Biography of China Lee

China Lee, (born September 2, 1942) is an American model and actress. She was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for the August 1964 issue, and the first Asian-American Playmate. Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. According to her Playmate profile, her name is pronounced "chee-na" to rhyme with "Tina". Her married name is Margaret (Lee) Sahl.

Lee was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Chinese parents who had emigrated to the United States after their marriage. The family owned a laundry. She is the youngest of eight children and the younger sister of Harry Lee, who served as the sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, for about 28 years. The name "China" is derived from the nickname "Chinita" ("little Chinese girl") bestowed on her by Spanish-speaking neighbors who admired her dancing as a child.

Lee worked as a hairstylist and waitress and Playboy Club Bunny before her Playboy appearance. She was a "Training Bunny," which required her to travel to different Playboy Clubs to teach prospective Bunnies the ropes.

She appeared in the end of the Woody Allen movie What's Up, Tiger Lily? doing a striptease.

Her last television appearance was in an interview done by former WCBS-TV reporter Lisa Rudolph in the early 1990s. It included her ex-husband Mort and her toddler son Mort Sahl Jr. and the topic was about parenting. China said, "It is very difficult to be a parent, it requires lots of responsibility."

Her last video appearance was in a DVD video from Playboy titled, Playboy: 50 Years of Playmates (2004).

She married Mort Sahl, the Montreal-born comedian, in 1967. They divorced in 1991. Their only child, Mort Sahl, Jr. died on March 27, 1996 at the age of 19.