BIO
Dr. Cin-Ty Lee was born in Taiwan in 1974, but his family moved to the countryside of Riverside, California when he was less than a year old. In addition to his father teaching at UC Riverside and his mother working at the city hall, Lee’s family tended to an orange grove to bring in extra income. Unfortunately, growing up as one of the only Asians in the area, he recalls the constant physical and verbal bullying that he endured in school. For him, building up confidence in an area—studying birds—gave him the strength to keep going through those difficult times. Recognizing his interest in nature and birds, his parents enrolled him in a bird specimen preservation class taught at a museum—even though the class was meant for adults. To this day, Dr. Lee loves birdwatching and illustrating birds, and calls birding his “second life.” Lee lives with his wife and eight-year old son in Houston, and currently teaches as the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice University. This interview was conducted as part of an independent project about ways in which Chinese American immigrant parents express love toward their children. Thus, it is not a standard full-length oral history interview, but rather, focuses on Lee’s relationship and memories with his parents.