Choy was born in Shanghai in the People's Republic of China[3] as Chai Ming Huei to a Korean father and a Chinese mother.[4][2]
Shortly after Choy's birth, her father abandoned the family to return to South Korea. As a result, Choy was raised largely by her mother. Growing up, her family struggled greatly financially.[2]
Following the Cultural Revolution, the family fled mainland China via Hong Kong.[5][2] They moved to South Korea, where Choy was reunited with her father. During this time, Choy developed a strong appreciation for American films released in South Korea. Although she enjoyed the films, Choy became attuned to the prevalence of casual discrimination towards Asian people in American media.[6]
Arrival in America; Education
Choy moved to New York City at the age of 14. She was a volunteer for WBAI in high school and described "[o]ne of her duties" as covering the Panther Twenty-One trial at the Tombs. During the trial, she earned the trust of the Black Panther Party, and soon afterwards began doing errands for the New York City chapter.[3]
Choy referred to herself as a "Panther Youth", and said she "did the running around for the big shots."[3]
In 1965,[6] Choy was given a scholarship to attend Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in New York, where she studied architecture. While attending, she made friends with a group of hippies that were a part of Newsreel. At Newsreel, Choy worked as an editor and animation director for some amount of time.[2] Soon thereafter, Choy earned a Directing Certificate at the American Film Institute.[7]
In 1974, Choy directed her first feature-length documentary, Teach Our Children. As Choy related to the poverty and the migration issues that people around her faced, she was inspired to make a second documentary, combining the issues she faced in China and South Korea with the struggles she faced in the United States. The finished film, From Spikes to Spindles, was released in 1976, and focused on Chinese migration and Chinese citizens' struggle for equal treatment in America.
Choy was one of the first major female Chinese-American filmmakers. She is frequently painted as a controversial figure. She is considered a political filmmaker[10] and an activist.[2]
One of Choy's most acclaimed films, Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988), was co-directed with Renee Tajima. The film tells the story of Vincent Jen Chin, a Chinese-American man who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Ron Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz, who held Chin defenseless. They were each sentenced to 3 years probation and a $3,000 fine. Choy struggled in seeking funding for the film due to its high-tension subject matter, shedding light on working-class racism in Detroit at a time when the US auto industry was failing, and Japanese cars were gaining popularity. The film was a pioneer in reconfiguring ethnographic filmmaking and won several accolades.
Sa-I-gu (1993), another film that Choy co-directed, was about the effect of the 1992 Los Angeles riots on the Korean American community there, and directly deals with the racial animosity towards Asians in America, but more specifically Asian women.[2]
^"崔明慧：徐克、李安都为其打过工" [Christine Choy: Tsui Hark, Ang Lee have both worked for her]. Waitan Huabao. 2009-04-24. Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
^ abcdShih, Bryan, and Yohuru Williams (2016). The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution. New York: Nation Books. pp. 143–145. ISBN978-1-56858-555-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
