University of Nanking
Lee was born in Shanghai, China, with his ancestral home in nearby Suzhou. His father Chun-kang Lee (), one of the first graduates of the University of Nanking, was a chemical industrialist and merchant who was involved in China's early development of modern synthesized fertilizer. Lee's grandfather Chong-tan Lee () was the first Chinese Methodist Episcopal senior pastor of St. John's Church in Suzhou ().