On November 24, 1926, Tsung-Dao Lee was born in a weaIthy family in Shanghai. He was the third child in a  family of six children.

Zi-Yi Lee（1844-1904）,Tsung-Dao Lee's great grandfather, was originally from Nanhui County, Jiangsu Province. He was one of main founders of Soochow Buffington Institute, the precursor  of Dong Wu University (now known as Soochow University).

Tsung-Dao Lee's great grandmother Mrs. Lee

Chong-Tan Lee（1869-1941）, Tsung-Dao Lee's grandfather, graduated from Soochow Buffington Institute, the precursor of Dong Wu University (now known as  Soochow University). In 1920 he received an honorary doctorate in theology from Randoph-Macon College in the US, serving ase the Christian preaching director, rector and Methodist church bishop for Suzhou, Changzhou and Shanghai Districts. He was one of the founders of St.John Church in Suzhou.

Tsung-Dao Lee's grandmother, Wing-Ping Jiang, was a descendant of Qing Dynasty painter Jiang Tingxi.

Tsing-Kong Lee(1897-1955), Tsung-Dao Lee's father, graduated from the AgriCultural Chemistry Department of the University of Nanking in Nanjing (later merged into the Nanjing University). Tsing-Kong Lee originally lived in Suzhou and moved to Nanshi, Shanghai in 1925.

Ming-Chang Chang(1900-1983), Tsung-Dao Lee's mother, studied at Morning Star Girls School in Shanghai（now the Shanghai No.4 High School）.

Hui-Chun Chin (1928-1996), originally from Tianshui, Gansu Province,  moved to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and then to Shanghai. In 1947, she went to the United States to study at St. Mary's College in Kansas, where she met Tsung-Dao Lee. They married in June, 1950.

Her father, Qin Mengjiu, was a famous Chinese painter and collector. He graduated from the Shanghai Industrial College of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs in the Qing Dynasty， a precursor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Qin Mengjiu was the third graduating class of the school，so he also became one of the earliest graduates of Jiao Tong University.

James Lee, a historian and sociologist, was born in 1952. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1974, a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1975, and a doctoral degree in history from the University of Chicago in 1983. From 1982 to 2003, he served as an instructor, assistant, associate, and full professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. From 2003 to 2006, he was a professor of history and sociology at the University of Michigan. From 2003 to 2008, he was the director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. From 2006 to 2009, he was Frederick Huetwell Chair Professor of Chinese history at the University of Michigan. He also served as the director of the University of Michigan-Peking University Joint Institute. From 2009 to 2018, he was the Dean and Chair Professor of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Since 2019, he has been a Yan Ai Foundation Chair Professor in School of Humanities and Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Stephen Lee, a chemist, was born in 1956. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1978 and a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1985.  He became an assistant professor and taught at the University of Michigan in  1993. After receiving a MacArthur Award in 1994. he went to Cornell University as a visiting scholar in 1995 and officially joined as a tenured professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in 1999.