --> 00:16:09.301
- Chinatown was often cited as
the ideal immigrant community

00:16:09.301 --> 00:16:12.096
because they don\'t make trouble.

00:16:12.096 --> 00:16:15.307
And here they were
complaining about the police.

00:16:16.392 --> 00:16:19.186
For reporters, I think
this was a revelation.

00:16:20.437 --> 00:16:23.357
We\'d been talking about
police beatings of Blacks

00:16:23.357 --> 00:16:26.694
and Latinos, and here this
is happening to Asians too.

00:16:26.694 --> 00:16:27.820
So, that\'s significant.

00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:30.614
Maybe there\'s a bigger story there.

00:16:32.449 --> 00:16:33.784
I was working for \"The New York Post\"

00:16:33.784 --> 00:16:36.245
and my managing editor came and said,

00:16:36.245 --> 00:16:38.163
\"Hey Ed, we got a great story.

00:16:38.163 --> 00:16:40.499
I want you to do a series on Chinatown\"

00:16:40.499 --> 00:16:41.750
because of all of this.

00:16:43.669 --> 00:16:48.048
Corky was the go-to guy in
Chinatown for photographers.

00:16:48.048 --> 00:16:51.176
He took photos to
supplement what I was doing.

00:16:51.176 --> 00:16:52.553
He was a pro.

00:16:52.553 --> 00:16:55.556
Nobody had to tell Corky,
\"Go, take a picture

00:16:55.556 --> 00:16:57.725
of the mayor of Chinatown,\"

00:16:57.725 --> 00:17:00.060
because he\'s important.

00:17:00.060 --> 00:17:03.397
He knew his community
and he was good at it.

00:17:04.815 --> 00:17:08.277
My series on Chinatown ran for six days.

00:17:08.277 --> 00:17:11.655
Each segment covered a page of the paper.

00:17:11.655 --> 00:17:13.782
We talked about poverty,

00:17:13.782 --> 00:17:16.076
the conditions that people were living in,

00:17:16.076 --> 00:17:19.246
immigration, and all the
different family associations

00:17:19.246 --> 00:17:22.124
and identity.

00:17:22.124 --> 00:17:24.251
There\'s something a lot more
complicated going on down there

00:17:24.251 --> 00:17:27.755
than just the restaurants and gift shops.

00:17:29.214 --> 00:17:32.801
- Manhattan Chinatown
really is a neighborhood.

00:17:32.801 --> 00:17:37.264
It\'s not just a facade, and
it\'s not just for tourists.

00:17:37.264 --> 00:17:39.808
It\'s a living, breathing community.

00:17:40.768 --> 00:17:44.730
Corky was taking photographs at a time

00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:47.149
when there was a new generation

00:17:47.149 --> 00:17:52.154
of young Asian Americans
claiming their rights

00:17:52.488 --> 00:17:54.114
to be American.

00:17:58.702 --> 00:18:03.332
- There are number of people
in my generation took to heart

00:18:03.332 --> 00:18:06.085
what John F. Kennedy had
said in his inaugural speech.

00:18:07.461 --> 00:18:09.046
- And so my fellow Americans-

00:18:09.046 --> 00:18:10.464
- Quite simply it was,

00:18:12.257 --> 00:18:15.469
\"Ask not ask not what your
country can do for you,

00:18:15.469 --> 00:18:17.513
but what you can do for your country.\"

00:18:19.389 --> 00:18:20.682
I was in high school at the time,

00:18:20.682 --> 00:18:23.977
so I would say, I\'m a
product of that generation.

00:18:25.604 --> 00:18:28.607
I\'m not a person that
can sit down and write.

00:18:28.607 --> 00:18:30.734
I can\'t sing, I can\'t compose,

00:18:30.734 --> 00:18:33.779
so I figured my contribution
to this movement,

00:18:33.779 --> 00:18:35.989
which later became the
Asian American Movement,

00:18:35.989 --> 00:18:39.535
was for me to take the
photographs and document them,

00:18:39.535 --> 00:18:43.038
and then use the photography
as an organizing tool

00:18:43.038 --> 00:18:44.206
for social change.

00:18:47.334 --> 00:18:50.212
- The Asian American Movement
started in late-1960s.

00:18:51.255 --> 00:18:52.631
At that time,

00:18:53.715 --> 00:18:54.550
there were

00:18:54.550 --> 00:18:55.384
really no quote/unquote
\"Asian American identity.\"

00:19:01.014 --> 00:19:03.684
We were a bunch of different groups;

00:19:03.684 --> 00:19:06.603
Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos.

00:19:06.603 --> 00:19:09.731
But the fact that the
bigger society see us

00:19:09.731 --> 00:19:13.527
as one group, and forcing us to realize

00:19:13.527 --> 00:19:15.946
that we have to group together to fight.

00:19:15.946 --> 00:19:18.532
(upbeat music)

00:19:24.538 --> 00:19:26.957
- Those were the Vietnam years.

00:19:26.957 --> 00:19:29.418
People were being drafted.

00:19:29.418 --> 00:19:32.754
And Chinese kids, just
like everybody else,

00:19:32.754 --> 00:19:34.047
was sent to Vietnam.

00:19:36.717 --> 00:19:39.636
- I don\'t think anybody
wanted to get drafted.

00:19:39.636 --> 00:19:41.430
Because they\'re all
from immigrant families.

00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:45.058
They may have been the first
generation to get into college.

00:19:46.435 --> 00:19:47.477
Some people who got drafted

00:19:47.477 --> 00:19:51.607
wound up in Japan or Germany.

00:19:51.607 --> 00:19:53.942
Other people, like my brother,

00:19:54.818 --> 00:19:57.321
got drafted and he wound up looking

00:19:57.321 --> 00:19:59.031
over the border into Cambodia.

00:20:01.742 --> 00:20:06.079
- My brother Jimmy, he was
the only Asian in his platoon.

00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:09.082
On the first day of
jungle warfare training,

00:20:09.082 --> 00:20:11.585
drill sergeant says,
\"Lee, front and center.\"

00:20:12.753 --> 00:20:15.714
Jimmy jumps up, does a
snappy front and center,

00:20:15.714 --> 00:20:18.508
standing right next to the drill sergeant.

00:20:19.676 --> 00:20:23.722
Drill sergeant takes one step to the side,

00:20:23.722 --> 00:20:28.727
points directly at my brother
Jimmy, and says quote,

00:20:29.102 --> 00:20:32.981
\"This is what the enemy looks like!\"

00:20:35.734 --> 00:20:38.737
(slow guitar music)

00:20:48.247 --> 00:20:51.416
- What the Asian American
Movement was built on was

00:20:51.416 --> 00:20:55.963
this critique of the war
as imperialist and racist,

00:20:55.963 --> 00:20:58.882
that somehow Asian
American lives are cheap.

00:20:58.882 --> 00:21:01.343
A lot of Asian Americans were
actually very radicalized

00:21:01.343 --> 00:21:02.719
by this critique of the war

00:21:02.719 --> 00:21:04.304
and by looking at these images

00:21:04.304 --> 00:21:05.847
of the atrocities in the war.

00:21:07.557 --> 00:21:09.434
- We didn\'t wanna go to Vietnam.

00:21:09.434 --> 00:21:12.145
We always felt that that was a war that

00:21:12.145 --> 00:21:13.647
we should not be involved in.

00:21:15.607 --> 00:21:17.150
So a friend of ours said,

00:21:17.150 --> 00:21:18.986
\"You should meet this guy, Corky Lee.

00:21:18.986 --> 00:21:21.113
He\'s a draft counselor.\"

00:21:21.113 --> 00:21:23.031
And that\'s the first time I met Corky.

00:21:24.866 --> 00:21:27.202
- I was a conscientious objector.

00:21:27.202 --> 00:21:29.037
And I basically started to try

00:21:29.037 --> 00:21:32.416
to help other Asians get draft deferment.

00:21:33.458 --> 00:21:35.961
You know, every so often you
really have to take a stand.

00:21:37.462 --> 00:21:41.675
♪ Oh, hold the banner high ♪

00:21:41.675 --> 00:21:43.927
♪ Warriors of the rainbow ♪

00:21:43.927 --> 00:21:47.180
♪ Hold the banner high ♪

00:21:51.810 --> 00:21:55.063
(folk music continues)

00:21:59.985 --> 00:22:04.990
- We were doing all kinds of
anti-war civil rights action.

00:22:05.407 --> 00:22:08.243
And I remember always seeing
this guy coming around

00:22:08.243 --> 00:22:10.537
with a camera.

00:22:12.914 --> 00:22:16.084
And so at first we said, \"You
know, who the hell is this guy?

00:22:16.084 --> 00:22:16.877
Is he a cop taking pictures?\"

00:22:16.877 --> 00:22:18.003
But then after a while,

00:22:18.003 --> 00:22:20.213
we get used to him because we also know

00:22:20.213 --> 00:22:23.759
how important is media, in
terms of what we doing .

00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:26.762
It\'s very important for
things to be recorded.

00:22:26.762 --> 00:22:29.931
We understood if
something is not recorded,

00:22:29.931 --> 00:22:32.893
either by television or
by Corky, or by anybody,

00:22:32.893 --> 00:22:34.811
then something never happened.

00:22:34.811 --> 00:22:37.397
(upbeat music)

00:22:43.904 --> 00:22:47.324
(upbeat music continues)

00:22:49.201 --> 00:22:51.119
♪ There\'s Corky! Where? ♪

00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.955
♪ They\'re closing a
Chinatown subway stop ♪

00:22:53.955 --> 00:22:55.957
♪ There\'s Corky! Where? ♪

00:22:55.957 --> 00:22:58.877
♪ There\'s anti-immigrant agit prop ♪

00:22:58.877 --> 00:23:00.754
♪ There\'s Corky! Where? ♪

00:23:00.754 --> 00:23:03.465
♪ There with Governor Gary Locke ♪

00:23:03.465 --> 00:23:07.761
♪ There\'s anti-Asian
hate crime in Queens ♪

00:23:07.761 --> 00:23:11.515
♪ It\'s tough being Corky Lee ♪

00:23:17.771 --> 00:23:20.065
♪ How does he do it? ♪

00:23:20.065 --> 00:23:22.109
♪ Well, I don\'t know! ♪

00:23:22.109 --> 00:23:27.114
♪ He\'s at every protest;
he\'s at every show ♪

00:23:27.489 --> 00:23:32.035
♪ He\'s where the Asian
American action is ♪

00:23:32.035 --> 00:23:37.040
♪ Shooting politicians
to performance artists ♪

00:23:37.124 --> 00:23:38.583
♪ How does he do it? ♪

00:23:38.583 --> 00:23:41.670
♪ Runnin\' all over the place ♪

00:23:41.670 --> 00:23:46.675
♪ Single lens flexin\' - he
must be in great shape! ♪

00:23:48.760 --> 00:23:52.514
♪ It\'s tough being Corky Lee ♪

00:23:58.520 --> 00:24:01.940
(upbeat music continues)

00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:11.199
(upbeat music continues)

00:24:17.539 --> 00:24:20.625
(upbeat music fades)

00:24:24.546 --> 00:24:27.299
(birds chirping)

00:24:33.513 --> 00:24:35.724
- Probably my earliest memory is

00:24:35.724 --> 00:24:37.851
living on Hollis Avenue in Queens.

00:24:39.144 --> 00:24:39.978
It was 205.

00:24:41.438 --> 00:24:43.732
They renamed 205th Street

00:24:43.732 --> 00:24:46.318
after one of the founders of hip-hop.

00:24:46.318 --> 00:24:47.944
He\'s from the same neighborhood!

00:24:50.906 --> 00:24:52.365
We lived in a hand laundry.

00:24:55.702 --> 00:24:59.414
My father had come in 1929 from Toisan,

00:24:59.414 --> 00:25:03.168
about 90 miles southwest of Canton.

00:25:03.168 --> 00:25:04.586
During the Depression,

00:25:04.586 --> 00:25:05.921
he had worked in laundries

00:25:07.797 --> 00:25:10.300
but by the time the Second War broke out,

00:25:10.300 --> 00:25:12.594
he was working in Camden Navy Yard

00:25:12.594 --> 00:25:15.347
and he learned how to weld aluminum.

00:25:16.765 --> 00:25:17.766
When he was drafted,

00:25:17.766 --> 00:25:21.478
there was a segregated
unit of Chinese Americans

00:25:21.478 --> 00:25:25.357
that wound up on the Burma
Road working behind the lines.

00:25:26.316 --> 00:25:31.196
By \'46, as a result of the War Brides Act,

00:25:31.196 --> 00:25:33.698
my father was able to bring my mom over

00:25:33.698 --> 00:25:35.450
with my older sister.

00:25:36.826 --> 00:25:38.745
So, I was born a year later.

00:25:39.955 --> 00:25:42.165
And then I had three brothers after that.

00:25:43.708 --> 00:25:46.044
(soft music)

00:25:46.044 --> 00:25:49.923
After the war, my dad wanted
to really pursue arc welding,

00:25:50.924 --> 00:25:52.217
but nobody would hire him.

00:25:54.052 --> 00:25:55.887
He had four kids to feed,

00:25:56.805 --> 00:25:58.848
so he went back in the laundry business.

00:25:58.848 --> 00:26:00.934
That was something that he knew,

00:26:02.102 --> 00:26:05.647
and he settled down and
basically had a family.

00:26:09.859 --> 00:26:11.152
Growing up, I wouldn\'t say

00:26:11.152 --> 00:26:13.154
that I had a really happy childhood.

00:26:15.782 --> 00:26:19.119
I had responsibilities that I didn\'t want.

00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:20.954
Maybe it\'s because I\'m the first son

00:26:22.163 --> 00:26:25.166
that I had to do all the household chores,

00:26:25.166 --> 00:26:27.419
like cooking, which I hated doing.

00:26:29.212 --> 00:26:31.673
Then I had to work in
the laundry business.

00:26:31.673 --> 00:26:33.925
You know, with my dad
in the laundry business,

00:26:33.925 --> 00:26:36.469
it was like, I always kept asking,

00:26:36.469 --> 00:26:37.554
\"Why do I have to do this?

00:26:37.554 --> 00:26:39.306
I don\'t see anybody else doing it.\"

00:26:45.562 --> 00:26:49.899
My dad, he was pretty
authoritative, noncommunicative.

00:26:50.734 --> 00:26:52.777
He always expected the best of you

00:26:52.777 --> 00:26:55.655
and would demand nothing less.

00:26:55.655 --> 00:26:58.074
So, I knew that I wasn\'t perfect.

00:27:02.078 --> 00:27:04.122
I was always getting into trouble.

00:27:05.206 --> 00:27:07.584
I just liked to do things
a little differently

00:27:07.584 --> 00:27:09.336
than anybody else.

00:27:12.922 --> 00:27:16.968
Over the years, I tried to
understand him a little better.

00:27:18.428 --> 00:27:20.639
You know, like a lot of immigrants,

00:27:20.639 --> 00:27:23.183
they were frustrated because this culture,

00:27:23.183 --> 00:27:25.143
American culture, was really new to them

00:27:25.143 --> 00:27:27.854
and they\'re trying to
preserve their culture

00:27:27.854 --> 00:27:29.606
and heritage and so forth,

00:27:29.606 --> 00:27:32.734
and it ran counter to what
their children were doing.

00:27:36.404 --> 00:27:38.823
He had hoped that I would
be a doctor or something,

00:27:38.823 --> 00:27:39.699
or a lawyer,

00:27:40.909 --> 00:27:43.953
but I wanted to be something artistic.

00:27:48.083 --> 00:27:50.543
I was actually the last
one to see my dad alive.

00:27:50.543 --> 00:27:53.421
He passed away in 1982.

00:27:54.798 --> 00:27:57.509
He was in the VA hospital at the time.

00:27:57.509 --> 00:27:58.551
The doctor was telling me,

00:27:58.551 --> 00:28:02.097
\"Oh, I didn\'t know you were that famous.\"

00:28:02.097 --> 00:28:02.931
What are you talking about?

00:28:02.931 --> 00:28:04.099
\"Oh, this is what your dad said.\"

00:28:04.099 --> 00:28:06.768
He said, \"Yeah, you\'re really famous.

00:28:06.768 --> 00:28:08.603
I\'m happy to to know you.\"

00:28:09.604 --> 00:28:13.274
I said, \"Oh, my dad
said all that about me?\"

00:28:21.032 --> 00:28:24.494
(Corky speaking in Toisanese)

00:28:24.494 --> 00:28:27.455
(Mother speaking in Toisanese)

00:28:27.455 --> 00:28:29.290
- Hey, how you turn on mom\'s DVD?

00:28:30.959 --> 00:28:32.627
- Let\'s try it this way.

00:28:32.627 --> 00:28:35.296
- This is my mom and dad,
when they first got married.

00:28:36.589 --> 00:28:39.175
- [Sister] It\'s got to be 1934, or \'33.

00:28:39.175 --> 00:28:44.139
Yeah, my father\'s father and his mother,

00:28:44.347 --> 00:28:46.933
and this is my mother\'s mother.

00:28:46.933 --> 00:28:50.228
There\'s some resemblance
between my grandma and my mom.

00:28:50.228 --> 00:28:51.688
(Mother speaking Toisanese)

00:28:51.688 --> 00:28:54.065
- Yeah, this is how my father arranged it

00:28:54.065 --> 00:28:55.442
and we left it there,

00:28:55.442 --> 00:28:57.944
and then after he passed away,

00:28:57.944 --> 00:28:59.320
that\'s his picture there.

00:28:59.320 --> 00:29:03.074
(Mother speaking in Toisanese)

00:29:03.074 --> 00:29:04.367
Yeah, he was only 72.

00:29:06.578 --> 00:29:08.455
My father didn\'t have it easy.

00:29:08.455 --> 00:29:10.457
- We were not like American families.

00:29:10.457 --> 00:29:12.000
You had your Donna Reeds.

00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.210
Mother was always home, okay,

00:29:14.210 --> 00:29:16.629
and father went out to work, okay.

00:29:16.629 --> 00:29:19.966
We had two working parents.

00:29:19.966 --> 00:29:22.635
- That was the era that we grow up in.

00:29:22.635 --> 00:29:26.598
- This was myself and
two of my three brothers.

00:29:26.598 --> 00:29:28.933
That\'s John, my brother John.

00:29:28.933 --> 00:29:32.061
- John is the only one that
made it out to the west coast

00:29:32.061 --> 00:29:33.730
and made it.

00:29:33.730 --> 00:29:36.357
(Mother speaking Toisanese)

00:29:36.357 --> 00:29:37.317
- I made it.

00:29:37.317 --> 00:29:38.860
- Mom wants to say that she made

00:29:38.860 --> 00:29:40.445
these handmade flowers over here.

00:29:40.445 --> 00:29:43.198
She\'s got other flowers
over here (laughter).

00:29:43.198 --> 00:29:44.073
- I made it!

00:29:44.073 --> 00:29:45.366
- Yeah, even this.

00:29:47.243 --> 00:29:48.828
- They call her the flower woman.

00:29:48.828 --> 00:29:50.330
- She is very crafty.

00:29:50.330 --> 00:29:52.332
I think that\'s what make her long life

00:29:53.208 --> 00:29:56.169
because see, she keeps herself busy.

00:29:56.169 --> 00:29:58.004
- This is what I gave
my mom for Thanksgiving.

00:29:58.004 --> 00:29:58.880
- That\'s where Corky gets it from -

00:29:58.880 --> 00:29:59.672
(Mother speaking in Toisanese)

00:29:59.672 --> 00:30:00.548
- from my mother\'s side.

00:30:00.548 --> 00:30:01.883
- [Corky] That\'s me.

00:30:01.883 --> 00:30:04.219
- [Sister] I think Corky had
a way of pushing himself,

00:30:04.219 --> 00:30:06.012
even when he was little.

00:30:06.012 --> 00:30:08.348
He always wanted to lead,

00:30:08.348 --> 00:30:10.975
and always want to be the best.

00:30:10.975 --> 00:30:13.061
Oh yeah, we know what
he does for a living.

00:30:13.061 --> 00:30:14.145
We\'re proud of him.

00:30:14.145 --> 00:30:14.979
- [Brother] Yeah, but
don\'t know if he\'s alive -

00:30:14.979 --> 00:30:15.814
sometimes we don\'t see him.

00:30:15.814 --> 00:30:18.191
- You call him, he says,
\"I\'ll be there tomorrow.

00:30:18.191 --> 00:30:19.150
Oh, I can\'t make it.

00:30:19.150 --> 00:30:20.485
I have to be somewhere else.\"

00:30:20.485 --> 00:30:21.444
(Brother laughing)

00:30:21.444 --> 00:30:22.946
I always tell the family,

00:30:22.946 --> 00:30:23.905
- [Brother] Trying to
reach him is another joke.

00:30:23.905 --> 00:30:25.573
- even my kids:

00:30:25.573 --> 00:30:28.701
\"It\'s easier to go visit the
President of United States

00:30:28.701 --> 00:30:30.995
than get to see your Uncle Corky.\"

00:30:30.995 --> 00:30:32.455
- Something happens,

00:30:32.455 --> 00:30:33.665
she\'ll call me.

00:30:33.665 --> 00:30:35.333
- I can\'t get to Corky

00:30:35.333 --> 00:30:37.752
because he\'s never around
to answer his call.

00:30:37.752 --> 00:30:38.670
- [Brother] Yeah, well,
that\'s what I mean.

00:30:38.670 --> 00:30:40.255
Corky\'s like trying to
reach the Man on the Moon!

00:30:40.255 --> 00:30:42.006
- It\'s tough being Corky Lee.

00:30:42.006 --> 00:30:45.176
- [In Toisanese] Corky is famous.

00:30:45.176 --> 00:30:46.010
- [Sister] Yeah, she knows.

00:30:46.010 --> 00:30:47.679
- [In Toisanese] He takes pictures.

00:30:47.679 --> 00:30:49.597
- [In Toisanese] Lee Young Quoork!

00:30:49.597 --> 00:30:51.224
People from the senior
citizens center say,

00:30:51.224 --> 00:30:55.854
\"Oh, your son Lee Young
Quoork takes pictures!\"

00:30:55.854 --> 00:30:57.272
- [Sister] He was in a Chinese newspaper,

00:30:57.272 --> 00:30:58.481
the World Journal.

00:30:58.481 --> 00:30:59.566
- In 2001,

00:30:59.566 --> 00:31:01.943
she read in the papers
that I had this exhibit

00:31:01.943 --> 00:31:04.404
at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas.

00:31:04.404 --> 00:31:06.447
So she gathered up some of her friends.

00:31:06.447 --> 00:31:08.575
They huffed and puffed
up to the second floor

00:31:08.575 --> 00:31:10.702
and they were just about closing.

00:31:10.702 --> 00:31:13.955
So she said that, \"I\'m Corky Lee\'s mom.

00:31:13.955 --> 00:31:16.833
What do you mean I can\'t
come in to see the exhibit?\"

00:31:16.833 --> 00:31:17.667
(laughs)

00:31:17.667 --> 00:31:21.337
They said, \"Oh, a thousand
pardons, Mrs. Lee.\"

00:31:21.337 --> 00:31:23.172
They opened the door and they let mom

00:31:23.172 --> 00:31:25.049
and her friends go in to see the exhibit!

00:31:25.049 --> 00:31:29.762
(all laughing)

00:31:32.891 --> 00:31:36.060
Confucius Plaza was completed in 1976

00:31:36.060 --> 00:31:39.689
and the apartment in
Chinatown became a focal point

00:31:39.689 --> 00:31:41.816
for my family.

00:31:43.318 --> 00:31:46.738
Chinatown almost anywhere
is a springboard community

00:31:46.738 --> 00:31:47.655
for immigrants.

00:31:48.948 --> 00:31:52.368
So you come to Chinatown,
you become Americanized,

00:31:52.368 --> 00:31:56.080
but you try to hold onto
the cultural traditions,

00:31:56.080 --> 00:31:57.707
be it language, or even food,

00:31:57.707 --> 00:31:59.167
and then you sort of move on.

00:32:00.126 --> 00:32:03.421
But you wanna kind of have your roots,

00:32:03.421 --> 00:32:04.589
\'cause if you don\'t
know where you\'re from,

00:32:04.589 --> 00:32:07.008
you don\'t know where
the hell you\'re going.

00:32:07.008 --> 00:32:09.594
Chinatown is actually
really very important.

00:32:09.594 --> 00:32:11.804
The heart and soul of a community

00:32:11.804 --> 00:32:14.182
that is struggling to survive.

00:32:16.643 --> 00:32:18.436
I\'ve noticed that a lot of times,

00:32:18.436 --> 00:32:22.315
if I photograph something
that I think is enduring

00:32:22.315 --> 00:32:24.817
or was enduring to me for
some reason or another,

00:32:24.817 --> 00:32:27.904
after I take the photograph,
within months it would change.

00:32:28.947 --> 00:32:31.449
I took a photograph of one
of these tourist postcards

00:32:31.449 --> 00:32:32.575
of Chinatown.

00:32:32.575 --> 00:32:37.205
It depicted Chinatown street
life from 1960\'s - 1965.

00:32:37.205 --> 00:32:39.207
I took the photograph in \'89

00:32:39.207 --> 00:32:42.085
and in the background would
be the rest of the street.

00:32:43.670 --> 00:32:47.298
The grocery store was the only
thing that hadn\'t changed.

00:32:47.298 --> 00:32:49.133
Now coming down into Mulberry,

00:32:49.133 --> 00:32:51.260
you have Mosco Street.

00:32:51.260 --> 00:32:54.305
Before it was Mosco
Street, it was Park Street.

00:32:54.305 --> 00:32:55.765
And Park Street actually
cut right through the park,

00:32:55.765 --> 00:32:57.266
right over here.

00:32:57.266 --> 00:32:59.727
And during the influenza epidemic,

00:32:59.727 --> 00:33:02.939
after World War I, all
the Chinese who died

00:33:02.939 --> 00:33:04.857
were laid out on Park Street.

00:33:04.857 --> 00:33:07.026
Bellevue Hospital would
not accept Chinese.

00:33:12.490 --> 00:33:17.495
Coming up, you got a place
called Hotel Mulberry,

00:33:17.912 --> 00:33:20.289
but almost right next to it,

00:33:20.289 --> 00:33:22.458
there are two storefronts
that are for rent.

00:33:22.458 --> 00:33:24.627
And this is just the pattern of

00:33:24.627 --> 00:33:29.632
not trying to keep
businesses in Chinatown.

00:33:35.054 --> 00:33:38.391
(speaking in Chinese)

00:33:38.391 --> 00:33:39.267
I\'ve known for a long time,

00:33:39.267 --> 00:33:41.060
a lot of Filipinos come in here

00:33:41.060 --> 00:33:43.604
\'cause if you go into a Filipino bakery,

00:33:43.604 --> 00:33:44.814
some of the same items

00:33:46.941 --> 00:33:48.526
that you see in a Filipino bakery are

00:33:48.526 --> 00:33:51.112
also Chinese baked items.

00:33:51.112 --> 00:33:52.697
(Corky speaking in Tagalog)

00:33:52.697 --> 00:33:53.531
- (Tagalog) Mabuhau! Thank you!

00:33:53.531 --> 00:33:54.490
- All right, yeah.

00:33:54.490 --> 00:33:55.450
- Nice meeting you.

00:33:55.450 --> 00:33:57.076
- How long you been coming
here to Mei Lai Wah?

00:33:57.076 --> 00:33:58.494
- Since 2007.

00:33:59.495 --> 00:34:01.581
- Corky Lee\'s brain\'s always turning.

00:34:02.665 --> 00:34:05.001
He truly inspired people like myself

00:34:05.001 --> 00:34:07.837
and everybody who has a
passion for photography.

00:34:09.297 --> 00:34:11.841
If something was happening in
the Asian American community,

00:34:11.841 --> 00:34:13.259
everybody expected Corky to be there.

00:34:13.259 --> 00:34:15.261
And most of the time, he could be there.

00:34:16.179 --> 00:34:18.347
He would photograph
everything if he could.

00:34:19.348 --> 00:34:22.226
He was the one person that
happens to always have

00:34:22.226 --> 00:34:24.228
that bit of information
that you need to know,

00:34:24.228 --> 00:34:25.646
and he always had it.

00:34:25.646 --> 00:34:28.941
He is the one that helps connect
everybody to one another.

00:34:29.817 --> 00:34:32.779
He was always advocating for
the Asian American community.

00:34:34.405 --> 00:34:36.032
- Okay, that\'s what you look like.

00:34:36.032 --> 00:34:38.034
Okay? Is that all right?

00:34:38.034 --> 00:34:39.494
Okay, thank you.

00:34:41.412 --> 00:34:43.247
- There is nobody like Corky.

00:34:43.247 --> 00:34:45.875
He is institutional memory,

00:34:45.875 --> 00:34:48.503
if there\'s such a thing,
for this community.

00:34:48.503 --> 00:34:51.798
He is in many ways a walking encyclopedia

00:34:51.798 --> 00:34:55.176
and there are not many
people who can do that.

00:34:55.176 --> 00:34:56.928
(bright music)

00:34:56.928 --> 00:34:58.221
- I\'m not so sure exactly

00:34:58.221 --> 00:35:00.807
how I became an information person.

00:35:00.807 --> 00:35:03.184
I would have to contribute
that to the diversity

00:35:03.184 --> 00:35:04.477
of photographic subjects

00:35:04.477 --> 00:35:06.145
that I\'ve covered over the years.

00:35:07.730 --> 00:35:08.606
Before the internet,

00:35:08.606 --> 00:35:12.443
I was called the Asian
version of The Yellow Pages,

00:35:12.443 --> 00:35:13.945
the Asian Answer Man.

00:35:16.072 --> 00:35:18.866
Kids referred to me as the Corkypedia,

00:35:18.866 --> 00:35:20.952
as opposed to Wikipedia,

00:35:20.952 --> 00:35:22.703
for anything that\'s Asian American.

00:35:24.831 --> 00:35:28.918
- They say that competitive
eating is the battleground

00:35:28.918 --> 00:35:31.838
upon which God and Lucifer wage war!

00:35:33.172 --> 00:35:35.800
- You know, I have a
much broader definition

00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:37.593
of the Asian American Movement.

00:35:38.594 --> 00:35:40.847
Nathan\'s Hot Dog contest:

00:35:40.847 --> 00:35:43.724
there happened to be two Asian women,

00:35:43.724 --> 00:35:45.726
they both weigh about 105.

00:35:45.726 --> 00:35:48.020
They\'re 40 and 41 years old.

00:35:48.020 --> 00:35:50.231
In 10 minutes, between both of them,

00:35:50.231 --> 00:35:52.316
they finished 75 hot dogs.

00:35:53.234 --> 00:35:54.986
(crowd cheering)

00:35:54.986 --> 00:35:59.448
This is the first time that
an Asian American woman won.

00:35:59.448 --> 00:36:02.201
Could be a dubious note
in Asian American history,

00:36:02.201 --> 00:36:04.829
but it\'s also very American, all right?

00:36:04.829 --> 00:36:08.457
Consuming as many hot dogs as
you can on the 4th of July!

00:36:09.542 --> 00:36:12.044
That\'s bringing, in my mind,

00:36:12.044 --> 00:36:16.340
a Asian American presence
into the American landscape.

00:36:17.300 --> 00:36:20.219
The more that this happens, it solidifies

00:36:20.219 --> 00:36:21.804
our space in this country.

00:36:23.681 --> 00:36:26.434
(carnival music)

00:36:41.324 --> 00:36:43.868
See, this is basically my filing system,

00:36:43.868 --> 00:36:47.079
my contact sheet is
kept with the negatives,

00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:49.373
and I have one print from the entire roll,

00:36:49.373 --> 00:36:50.875
which will be this one.

00:36:50.875 --> 00:36:54.837
So this\'ll help me locate
it a little bit faster.

00:36:57.840 --> 00:36:59.508
After I photograph something,

00:36:59.508 --> 00:37:01.260
I try to spend some time

00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:04.347
and look at every
photograph that I\'ve taken.

00:37:04.347 --> 00:37:07.016
I have a episodic memory.

00:37:07.016 --> 00:37:10.561
I think seeing it helps
to reinforce my memory.

00:37:12.355 --> 00:37:14.440
I shoot film whenever I can.

00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:17.068
When the weather gets
warm, I can carry a film

00:37:17.068 --> 00:37:19.111
and a digital camera.

00:37:19.111 --> 00:37:23.157
I still feel more confident with film

00:37:23.157 --> 00:37:25.076
than I do with digital.

00:37:25.076 --> 00:37:28.287
But with film, you don\'t
know what you have on film

00:37:28.287 --> 00:37:29.330
until you develop it.

00:37:33.209 --> 00:37:35.795
I\'ve always said that I\'m
a self-taught photographer.

00:37:35.795 --> 00:37:37.380
I learned from trial and error.

00:37:38.422 --> 00:37:41.133
Every photograph is something
a little bit different.

00:37:42.218 --> 00:37:44.220
So this photograph of Lily Chow,

00:37:44.220 --> 00:37:46.305
the original negative was kind of flat,

00:37:46.305 --> 00:37:48.349
so I made it a little more contrastier.

00:37:50.726 --> 00:37:52.812
This one\'s from Columbia University.

00:37:52.812 --> 00:37:55.273
They had taken over Hamilton Hall

00:37:55.273 --> 00:37:59.151
to initiate ethnic studies.

00:37:59.151 --> 00:38:01.362
I think it was \'95 or \'97.

00:38:02.196 --> 00:38:05.324
This was the Edward Moody
case, who was Indian American.

00:38:06.242 --> 00:38:08.786
I generally use a wide
angle lens and I move close,

00:38:08.786 --> 00:38:12.707
so you get the whole
landscape of what I am seeing.

00:38:12.707 --> 00:38:14.458
For me, that\'s my style.

00:38:15.293 --> 00:38:18.838
I\'m also very conscious of
when I take a photograph.

00:38:18.838 --> 00:38:21.173
I look for optimum conditions.

00:38:21.173 --> 00:38:22.758
So if there\'s like back lighting,

00:38:22.758 --> 00:38:25.928
I won\'t take a photograph,
unless I have to.

00:38:25.928 --> 00:38:28.431
If you\'re outdoors, shoot in the shade.

00:38:28.431 --> 00:38:29.807
I would stop photographing

00:38:29.807 --> 00:38:33.436
when I thought that I captured
the essence of the moment.

00:38:36.731 --> 00:38:40.318
I try to get a balance
of various Asian groups.

00:38:40.318 --> 00:38:42.445
If you\'re gonna show
Asian Pacific America,

00:38:42.445 --> 00:38:45.614
you have to have basically
an equal balance,

00:38:45.614 --> 00:38:49.910
be it civil rights, be it work

00:38:49.910 --> 00:38:51.454
or just community.

00:38:56.083 --> 00:38:58.669
This is in Arlington Cemetery

00:38:58.669 --> 00:39:01.339
and there was a memorial service there

00:39:01.339 --> 00:39:03.674
for the opening of the Smithsonian exhibit

00:39:03.674 --> 00:39:06.052
on Japanese American concentration camps.

00:39:07.136 --> 00:39:10.389
This is a veteran 442 guy

00:39:10.389 --> 00:39:14.477
who originally was
incarcerated in Manzanar

00:39:14.477 --> 00:39:15.478
during the Second World War

00:39:15.478 --> 00:39:17.188
after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

00:39:18.105 --> 00:39:20.524
This guy over here is Min Hara.

00:39:20.524 --> 00:39:23.903
He worked for MIS - intelligence

00:39:23.903 --> 00:39:25.488
during the Second World War.

00:39:25.488 --> 00:39:27.656
He got a bronze star, but before he died,

00:39:27.656 --> 00:39:30.076
he was trying to get a
couple of other medals

00:39:30.076 --> 00:39:31.452
that he thought he deserved.

00:39:33.245 --> 00:39:36.248
I used to come in after work,

00:39:36.248 --> 00:39:39.168
pretty much on a weekly basis,

00:39:39.168 --> 00:39:42.797
and I would print for several hours.

00:39:42.797 --> 00:39:44.632
Back then the dark rooms were cheap.

00:39:44.632 --> 00:39:47.134
They were like maybe $6 an hour,

00:39:48.010 --> 00:39:49.637
so I can print to my heart\'s content

00:39:49.637 --> 00:39:51.889
and not spend a whole lot of money.

00:39:56.811 --> 00:39:59.814
(people chattering)

00:40:12.827 --> 00:40:14.662
Being freelance it\'s really hard

00:40:14.662 --> 00:40:17.706
to kind of gauge your finances,

00:40:19.583 --> 00:40:22.837
but I don\'t know if I could work well

00:40:22.837 --> 00:40:26.132
in a journalistic organization

00:40:26.132 --> 00:40:28.134
because you know, if
they wanted me to go out

00:40:28.134 --> 00:40:30.302
to photograph an azalea festival, and

00:40:30.302 --> 00:40:32.638
I happen to know that
there\'s something else

00:40:32.638 --> 00:40:33.889
that I think is better,

00:40:33.889 --> 00:40:35.641
I would probably challenge
the editor and say,

00:40:35.641 --> 00:40:38.144
\"Well listen, I don\'t think
that\'s really that important.\"

00:40:39.228 --> 00:40:42.273
A lot of my photographs
that do get published were

00:40:42.273 --> 00:40:43.983
in the ethnic press,

00:40:43.983 --> 00:40:46.986
\'cause mainstream press, you
know, really wasn\'t interested.

00:40:48.362 --> 00:40:50.531
I had to sell myself,
be it \"Associated Press\"

00:40:50.531 --> 00:40:51.866
or any of the newspapers,

00:40:51.866 --> 00:40:55.744
trying to get people
to accept a photograph

00:40:55.744 --> 00:40:56.871
that was important.

00:40:58.706 --> 00:41:01.584
I got dubbed by the people
in \"Associated Press\"

00:41:01.584 --> 00:41:03.294
the Asian demo photographer.

00:41:03.294 --> 00:41:05.838
They would kinda under their breath, say

00:41:05.838 --> 00:41:07.798
\"It\'s Corky Lee - he\'s
got another protest.\"

00:41:09.300 --> 00:41:10.134
So, but,

00:41:11.218 --> 00:41:13.304
as often as I was successful,

00:41:13.304 --> 00:41:15.222
there were many times
I was not successful.

00:41:15.222 --> 00:41:16.557
(soft music)

00:41:16.557 --> 00:41:21.020
In 1979, there was a protest
against a perfume called Opium

00:41:21.020 --> 00:41:23.105
and the Chinese Americans
were very offended.

00:41:23.105 --> 00:41:24.899
We tried to remind the public

00:41:24.899 --> 00:41:28.194
that China went to war over opium.

00:41:28.194 --> 00:41:31.363
I went to the photo editor
at \"Associated Press\"

00:41:31.363 --> 00:41:32.907
and he said, \"Well, I don\'t want to

00:41:32.907 --> 00:41:35.910
give Opium perfume any more publicity.

00:41:35.910 --> 00:41:38.579
So, forget about bringing
those photographs in,\"

00:41:40.039 --> 00:41:43.125
but I felt really
strongly about the issue.

00:41:43.125 --> 00:41:45.503
So I waited for him to leave

00:41:45.503 --> 00:41:47.546
and when the night photo editor came,

00:41:48.380 --> 00:41:51.383
I presented the photograph
to him and he took it. \"

00:41:51.383 --> 00:41:53.344
And \"Associated Press\"
used the photograph.

00:41:53.344 --> 00:41:56.013
When the daytime photo
editor found out about it,

00:41:56.013 --> 00:41:59.350
he said, \"Corky Lee, he is dead meat.

00:41:59.350 --> 00:42:02.978
You\'re not to associate
yourselves with Corky Lee again,\"

00:42:02.978 --> 00:42:06.357
So I was basically blackballed from AP

00:42:06.357 --> 00:42:09.068
for a really long period of time.

00:42:09.068 --> 00:42:12.321
Yeah, he must have sent
out a memo to everybody.

00:42:12.321 --> 00:42:15.741
\"That Asian demo photographer
shows up - \" (clicks)

00:42:19.578 --> 00:42:21.205
- [Reporter] What kind of
images are you looking for

00:42:21.205 --> 00:42:22.706
when you take photographs?

00:42:22.706 --> 00:42:23.958
- What kind of images?

00:42:25.167 --> 00:42:29.046
Something that\'ll stop
someone dead in their tracks

00:42:29.046 --> 00:42:30.798
and take a second look,

00:42:30.798 --> 00:42:32.841
or something that\'s curious.

00:42:32.841 --> 00:42:36.220
Something out of the
ordinary, not on the menu.

00:42:36.220 --> 00:42:37.054
- [Reporter] Not On the Menu,

00:42:37.054 --> 00:42:40.349
featuring photographs taken
by Corky Lee and Leland Wong

00:42:40.349 --> 00:42:42.643
of New York and San Francisco Chinatowns

00:42:42.643 --> 00:42:45.938
was recently on exhibit at
the Chinese Culture Center.

00:42:45.938 --> 00:42:47.565
And what kind of advice do they have

00:42:47.565 --> 00:42:48.983
for future photographers?

00:42:49.942 --> 00:42:51.610
- Good photo journalists, I think,

00:42:51.610 --> 00:42:54.530
have to have a feeling
for people, situations.

00:42:54.530 --> 00:42:58.325
But you know, don\'t get
hooked on photography

00:42:58.325 --> 00:43:01.912
unless you\'re willing to
make tremendous sacrifices

00:43:01.912 --> 00:43:03.581
in your personal life

00:43:03.581 --> 00:43:08.419
and also your financial circumstance.

00:43:11.463 --> 00:43:12.506
And if you,

00:43:12.506 --> 00:43:14.967
I think those would probably
be the prerequisites.

00:43:16.510 --> 00:43:19.513
(people chattering)

00:43:22.975 --> 00:43:25.644
(horns honking)

00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:31.525
- You know, how do you balance career

00:43:31.525 --> 00:43:32.651
and your personal life?

00:43:34.069 --> 00:43:36.238
I don\'t think you can really have it all.

00:43:37.698 --> 00:43:40.409
I probably should have paid more attention

00:43:40.409 --> 00:43:41.535
to my personal life.

00:43:42.453 --> 00:43:44.038
People have said to me,

00:43:44.038 --> 00:43:46.665
my wedding with Margie was
like the best kept secret

00:43:46.665 --> 00:43:48.208
in the Asian American Movement.

00:43:49.585 --> 00:43:52.129
(camera shutter click / mellow music)

00:43:54.006 --> 00:43:55.341
We had gotten out of college

00:43:55.341 --> 00:43:57.426
and we\'d been going
out for about six years

00:43:58.427 --> 00:44:00.429
and it was when she threatened to leave me

00:44:00.429 --> 00:44:03.641
that I decided I\'d better
marry her. (laughs)

00:44:05.434 --> 00:44:07.728
I was 27 when I got married,

00:44:07.728 --> 00:44:09.897
so she was 25 at the time.

00:44:11.023 --> 00:44:12.733
She was Toisanese, like myself.

00:44:13.817 --> 00:44:16.195
Her parents had a laundry, two laundries.

00:44:17.655 --> 00:44:20.741
There\'s a lot of similarity.

00:44:20.741 --> 00:44:21.950
Margie.

00:44:21.950 --> 00:44:23.452
She was an ABC, like me.

00:44:28.248 --> 00:44:30.668
Our wedding was in Chinatown.

00:44:32.294 --> 00:44:34.463
My father made all the arrangements.

00:44:36.048 --> 00:44:37.174
My dad never really said,

00:44:37.174 --> 00:44:40.386
\"Hey, you can have like
one table or two tables,\"

00:44:40.386 --> 00:44:44.348
that would be like 10 or
20 of your friends, right?

00:44:44.348 --> 00:44:46.725
So I couldn\'t invite my friends,

00:44:46.725 --> 00:44:48.936
and I sort of regretted that

00:44:50.312 --> 00:44:52.523
because when people heard,

00:44:54.274 --> 00:44:56.777
\"Corky\'s married? Come
on, you\'re kidding me.\"

00:44:58.404 --> 00:45:01.407
(subway screeching)

00:45:03.617 --> 00:45:06.453
(traffic humming)

00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:15.629
(press humming)

00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:21.552
This is where I work at Expedi-Printing.

00:45:21.552 --> 00:45:24.054
I\'ve been here for 27 years.

00:45:24.054 --> 00:45:27.558
I do estimating. I do customer service.

00:45:27.558 --> 00:45:30.144
I do the final billing

00:45:30.144 --> 00:45:33.814
and then I\'m the bill collector,
when you come down to it.

00:45:33.814 --> 00:45:38.652
Okay, on 24 pages, this is the price.

00:45:38.652 --> 00:45:40.195
We printed newspapers

00:45:40.195 --> 00:45:42.531
for a lot of these Asian ethnicities.

00:45:42.531 --> 00:45:44.366
We printed a weekly newspaper

00:45:44.366 --> 00:45:47.578
for the Indian population
here, Pakistanis,

00:45:47.578 --> 00:45:50.622
a Polish Daily, an Irish Weekly,

00:45:50.622 --> 00:45:53.083
a African American Weekly.

00:45:54.752 --> 00:45:57.504
I think I\'m probably
fortunate that at Expedi,

00:45:57.504 --> 00:45:59.840
I was flexible enough that I could go out

00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:01.258
and photograph things.

00:46:01.258 --> 00:46:03.761
The owner had asked me at one point,

00:46:03.761 --> 00:46:05.012
\"Where do you find the time?\"

00:46:05.012 --> 00:46:07.222
I said, \"Well I can do it before work.

00:46:07.222 --> 00:46:08.640
I can do it on my lunch hour.

00:46:08.640 --> 00:46:10.225
I can do it after work.\"

00:46:10.225 --> 00:46:11.727
So he said, \"Well, okay, fine,

00:46:11.727 --> 00:46:13.187
as long as you get your work done,

00:46:13.187 --> 00:46:14.897
you can do the photography.\"

00:46:14.897 --> 00:46:18.567
So that was kind of like the
handshake, unsigned agreement

00:46:18.567 --> 00:46:20.736
that I had with the owner of the company.

00:46:22.362 --> 00:46:26.074
(co-workers chattering)

00:46:26.074 --> 00:46:28.911
(subway rumbling)

00:46:34.041 --> 00:46:37.711
Marriage has a lot to do with finances.

00:46:38.921 --> 00:46:40.130
For a long time,

00:46:40.130 --> 00:46:44.092
I didn\'t bring any income
in from what I photographed.

00:46:46.595 --> 00:46:48.263
It probably irked my wife that,

00:46:48.263 --> 00:46:49.556
if I was really good at it,

00:46:49.556 --> 00:46:52.017
I could make it a living out of it.

00:46:52.017 --> 00:46:54.978
She wanted more time of me.

00:46:54.978 --> 00:46:56.605
She said, \"Well why do you have to go

00:46:56.605 --> 00:46:58.106
and take the photographs?\"

00:46:59.817 --> 00:47:01.819
I said, \"Well if I don\'t, who will?\"

00:47:03.445 --> 00:47:06.031
(bus rumbling)

00:47:10.244 --> 00:47:12.913
(keys rustling)

00:47:16.250 --> 00:47:19.419
(door latch clicking)

00:47:23.215 --> 00:47:26.301
I come down here when I need
to get matted photographs

00:47:26.301 --> 00:47:27.177
for an exhibit.

00:47:29.513 --> 00:47:33.725
This is where I keep all
my framed photographs.

00:47:39.857 --> 00:47:41.233
I think people started to care

00:47:41.233 --> 00:47:43.235
about the photographs I took

00:47:43.235 --> 00:47:45.988
at least 10 years after
an event took place.

00:47:46.864 --> 00:47:50.075
I got a call from San Francisco in 1992,

00:47:50.075 --> 00:47:52.202
the newspaper at that time,

00:47:52.202 --> 00:47:53.704
I think it was called \"East West.\"

00:47:53.704 --> 00:47:54.538
And the guy said,

00:47:54.538 --> 00:47:57.958
\"Well, we were doing a 10th
year anniversary article

00:47:57.958 --> 00:47:59.126
about Vincent Chin,

00:47:59.126 --> 00:48:03.005
and Helen Zia says that you
were in Detroit at that time.

00:48:03.005 --> 00:48:05.090
So do you have any photographs?\"

00:48:05.090 --> 00:48:07.467
(soft music)

00:48:07.467 --> 00:48:08.844
I went from New York to Detroit

00:48:08.844 --> 00:48:11.471
to film the Vincent Chin protests.

00:48:11.471 --> 00:48:14.182
There were Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos,

00:48:14.182 --> 00:48:17.227
and a few African Americans
at the rally, too.

00:48:18.061 --> 00:48:20.105
People feel that this was the beginning

00:48:20.105 --> 00:48:23.108
of a coalition of Asian
Pacific American Movement.

00:48:26.028 --> 00:48:27.613
If it wasn\'t for Helen Zia,

00:48:27.613 --> 00:48:31.658
I don\'t think that the Vincent
Chin issue would\'ve gained

00:48:31.658 --> 00:48:33.619
the type of attention that it deserved.

00:48:35.245 --> 00:48:36.830
Vincent Chin, a Chinese American,

00:48:36.830 --> 00:48:39.291
was killed in Detroit,
days before his wedding.

00:48:40.751 --> 00:48:42.711
And back then in \'82,

00:48:42.711 --> 00:48:47.090
I don\'t think the term \"hate
crime\" was in common usage.

00:48:48.675 --> 00:48:52.179
The two guys beat him to
death with a baseball bat.

00:48:52.179 --> 00:48:55.015
They were white, unemployed auto workers.

00:48:55.849 --> 00:48:56.975
During that time period,

00:48:56.975 --> 00:49:00.687
the auto industry in Detroit
was doing very poorly

00:49:00.687 --> 00:49:04.399
because Japanese car makers
were doing very well.

00:49:05.776 --> 00:49:09.279
Asians were seen as scapegoats.

00:49:09.279 --> 00:49:13.158
They thought someone who
looked Japanese was responsible

00:49:13.158 --> 00:49:15.452
for their loss of employment.

00:49:19.998 --> 00:49:21.750
What really angered the
community was the fact

00:49:21.750 --> 00:49:24.127
that the two guys never did any jail time.

00:49:25.379 --> 00:49:28.006
They were released for, I think,

00:49:28.006 --> 00:49:31.343
$3,000 and some court fees.

00:49:34.346 --> 00:49:36.181
Lily Chin, Vincent Chin\'s mother,

00:49:36.181 --> 00:49:39.851
was still grieving to
probably the day that she died

00:49:39.851 --> 00:49:42.145
about the injustice done her son.

00:49:43.647 --> 00:49:45.941
(soft music continues)

00:49:45.941 --> 00:49:49.277
(camera shutter clicks)

00:49:56.785 --> 00:49:59.788
- [Reporter] Whereas, Corky
Lee has actively participated

00:49:59.788 --> 00:50:02.416
in the struggle to improve
the quality of life

00:50:02.416 --> 00:50:04.584
in the Chinatowns of this nation,

00:50:04.584 --> 00:50:08.964
Mayor David Dinkins declared
May 5th, 1988, \"Corky Lee Day.\"

00:50:08.964 --> 00:50:11.216
- I was moved because I had also known

00:50:11.216 --> 00:50:14.970
that David Dinkins had been responsive

00:50:14.970 --> 00:50:18.682
to the needs and concerns about
Asian American communities.

00:50:19.975 --> 00:50:23.937
In 1988, I was doing an
exhibit near City Hall

00:50:23.937 --> 00:50:28.692
and David Dinkins presented
me with the certificate.

00:50:28.692 --> 00:50:30.610
I was flabbergasted.

00:50:30.610 --> 00:50:34.197
I said, \"Corky Lee Day is
like Muhammad Ali getting

00:50:34.197 --> 00:50:37.367
the key to the city after
the Thrilla in Manila,

00:50:37.367 --> 00:50:41.538
but on a smaller level.\" (laughs)

00:50:41.538 --> 00:50:44.374
(traffic humming)

00:50:47.294 --> 00:50:49.463
Hey, you want a drink?

00:50:49.463 --> 00:50:50.630
You want hot tea?

00:50:50.630 --> 00:50:52.132
- Uh, yeah.

00:50:52.132 --> 00:50:54.384
Corky Lee, for many, many years wanted

00:50:54.384 --> 00:50:57.888
to do a collection of his own photographs,

00:50:57.888 --> 00:51:01.892
a complete set of photographs
from the very beginning.

00:51:01.892 --> 00:51:06.438
So he has picked 80 some pictures,

00:51:06.438 --> 00:51:08.607
some of the most representative work,

00:51:08.607 --> 00:51:11.485
and he asked me to write the introduction.

00:51:12.611 --> 00:51:13.862
- I want to do this book because

00:51:15.030 --> 00:51:18.742
over the years people have
utilized my photographs

00:51:18.742 --> 00:51:22.496
for their own means and I
didn\'t get any credit for it,

00:51:22.496 --> 00:51:24.331
or I wasn\'t compensated.

00:51:24.331 --> 00:51:27.375
So, I think there are a
number of the photographs here

00:51:27.375 --> 00:51:32.047
that I want to state emphatically
that: they belong to me.

00:51:34.925 --> 00:51:39.262
My friends have always been
clamoring me to do my own book.

00:51:41.598 --> 00:51:44.267
I guess I\'m too busy to actually sit down

00:51:44.267 --> 00:51:48.647
for even a day to look at what I\'ve done.

00:51:48.647 --> 00:51:49.815
- Hey, Corky, what\'s up man?

00:51:49.815 --> 00:51:51.733
- Hey, glad you could see me.

00:51:51.733 --> 00:51:54.528
So this represents the cover.

00:51:54.528 --> 00:51:56.530
Chi has you done as guest editor.

00:51:56.530 --> 00:51:59.616
My original title is \"Not On the Menu:

00:51:59.616 --> 00:52:01.743
More or Less, Chinese America.\"

00:52:01.743 --> 00:52:03.912
A lot of times when people
go into a restaurant

00:52:03.912 --> 00:52:07.040
and they order items
that are not on the menu,

00:52:07.040 --> 00:52:08.875
those are like the special.

00:52:08.875 --> 00:52:12.295
So it\'s a metaphor for the best items

00:52:12.295 --> 00:52:15.340
that the restaurant has
are not on the menu.

00:52:15.340 --> 00:52:19.261
- Okay, you have, \"Not on the Menu.\"

00:52:19.261 --> 00:52:21.179
What was your original title?

00:52:21.179 --> 00:52:22.180
- \"More or Less,\"

00:52:23.140 --> 00:52:24.099
\'cause if you translate

00:52:24.099 --> 00:52:25.517
\"more or less\" it\'s (speaking
Chinese) it\'s chà bu duō.

00:52:25.517 --> 00:52:27.853
That\'s a very colloquial Chinese phrase.

00:52:27.853 --> 00:52:32.858
It\'s Chinese, but yet at the
same time it\'s very American.

00:52:32.899 --> 00:52:35.443
The photographs represent Chinatown

00:52:35.443 --> 00:52:38.572
and Chinese in America from the 1970s.

00:52:38.572 --> 00:52:40.240
- [Russell] Are they gonna have a date?

00:52:40.240 --> 00:52:43.910
- Yeah, in the caption,
it\'ll have the date.

00:52:43.910 --> 00:52:46.037
We insisted on this photograph.

00:52:46.037 --> 00:52:48.206
You see elements of an
American flag over here.

00:52:48.206 --> 00:52:49.958
So that\'s American, right?

00:52:49.958 --> 00:52:53.628
But all the people in the
photograph are Chinese.

00:52:53.628 --> 00:52:56.214
It\'s like one foot in both cultures.

00:52:56.214 --> 00:52:58.592
This is a labor protest.

00:52:58.592 --> 00:53:00.594
\"Black, Brown, Yellow, White,

00:53:00.594 --> 00:53:03.180
all the working people must unite.\"

00:53:03.180 --> 00:53:06.308
And this is for bilingual
education in the early \'70s.

00:53:06.308 --> 00:53:07.517
- [Carol] Very nice.

00:53:07.517 --> 00:53:08.602
- [Corky] Okay.

00:53:08.602 --> 00:53:09.895
- Looking at your pictures,

00:53:09.895 --> 00:53:14.441
I think the story behind
it is also very intriguing.

00:53:14.441 --> 00:53:15.275
- [Russell] Important too.

00:53:15.275 --> 00:53:16.234
- Yeah.
- All right.

00:53:18.111 --> 00:53:21.907
Russell and Carol were
kind enough to sit down

00:53:21.907 --> 00:53:23.575
and spend some time looking over

00:53:23.575 --> 00:53:26.494
some of the images that
are under consideration.

00:53:26.494 --> 00:53:29.998
And I think really good feedback.

00:53:29.998 --> 00:53:32.876
The photographs themselves
are overwhelming,

00:53:32.876 --> 00:53:37.797
so I need to cut down on the images.

00:53:37.797 --> 00:53:39.966
It probably started out like a,

00:53:39.966 --> 00:53:43.345
I guess a monkey on my back and
it\'s gotten to be a gorilla.

00:53:43.345 --> 00:53:45.138
So in order to get the
gorilla off my back,

00:53:45.138 --> 00:53:47.307
I\'m gonna have to do the book.

00:53:47.307 --> 00:53:50.060
I\'m gonna self-publish it
because I\'m just too tired

00:53:50.060 --> 00:53:52.395
of waiting to hear from publishers.

00:53:52.395 --> 00:53:55.065
I figured, why spend
all the time and effort

00:53:55.065 --> 00:53:58.985
to look for a publisher
and then convince them.

00:53:58.985 --> 00:54:00.195
I\'ve convinced myself.

00:54:01.613 --> 00:54:04.532
It\'s part of leaving a legacy,

00:54:04.532 --> 00:54:07.369
a visual record of what I\'ve done.

00:54:09.496 --> 00:54:13.166
I guess, not figuring out
where I\'m gonna deposit

00:54:13.166 --> 00:54:15.835
all my photographs is probably something

00:54:15.835 --> 00:54:17.963
that\'s going to weigh heavily on me.

00:54:19.756 --> 00:54:23.760
I think if somebody makes
me an offer I can\'t refuse,

00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:26.930
then that\'s where that final
resting place is gonna be.

00:54:30.141 --> 00:54:33.812
(people chattering)

00:54:33.812 --> 00:54:36.022
I noticed that a lot
of people have traveled

00:54:36.022 --> 00:54:38.692
outside of this country
to take photographs.

00:54:38.692 --> 00:54:40.402
You don\'t have to go outside the country.

00:54:40.402 --> 00:54:41.987
Stay in this country,

00:54:41.987 --> 00:54:46.199
save the money, photograph
your Asian community,

00:54:47.075 --> 00:54:49.452
but I understand there are
like four photographers here?

00:54:49.452 --> 00:54:51.413
Four of the eight? Come on up!

00:54:51.413 --> 00:54:52.497
(audience applauding)

00:54:52.497 --> 00:54:54.416
I wanna give you a public platform

00:54:54.416 --> 00:54:55.458
Tell them what you like

00:54:55.458 --> 00:54:57.836
or what you don\'t like
about their photographs.

00:54:57.836 --> 00:55:00.297
That goes a long way to convince them

00:55:00.297 --> 00:55:02.424
to continue what they\'re doing.

00:55:02.424 --> 00:55:03.383
Thank you.

00:55:03.383 --> 00:55:06.011
(audience applauding)

00:55:06.011 --> 00:55:08.388
All these people that are
exhibiting are probably

00:55:08.388 --> 00:55:09.681
in their 20\'s and 30\'s.

00:55:09.681 --> 00:55:13.018
They want to use the medium of photography

00:55:13.018 --> 00:55:16.730
to advocate for change, and
I\'m supposed to, I guess,

00:55:16.730 --> 00:55:18.440
give them some inspiration.

00:55:20.650 --> 00:55:24.112
I never had role models when
I started in photography.

00:55:24.112 --> 00:55:29.075
I mean, if a white editor from
AP would tell me something,

00:55:29.075 --> 00:55:30.410
I\'d listen, but you know,

00:55:30.410 --> 00:55:32.579
he didn\'t really take me aside and say,

00:55:32.579 --> 00:55:34.289
\"Listen, can I buy you a cup of coffee?\"

00:55:34.289 --> 00:55:35.248
- Right.

00:55:35.248 --> 00:55:36.499
- All right.
- Right, right.

00:55:36.499 --> 00:55:38.126
- What I used to do was,

00:55:38.126 --> 00:55:40.253
I would fold my arms.

00:55:40.253 --> 00:55:41.546
Okay, fold my arms, right?

00:55:41.546 --> 00:55:43.173
Then you get it up.

00:55:43.173 --> 00:55:44.215
All right?

00:55:44.215 --> 00:55:47.302
Right, so basically, but you
have to learn how to do this.

00:55:47.302 --> 00:55:48.136
All right?
- Sure.

00:55:48.136 --> 00:55:49.137
- And after you take one shot,

00:55:49.137 --> 00:55:50.847
you have to look and then

00:55:50.847 --> 00:55:52.307
and see what adjustments you need to make.

00:55:52.307 --> 00:55:53.725
When you get to a certain age,

00:55:53.725 --> 00:55:55.977
you want to pass on some wisdom.

00:55:55.977 --> 00:55:57.979
In my case, it\'s passing on photographs

00:55:57.979 --> 00:56:02.359
of a time and place that I
got to witness firsthand.

00:56:05.779 --> 00:56:08.490
A lot of young photographers
reach out to me,

00:56:08.490 --> 00:56:09.991
basically on Facebook.

00:56:09.991 --> 00:56:13.203
Social media has been
a way to communicate,

00:56:13.203 --> 00:56:16.289
almost instantaneously, with
people all over the world.

00:56:17.624 --> 00:56:21.419
I\'m probably on, pretty
much on a daily basis.

00:56:23.380 --> 00:56:24.964
Previously, I really didn\'t have a way

00:56:24.964 --> 00:56:26.508
to make my own comments,

00:56:26.508 --> 00:56:30.387
other than the simple caption
of what the photograph was.

00:56:30.387 --> 00:56:33.390
Now I can write some material about

00:56:33.390 --> 00:56:36.226
what I photograph and what I feel.

00:56:40.730 --> 00:56:43.566
(camera shutter clicking)

00:56:47.153 --> 00:56:48.822
When they have machines out here,

00:56:48.822 --> 00:56:51.116
they\'re probably being
sold and there\'s probably

00:56:51.116 --> 00:56:54.953
a company that is going out of business

00:56:54.953 --> 00:56:56.788
and it is just really sad.

00:56:57.747 --> 00:57:02.335
Now, this building probably
had a garment factory here.

00:57:02.335 --> 00:57:05.630
Most Chinatown families,

00:57:05.630 --> 00:57:08.633
you made sure that one person worked

00:57:08.633 --> 00:57:11.636
in a garment shop so they
could get union benefits.

00:57:13.304 --> 00:57:17.225
(camera shutter clicking)

00:57:17.225 --> 00:57:20.186
So most of the families would
actually get health insurance

00:57:20.186 --> 00:57:21.229
from the unions.

00:57:26.860 --> 00:57:29.863
(camera shutter clicking)

00:57:29.863 --> 00:57:31.948
Since I\'ve been unemployed,

00:57:31.948 --> 00:57:33.867
I find myself photographing a lot more.

00:57:36.327 --> 00:57:40.165
I got laid off in 2010.

00:57:40.165 --> 00:57:42.000
The whole company shut down.

00:57:44.210 --> 00:57:47.130
I\'m trying to hold out a year and a half

00:57:47.130 --> 00:57:49.257
where I\'ll be able to collect

00:57:49.257 --> 00:57:51.259
all my social security benefits.

00:57:52.343 --> 00:57:54.596
Well, like most people who are unemployed,

00:57:54.596 --> 00:57:55.889
how you gonna pay for your next bill?

00:57:55.889 --> 00:57:58.183
How you gonna do this? And so forth.

00:57:58.183 --> 00:58:00.977
I guess it just takes
some time getting used to

00:58:00.977 --> 00:58:03.646
a new environment, or a new situation.

00:58:04.564 --> 00:58:06.065
After leaving Expedi,

00:58:06.065 --> 00:58:08.067
there\'s probably more obstacles in trying

00:58:08.067 --> 00:58:11.654
to get the book done,
in terms of the printing

00:58:11.654 --> 00:58:13.823
and the binding and so forth.

00:58:15.074 --> 00:58:20.079
But that\'s, I should probably
look at that as a detour,

00:58:20.663 --> 00:58:22.999
which I\'ll be eventually
be able to get back

00:58:22.999 --> 00:58:24.000
on the main road.

00:58:25.210 --> 00:58:27.629
(soft music)

00:58:32.091 --> 00:58:35.345
(soft music continues)

00:58:40.350 --> 00:58:44.187
(vehicle horns honking)

00:58:44.187 --> 00:58:48.024
There must be a reason
for why things happen

00:58:48.024 --> 00:58:50.902
and the more time you
try to figure it out,

00:58:50.902 --> 00:58:54.656
the less time you have
addressing the problem at hand.

00:58:54.656 --> 00:58:57.534
So you put it to the side.

00:58:57.534 --> 00:58:58.368
Let it be.

00:59:04.457 --> 00:59:07.377
There are ups and downs
in everybody\'s life,

00:59:07.377 --> 00:59:11.965
but 2001, I lost my wife.

00:59:15.301 --> 00:59:17.887
(sad music)

00:59:25.019 --> 00:59:27.021
I think about it often.

00:59:30.858 --> 00:59:34.237
(sad music continues)

00:59:36.906 --> 00:59:40.493
She had a really short
bout with breast cancer,

00:59:42.787 --> 00:59:44.872
and then once she was diagnosed with that,

00:59:44.872 --> 00:59:48.209
she was very resistant to modern medicine.

00:59:50.003 --> 00:59:52.505
She actually passed away
in about six months,

00:59:53.715 --> 00:59:55.425
April, 2001.

00:59:56.968 --> 00:59:59.137
She was like 52.

01:00:02.390 --> 01:00:07.020
When it doesn\'t come up,
I can put it in my past.

01:00:07.020 --> 01:00:07.854
(birds chirping)

01:00:09.355 --> 01:00:12.442
(sad music fades)

01:00:16.362 --> 01:00:18.323
I did all my grieving in the dark room.

01:00:20.033 --> 01:00:21.367
As long as I\'m doing something,

01:00:21.367 --> 01:00:23.036
I\'m not gonna feel the grief,

01:00:23.911 --> 01:00:25.955
or the grief will be minimized.

01:00:29.751 --> 01:00:33.671
During her wake and funeral,

01:00:33.671 --> 01:00:36.341
I was actually working on an exhibit

01:00:37.467 --> 01:00:39.886
at MOCA, Museum of
Chinese in the Americas.

01:00:43.348 --> 01:00:46.851
I think my wife is up there somewhere,

01:00:46.851 --> 01:00:49.937
wants me to keep occupied,
so that I don\'t miss her.

01:00:52.523 --> 01:00:56.611
The year Margie passed away, 2001,

01:00:56.611 --> 01:00:58.946
while I was grieving her loss,

01:00:58.946 --> 01:01:03.284
September 11th happened
and that shifted my focus.

01:01:04.661 --> 01:01:07.080
(soft music)

01:01:07.955 --> 01:01:10.208
After 9/11, there was a whole new paradigm

01:01:10.208 --> 01:01:11.793
of things that have taken place.

01:01:13.378 --> 01:01:16.506
Filipinos being racially profiled

01:01:17.590 --> 01:01:19.759
because part of the population is Muslim.

01:01:21.135 --> 01:01:24.263
The South Asian community
has become much more active.

01:01:26.391 --> 01:01:28.518
To this very day, a lot of South Asians,

01:01:28.518 --> 01:01:32.480
in particular Sikhs, who
are perceived to be Taliban

01:01:32.480 --> 01:01:35.400
or Al-Qaeda, display the American flag

01:01:35.400 --> 01:01:36.526
much more often.

01:01:39.737 --> 01:01:41.280
Yeah, it\'s patriotic,

01:01:41.280 --> 01:01:42.990
but it is also protection

01:01:44.283 --> 01:01:48.121
because right after 9/11 there
was an uptick in hate crimes

01:01:48.121 --> 01:01:50.998
towards that South Asian demographic.

01:01:53.126 --> 01:01:55.837
I think it brought a lot people together

01:01:55.837 --> 01:01:57.672
when a tragedy like that happens.

01:01:59.424 --> 01:02:02.969
What is searing in my mind is the images

01:02:02.969 --> 01:02:06.472
that I took from the rooftop
of Battery Park City,

01:02:06.472 --> 01:02:08.850
looking down into the World Trade Center,

01:02:08.850 --> 01:02:11.728
which was basically a big hole
in the ground at the time.

01:02:13.646 --> 01:02:15.857
(soft music continues)

01:02:15.857 --> 01:02:17.984
You always think of the first responders

01:02:17.984 --> 01:02:20.319
and law enforcement as being white.

01:02:21.863 --> 01:02:24.741
That\'s why I photographed a firefighter,

01:02:24.741 --> 01:02:28.244
Benny Han, sitting on the
fender of his fire truck

01:02:28.244 --> 01:02:30.204
in Chinatown in 2002.

01:02:31.831 --> 01:02:34.250
It\'s important for a
much younger generation

01:02:34.250 --> 01:02:36.377
to see people that look like them.

01:02:37.253 --> 01:02:40.214
There are Asians in the same uniforms,

01:02:40.214 --> 01:02:43.134
as much as white Americans.

01:02:47.805 --> 01:02:51.058
(soft music continues)

01:02:53.186 --> 01:02:54.103
- [Drill Master] Left,

01:02:54.103 --> 01:02:55.480
left, right, left.

01:02:55.480 --> 01:02:58.775
Left, left, left, right, left.

01:02:58.775 --> 01:03:00.777
Color guard, halt.

01:03:01.611 --> 01:03:02.445
- [Guard] One, two.

01:03:02.445 --> 01:03:03.613
- Corky, you\'re here.

01:03:03.613 --> 01:03:04.447
- [Corky] Hey, how you doing?

01:03:04.447 --> 01:03:05.948
- All right guy, how are ya?

01:03:05.948 --> 01:03:08.743
- I want to get you and Phil
with the American flag tie.

01:03:08.743 --> 01:03:10.912
- Every year, Corky is sending me photos

01:03:10.912 --> 01:03:13.039
of Chinese American veterans,

01:03:13.039 --> 01:03:15.333
the American Legion Post in Chinatown.

01:03:15.333 --> 01:03:18.085
He\'d send the photos with
these handwritten Post-Its

01:03:18.085 --> 01:03:20.004
with all this information

01:03:20.004 --> 01:03:21.964
about these World War II veterans,

01:03:21.964 --> 01:03:25.885
and he would tell us information

01:03:25.885 --> 01:03:27.887
about some of the individual veterans

01:03:27.887 --> 01:03:28.971
that he was photographing

01:03:28.971 --> 01:03:30.389
and they were great stories.

01:03:31.766 --> 01:03:34.519
Corky gave us the photo
and enough for a nice,

01:03:34.519 --> 01:03:36.187
very meaty caption.

01:03:36.187 --> 01:03:37.313
(people chattering)

01:03:37.313 --> 01:03:40.483
- This year, there are
a lot of young guys.

01:03:40.483 --> 01:03:42.485
The general public is not really conscious

01:03:42.485 --> 01:03:43.528
or familiar with the fact

01:03:43.528 --> 01:03:44.904
that there are Chinese American vets,

01:03:44.904 --> 01:03:46.823
just like there are
Japanese American veterans,

01:03:46.823 --> 01:03:49.659
and Filipino American
veterans, and so forth.

01:03:49.659 --> 01:03:52.119
- [Drill Master] Color guard, right face.

01:03:56.123 --> 01:03:58.626
- I was approached by an individual

01:03:58.626 --> 01:04:00.837
who wrote the legislation

01:04:00.837 --> 01:04:02.213
for the Congressional Gold Medal

01:04:02.213 --> 01:04:04.048
for Chinese American veterans

01:04:04.048 --> 01:04:06.050
who served during the Second World War.

01:04:06.050 --> 01:04:07.301
- [Drill Master] Color guard, halt.

01:04:09.303 --> 01:04:14.308
- I was able to gather 130 individuals

01:04:14.308 --> 01:04:15.893
to come to the American Legion

01:04:15.893 --> 01:04:18.229
and I asked them to bring photographs

01:04:18.229 --> 01:04:21.440
of their grandfather, their father,

01:04:21.440 --> 01:04:24.944
uncle, cousin, whatever, that
was a World War II veteran.

01:04:24.944 --> 01:04:26.529
And I took a group photograph.

01:04:27.864 --> 01:04:32.201
I went to Washington, DC, on my own dime,

01:04:32.201 --> 01:04:35.830
walked the halls of
Congress, spoke to aides

01:04:35.830 --> 01:04:40.209
and my photograph was given
to members of Congress.

01:04:40.209 --> 01:04:43.629
It, I think, moved a lot of congressmen

01:04:43.629 --> 01:04:48.009
at the last minute to vote
for passage of the law.

01:04:48.009 --> 01:04:49.051
It made me feel like

01:04:49.051 --> 01:04:51.888
that I was not only serving
the American Legion,

01:04:51.888 --> 01:04:53.556
but I was serving my country,

01:04:53.556 --> 01:04:58.019
and it was an extension of my
civilian alternative service,

01:04:58.019 --> 01:05:01.230
going back to the 1970s.

01:05:01.230 --> 01:05:03.649
(traffic rumbling)

01:05:03.649 --> 01:05:05.526
- Good evening, everyone.

01:05:05.526 --> 01:05:08.321
We\'re about to start our 9/11

01:05:08.321 --> 01:05:11.991
commemorative candlelight ceremony.

01:05:11.991 --> 01:05:16.954
9/11 had a particularly
hard and devastating impact

01:05:16.954 --> 01:05:18.122
upon our community,

01:05:18.122 --> 01:05:22.501
being just in the shadow
of the Twin Towers.

01:05:22.501 --> 01:05:25.296
- I was doing a lot of work post 9/11

01:05:25.296 --> 01:05:28.174
related to revitalizing Chinatown

01:05:29.634 --> 01:05:34.096
and this was through a campaign
called \"Explore Chinatown.\"

01:05:34.096 --> 01:05:36.390
And I would see Corky everywhere!

01:05:38.267 --> 01:05:41.187
And I told him I had an
interest in photography

01:05:41.187 --> 01:05:44.690
and so every weekend he
would send some event

01:05:44.690 --> 01:05:47.777
that\'s happening and,
\"would you like to go?\"

01:05:50.196 --> 01:05:52.531
That\'s kind of how we started.

01:05:53.574 --> 01:05:55.993
(soft music)

01:06:01.666 --> 01:06:04.919
(soft music continues)

01:06:09.048 --> 01:06:11.842
We\'ve been together, I think, 15 years,

01:06:14.011 --> 01:06:15.721
and these are photos I took of him

01:06:17.306 --> 01:06:21.185
and he was a bit of a ham,
as you can tell. (laughs)

01:06:22.895 --> 01:06:24.981
We love walking the boardwalk

01:06:24.981 --> 01:06:27.400
and going to these coastal places.

01:06:28.651 --> 01:06:31.404
That\'s how he, I think, decompressed.

01:06:31.404 --> 01:06:35.366
And like I said, his favorite
pastime is miniature golf

01:06:35.366 --> 01:06:39.578
(laughs) and he\'s always
surrounded by friends.

01:06:39.578 --> 01:06:42.164
So sometimes I would
take Corky in the picture

01:06:42.164 --> 01:06:42.999
with his friends

01:06:42.999 --> 01:06:45.626
\'cause I know that
that\'s a rare opportunity

01:06:45.626 --> 01:06:47.878
\'cause he\'s always photographing others.

01:06:49.046 --> 01:06:51.882
(soft music continues)

01:06:51.882 --> 01:06:54.301
- Karen had a liking for photography.

01:06:56.095 --> 01:06:58.139
At some point, she actually Googled me.

01:06:59.181 --> 01:07:02.184
I guess she was impressed by what I do

01:07:02.184 --> 01:07:03.561
and what I represent.

01:07:05.229 --> 01:07:08.607
(soft music continues)

01:07:08.607 --> 01:07:10.067
A lot of times she accompanies me

01:07:10.067 --> 01:07:14.572
and I guess, being somewhat older,

01:07:14.572 --> 01:07:16.699
I think I\'ve probably
influenced her in terms

01:07:16.699 --> 01:07:18.534
of what she likes to photograph

01:07:20.327 --> 01:07:24.040
and she\'s become my second soulmate

01:07:26.208 --> 01:07:29.795
and I think it\'s probably
made me a better person.

01:07:31.213 --> 01:07:35.176
She\'s given me a reason to
stop and smell the roses.

01:07:36.385 --> 01:07:37.219
All right.

01:07:37.219 --> 01:07:38.888
Before I would just look
and maybe photograph them

01:07:38.888 --> 01:07:40.306
and then move on.

01:07:41.474 --> 01:07:43.184
(Karen laughing)

01:07:44.518 --> 01:07:46.604
- [Reporter The Queens
Museum of Art is presenting

01:07:46.604 --> 01:07:47.605
an exhibit entitled

01:07:47.605 --> 01:07:51.776
\"Asia Pacifically New York:
The Photography of Corky Lee.\"

01:07:51.776 --> 01:07:53.903
Lee is a Queens-born photographer

01:07:53.903 --> 01:07:55.946
whose work spans almost 50 years.

01:07:55.946 --> 01:07:59.033
On exhibit are 36 pieces
that capture the diversity

01:07:59.033 --> 01:08:01.827
of the Asian American
community in New York City.

01:08:01.827 --> 01:08:03.162
- A lot of these photographs,

01:08:03.162 --> 01:08:08.167
I consider them vignettes
of Queens or New York City

01:08:08.584 --> 01:08:12.671
that you don\'t see in the
papers or in history books.

01:08:12.671 --> 01:08:15.257
(bright music)

01:08:16.300 --> 01:08:17.551
- I really appreciate your work.

01:08:17.551 --> 01:08:18.594
- Thank you.

01:08:18.594 --> 01:08:19.762
I would say in my later years,

01:08:19.762 --> 01:08:22.348
I think I probably have
a little more success.

01:08:23.432 --> 01:08:26.310
A lot of awards and
accolades sort of come in

01:08:26.310 --> 01:08:28.854
after 2001.

01:08:28.854 --> 01:08:31.941
There\'s been much more
exposure to what I\'ve done.

01:08:33.150 --> 01:08:35.694
Within the next six weeks,

01:08:35.694 --> 01:08:38.114
I am in four exhibits.

01:08:38.114 --> 01:08:41.534
(bright music continues)

01:08:45.830 --> 01:08:48.582
I got an award for social justice.

01:08:48.582 --> 01:08:50.334
That\'s the second award I got

01:08:50.334 --> 01:08:52.753
from the Asian American
Journalist Association.

01:08:52.753 --> 01:08:56.215
I also got an award from
Organization of Chinese Americans,

01:08:56.215 --> 01:08:58.801
or better known as OCA.

01:09:01.387 --> 01:09:02.304
- Corky Lee!

01:09:02.304 --> 01:09:03.139
(crowd applauding)
City Hall,

01:09:03.139 --> 01:09:05.182
I got a proclamation that I didn\'t expect.

01:09:06.058 --> 01:09:08.602
I never knew I was gonna get an award.

01:09:08.602 --> 01:09:10.062
That was a surprise.

01:09:10.062 --> 01:09:12.439
The awards validate what I\'m doing

01:09:13.357 --> 01:09:17.319
and I guess it\'s some kind
of encouragement to continue.

01:09:17.319 --> 01:09:18.612
But if I didn\'t get the awards,

01:09:18.612 --> 01:09:20.781
I\'d probably be doing
the same thing anyway.

01:09:23.159 --> 01:09:26.162
I\'m more concerned about my next exhibit,

01:09:26.162 --> 01:09:27.913
how I\'m gonna execute it and stuff.

01:09:29.498 --> 01:09:31.500
(bright music continues)

01:09:31.500 --> 01:09:33.085
I started to look for the books

01:09:33.085 --> 01:09:35.296
that I have my photographs in,

01:09:35.296 --> 01:09:36.755
and I used the internet and I found out

01:09:36.755 --> 01:09:39.508
that I have 42 books!

01:09:39.508 --> 01:09:43.637
(bright music continues)

01:09:43.637 --> 01:09:46.140
And maybe at least a third
of them have photographs

01:09:46.140 --> 01:09:47.141
on the cover!

01:09:48.684 --> 01:09:52.938
And I said, \"Wow - 62 years, 42 books.

01:09:53.898 --> 01:09:54.773
Not too bad.\"

01:09:56.192 --> 01:09:57.985
(bright music continues)

01:10:00.321 --> 01:10:03.407
- In my \"100 New York Photographers\" book,

01:10:03.407 --> 01:10:06.535
I have Amy Arbus, I have Hugh Bell,

01:10:06.535 --> 01:10:09.663
Harry Benson, Bruce Davidson,

01:10:09.663 --> 01:10:12.416
Lee Friedlander, Mary Ellen Mark,

01:10:12.416 --> 01:10:15.336
and of course Corky
belongs right with them.

01:10:15.336 --> 01:10:18.714
What resonated me with me
mostly about Corky was he said

01:10:18.714 --> 01:10:20.591
that his camera was like a weapon

01:10:20.591 --> 01:10:23.093
that he used to shoot down (laughs)

01:10:23.093 --> 01:10:24.887
the problems that he encountered.

01:10:24.887 --> 01:10:26.931
I think these three images show

01:10:26.931 --> 01:10:29.850
an individual can make a difference.

01:10:29.850 --> 01:10:33.437
Connie King in California
created a garden filled

01:10:33.437 --> 01:10:34.939
with toilet bowls.

01:10:36.065 --> 01:10:38.150
These are all toilet bowls that belonged

01:10:38.150 --> 01:10:39.985
to Chinese Americans.

01:10:39.985 --> 01:10:42.446
Evidently, many Chinese
immigrants used to live

01:10:42.446 --> 01:10:44.990
in this town of Locke,
and when they moved out,

01:10:44.990 --> 01:10:48.619
the new residents refused
to use the same toilet

01:10:48.619 --> 01:10:51.372
that had been used by a Chinese person.

01:10:51.372 --> 01:10:52.206
Can you imagine?

01:10:53.123 --> 01:10:55.918
What Connie King did, she
collected these toilets

01:10:55.918 --> 01:10:58.337
and turned each one into
a beautiful flower pot.

01:10:59.546 --> 01:11:02.258
Politically, the photograph is important,

01:11:02.258 --> 01:11:04.677
but it\'s also a beautiful work of art.

01:11:04.677 --> 01:11:06.220
There are triangulations in it

01:11:06.220 --> 01:11:08.597
and the use of the
shadow beneath her feet.

01:11:08.597 --> 01:11:09.807
When you look at it, you don\'t think,

01:11:09.807 --> 01:11:11.475
\"Oh my gosh, it\'s toilets.\"

01:11:11.475 --> 01:11:14.353
The more you look, the more you see,

01:11:14.353 --> 01:11:16.522
and that\'s the important
thing about Corky.

01:11:16.522 --> 01:11:19.650
The more you get into his head
and his eye and his camera,

01:11:19.650 --> 01:11:22.236
the more you begin to
think the way he thought.

01:11:22.236 --> 01:11:24.738
(bus humming)

01:11:27.700 --> 01:11:30.703
(people chattering)

01:11:35.582 --> 01:11:38.210
(mellow music)

01:11:40.629 --> 01:11:43.257
- Behind me is what\'s
called The Chinese Arch.

01:11:44.633 --> 01:11:48.429
This was where one of the
last Chinese labor camps was,

01:11:49.471 --> 01:11:51.765
and this is only 4 1/2 miles

01:11:51.765 --> 01:11:53.809
from where the two locomotives met

01:11:53.809 --> 01:11:55.978
and had that historic photograph taken.

01:11:58.856 --> 01:12:03.235
When that famous photograph
was taken in 1869,

01:12:03.235 --> 01:12:05.529
that\'s where the Chinese were.

01:12:05.529 --> 01:12:09.325
They were not invited
to the closing party.

01:12:12.536 --> 01:12:15.581
I decided that I should
do something about it.

01:12:17.916 --> 01:12:21.337
(mellow music continues)

01:12:26.633 --> 01:12:29.720
(train bell ringing)

01:12:39.480 --> 01:12:42.775
(train whistle blowing)

01:12:44.401 --> 01:12:46.320
- [Announcer] Will part
of the reenactment cast

01:12:46.320 --> 01:12:47.738
go over by the train.

01:12:47.738 --> 01:12:49.073
- Re-enactment!

01:12:49.073 --> 01:12:50.783
- The re-enactment cast.

01:12:55.079 --> 01:12:57.790
- Corky, I\'m the president of
the Golden Spike Association.

01:12:57.790 --> 01:12:59.750
- [Corky] Uh-huh.

01:12:59.750 --> 01:13:01.168
- [Association President] This
is one of our golden spikes

01:13:01.168 --> 01:13:02.586
and I want you to have it.

01:13:02.586 --> 01:13:03.837
- Oh, thank you.

01:13:03.837 --> 01:13:05.089
- Thank you for coming out.

01:13:05.089 --> 01:13:07.508
- Yeah well we\'re gonna
continue to bring them out.

01:13:07.508 --> 01:13:09.259
This is the 145th anniversary

01:13:09.259 --> 01:13:11.845
since the completion of the railroad,

01:13:11.845 --> 01:13:15.099
I want to get at least 145 Asians in front

01:13:15.099 --> 01:13:16.350
of the two locomotives.

01:13:18.268 --> 01:13:21.271
(people chattering)

01:13:22.272 --> 01:13:23.732
- [Organizer] I need all the Chinese

01:13:23.732 --> 01:13:26.443
and the Chinese group up
front by the locomotive.

01:13:26.443 --> 01:13:28.445
Chinese group up front!

01:13:31.490 --> 01:13:32.491
- We\'re Chinese Americans!

01:13:32.491 --> 01:13:35.035
We\'re Asian Pacific Americans!

01:13:35.035 --> 01:13:36.703
So let me hear it!

01:13:36.703 --> 01:13:40.249
(crowd cheering)

01:13:40.249 --> 01:13:43.460
We came today to reclaim American history.

01:13:44.920 --> 01:13:46.797
(crowd laughing)

01:13:46.797 --> 01:13:49.675
There\'s a TV series about cold cases.

01:13:49.675 --> 01:13:51.468
They always go back in the past

01:13:51.468 --> 01:13:53.720
and they try to correct the wrongs.

01:13:53.720 --> 01:13:55.639
So in in this sense,

01:13:55.639 --> 01:14:00.644
the omission of Chinese
145 years ago is resolved

01:14:01.395 --> 01:14:02.729
through photography,

01:14:04.982 --> 01:14:06.984
and it\'s an act of photographic justice.

01:14:09.153 --> 01:14:10.487
(folk music)

01:14:10.487 --> 01:14:15.325
♪ We are the cousins of
the freedom fighter ♪

01:14:15.325 --> 01:14:20.289
♪ Brothers and sisters
all around the world ♪

01:14:21.081 --> 01:14:26.086
♪ We are a part of the
Third World people ♪

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♪ Who will leave their stamp on America ♪

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♪ Who will leave their stamp on America ♪

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♪ Who will leave our stamp on America ♪

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♪ Who will leave our stamp on America ♪

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♪ America! ♪

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- I think Asian Americans
have come a long way,

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but there\'s still a long way to go.

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In the pursuit of photographic justice,

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you have to keep going on

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because there\'s so much
that needs to be done.

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(many camera shutters clicking)

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- I would like to begin by announcing

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some important developments in our war

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against the Chinese virus.

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(dramatic music)

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Kung flu!

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It comes from China.

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The Chinese virus.

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(crowd cheering)

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- [Reporter] Asians around the world

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have reported discrimination
linked to Coronavirus.

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- The FBI recently issued a warning

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about a potential spike in hate crimes.

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- [Reporter] I have never seen
the Asian American community

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this scared.

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- Get out of our country! Get out!

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- [Reporter] There\'s also
been apparent attacks

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in New York City.

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- I have friends who
are legitimately afraid.

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to go outside because they
fear for their safety.

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- Are we going to let people,

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like our president, use dangerous language

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such as, \"the Chinese virus,\"

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knowing well that it
hurts Asian Americans?

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- [Crowd] Hell no!

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- [Speaker] Are we going
to let people tell us

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to go back to our country,
when this is our country?

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- [Crowd] Hell no!

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- [Speaker] Asians are not a virus.

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(crowd applauding)

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- [Crowd] Stop the
violence, stop the hate!

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Stop the violence, stop the hate.

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Stop the violence, stop the hate.

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Asians are not a virus!

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Asians are not a virus.

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- In 2020, there\'s a worldwide pandemic.

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I think the entire country is in mourning.

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But anyone who looks Asian,

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we\'re perceived as being scapegoats.

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The restaurants in Chinatown close early

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because the later that they leave work,

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there\'s a higher possibility
of them being a victim

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of a hate crime.

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So if you\'re Asian, you\'re
afflicted with two viruses.

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One is COVID-19, and the
other one is actually hate.

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(camera shutter clicking)

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The community\'s in a survival mode

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and not enough attention is being paid,

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either by mainstream media
or elected officials.

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- When nobody was out here,

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Corky was out here walking around,

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taking pictures to show
what the pandemic did

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to the community over here.

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The Guardian Angels are in Chinatown

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because there\'s been way
too many attacks on Asians,

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and we do our best to prevent that.

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- The Chinatown Block Watch started

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with several friends in
mid-February of 2020.

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Right around the same time,

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the Guardian Angels saw a
need to patrol this area

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so we patrolled on alternate days.

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This way, the streets were
covered on all days of the week.

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- Chinatown was so sad
during the pandemic.

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It was depressed, really depressed.

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The stores are closed,

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and plus there was Asian
hatred things going on,

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so we think as community member,

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we should do something about it.

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So together with a lot of other things,

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Pearl River participated,

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and then we bought the lanterns

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because we have the resource.

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We invite artists.

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So many people involved,

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just try to light up Chinatown.

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(bright music)

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If you go to Mott Street at night,

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it\'s just beautiful.

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Pandemic just make the
community more united,

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and of course, Corky is so
enthusiastic to join us.

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(bright music continues)

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- Corky was so touched that they wanted

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to do something beautiful here,

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that he stayed up \'til like 12 midnight

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because he wanted to see it all strung.

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(bright music continues)

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And I said, \"Oh, you could just come back

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the next day to shoot it
because it\'s so late.\"

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But he didn\'t want to
come back the next day.

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He wanted to capture that moment.

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(camera shutter clicking)

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- You know, who\'s gonna say,
\"Corky, you better sit down

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and stay home.\"

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If he wants to go out
and capture these photos,

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he\'s gonna do it.

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- Would I have wanted
him to cloister himself?

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Yeah, I would much rather have preferred,

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but I also know that there was
no way on God\'s green Earth

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he was gonna do that.

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If you see yourself as the fireman,

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on duty 24/7, then you
do what the fireman does.

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You show up,

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and that\'s what Corky did. You know?

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(birds chirping)

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- The last time I saw Corky was a few days

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before New Year\'s.

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There was a press conference
by The Guardian Angels.

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They wanted to go into
the subways to warn people

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about an attack on a Chinese girl.

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And Corky went with them into the subways.

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(soft music)

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- He never slowed down.

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He\'s gotta be out there

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because there\'s things that\'s happening

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and he wants to be present for it.

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(soft music continues)

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(camera shutter clicking)

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Wednesday, he went to
a Guardian Angel event.

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He said, \"Don\'t worry, I\'ll be fine.\"

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He says, \"I\'m wearing a face mask.\"

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Thursday, he said he wasn\'t feeling well.

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He had cold symptoms and body aches.

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He got tested January 7th.

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His breathing was difficult

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and they checked his oxygen level

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and they suggested that he
needed to go to the hospital.

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(sighs) He had COVID.

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(soft music continues)

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He\'s never been hospitalized before.

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He was healthy as a horse.

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He was stable for some time,

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but when the doctors called,

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they said he wasn\'t doing well.

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He had taken a turn for the worse.

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That\'s when they made the
decision to allow me a chance

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to see him in the hospital.

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And it was in the ICU.

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It was behind glass doors.

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I could not go into the room

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because there were other COVID patients.

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I didn\'t truly believe
he was gonna go away.

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I just wanted to take him home.

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The morning of January 27th,
he passed away. (crying)

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(somber music)

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(birds chirping)

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(somber music continues)

01:22:14.763 --> 01:22:18.183
(somber music continues)

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(somber music continues)

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- [Citizen] Thank you, Corky!

01:22:32.364 --> 01:22:33.698
- [Citizen] We love you Corky!

01:22:33.698 --> 01:22:34.532
- [Citizen] Thank you, Corky.

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- [Citizen] We will always remember you.

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- [Citizen] We will continue
fighting for justice.

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Photographic Justice.

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(somber music continues)

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(seagulls crying)

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(somber music continues)

01:23:00.141 --> 01:23:02.811
(somber music continues)

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- We want to remember
one of the 431,000 people

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who have died of COVID
in the US: Corky Lee.

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Corky Lee was a legendary photographer

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known for documenting the
life of Asian Americans.

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He was born and raised in-

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- [News Host] His mission
in life to chronicle

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the often-forgotten
members of his community.

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For five decades,

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Corky Lee put a spotlight on every-

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- [Reporter] Bringing Asian Americans

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to the forefront of
history through his work.

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- [Reporter] He arguably left behind

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the single largest repository
of photographic history

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of Asian Americans.

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- He was an icon in the community,

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using his camera to set things right.

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- [Reporter] It was his life purpose

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to tell the stories of
communities overlooked

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by mainstream media.

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- Through his photographs and the memories

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of the countless people
who knew and loved him,

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he\'ll keep making a difference
for generations to come.

01:23:48.815 --> 01:23:52.235
(somber music continues)

01:23:54.821 --> 01:23:57.657
- The Asian American Movement,
I believe, is still alive.

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Whenever there\'s a crisis

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more people step up to the plate.

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There\'ll be setbacks.

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There\'ll be times that
you\'ll feel depressed

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about what\'s going on,

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but you have to believe
that things will get better.

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If you\'re a photographer, keep shooting.

01:24:18.094 --> 01:24:21.514
(somber music continues)

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(somber music continues)