Miky Lee, vice president of Korea CJ Group, received the Asian Hall of Fame’s Centennial Lifetime Achievement Medal in Los Angeles. K-pop pioneer Lee Soo-man performed the honor.
SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man, who is now the executive producer of A2O Entertainment, reminded the audience that Miky Lee introduced him at the same event a year ago and called him the godfather of K-pop. “Well, I want to return the favor tonight,” he said. “If I am the godfather of K-pop, then Miky Lee is the godmother of K-culture.”
The Asian Hall of Fame awards the medal to individuals it deems to be individuals of strength of character who have raised the bar in their industry, left a cultural mark and worked across racial boundaries. Miky Lee was known for bringing Korea to audiences abroad through film, music and television for over 30 years.
The two have been friends for more than 50 years. Lee Soo-man said that he first met her when he was a college student, when she was already a well-known singer, radio and TV host, and he was still a middle school student. “But even then he was already the boss,” he said.
She also told the audience about a phone call she received from him when she was in Dubai a few years ago. He told her to wait for him, then flew from the USA and arrived the next day. He did not say what the visit was about. “I’ve learned over the years that it’s very difficult to say no to Miky Lee,” he said.
Looking back to 1995, when CJ was still known as a food company, Lee Soo-man said: “Korea was not much of a major player in the global entertainment industry. But Miky saw something that others couldn’t.” That year, he said, CJ helped lead the DreamWorks investment, helped transform the Korean film industry through CGV, and played a role in transforming the MAMA Awards and KCON into worldwide platforms.
“Culture is like oxygen. We may take it for granted, but we cannot live without it,” Miky Lee said in her acceptance speech.
Tenn. He was born in Knoxville and raised in Seoul, a belief that founded both CJ and Samsung and proclaimed “No culture, no country!” He said it came from his grandfather, who liked to say: He and his brother Jay took those words to heart in what was then the food business. “We amuse people’s mouths. Why shouldn’t they have eyes and ears too?” He remembered what he said.
He said the DreamWorks deal was a chance to learn from the best, not to get the glamor of Hollywood. After the arrival of Korea’s first multiplex, CGV, in 1998, the move to cable TV and the launch of production house Studio Dragon.
He said Mnet was created to provide a place for the new generation to discover local music. He said almost 85% of songs broadcast on Korean television were once American pop, but by the 2000s the balance had reversed. The MAMA Awards and KCON later brought this community to cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Tokyo. “’Music Creates People.’ That was the dream. “And the fans brought it to life,” he said.
Korean filmmakers he has worked with include Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon Ho, Lee Chang-dong and “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. He also noted that Lee Isaac Chung, “KPop Demon Hunters” director Maggie Kang and Celine Song are filmmakers whose work has proven that stories drawn from Asian cultures can go far beyond.
“Our greatest legacy is not just what we achieved, but the opportunities we created for those who came after us,” he said.
Miky Lee served as an executive producer on Bong’s “Parasite,” which became the first non-English-language film to win the best picture Oscar in 2020 and win a total of four Academy Awards. KCON launched in the United States in 2012 and has grown from a K-pop festival to a convention covering Korean food, beauty and lifestyle. The MAMA Awards began in 1999 as the Mnet Video Music Awards. Recently, CJ ENM launched the First Light StoryHouse label to support Asian creators’ projects from the early development stage through direct investment and co-production.
The Asian Hall of Fame is an educational and research institution that recognizes Asian and Indigenous heritage. The 22nd induction ceremony also honored Blackpink’s Rosé and Japanese baseball great Nomo Hideo. Guests included Korean hip-hop artists Tiger JK and Yoon Mi-rae, X Japan leader Yoshiki Kang, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures director and president Amy Homma, writer-director-producer Lisa Joy, Locarno Film Festival president and Luma Foundation founder Maja Hoffmann, and former Google board member and investor Ram Shriram.