Sung Hi Lee was born on April 1, 1970 in Eun-Pyung Gu (Gi-Ja Chon), a borough of Seoul (South Korea). At the age of two Sung Hi’s parents divorced, leaving her and her younger brother to be raised by her grandparents. Sung Hi describes herself as a child as “a tomboy – climbing trees, making mud pies and playing with tadpoles and frogs.”
In 1978 (February 19), during her elementary school years, she and her brother moved to Chicago (USA) to be with their father. Sung Hi was brought up in the Korean tradition of strict discipline. She got good grades in school, but had a hard time of adolescence, with few friends. Her father, an alcohohlic, wasn’t good at supporting his daughter financially and emotionally, providing his daughter with seven successive stepmothers. These circumstances prompted the young Sung Hi to leave home on occasion and contemplate suicide. Graduating with honors from high school, Sung Hi abandoned a college scholarship due to a lack of money. After her grandmother died, Sung Hi helped support her father and brother by waitressing.
