Born in Taiwan, Lee Chun-Yi settled in Hong Kong since 1970. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Graduate School of Fine Arts of Tunghai University, Taiwan. He earned his PhD of Chinese art history at the Arizona State University. Lee was a post-doctoral fellow at the Phoenix Art Museum and currently teaches at the National Taiwan Normal University.

Lee Chun-Yi is known for his well-knitted stamp works. He uses a small piece of cork to stamp spots within each square of the grid to compose his painting, sometimes stamping a square repeatedly to create a darker tone; his paintings thus are done with ink and paper but with a stamp rather than a brush. This deliberate process derives from ancient Chinese stone rubbing. Lee mastered traditional brush and ink as well as Western techniques before specializing in contemporary Chinese ink painting. Since his youth, he has been deeply interested in Han stelae, classic reference, literati ideals. The fusion of poetry, painting, and calligraphy coalesce most completely in the current work.

Lee has held solo exhibitions in London, New York, Toronto, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei. His works are in the collections of Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Harvard University, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Norton Museum of Art of West Palm Beach, and Phoenix Art Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Jiangsu Art Museum, Qingdao Art Museum, etc.