  We study sub-threshold heavy quarkonium ($J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$)
photo-productions in $\gamma A$ collisions as an independent test of the
universality of the nucleon-nucleon short range correlation (SRC) in nuclear
scattering processes. Just below the $\gamma p$ threshold, the cross section is
dominated by the mean field contribution of nucleons inside the nucleus. The
SRC contributions start to dominate at lower photon energies, depending on the
fraction of the SRC pairs in the target nucleus. We give an estimate of the
cross sections in the sub-threshold region both for $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$.
This may be helpful for future measurements at JLab as well as at the
Electron-Ion Collider in the U.S., and especially in China.
