QUESTING bandstand

Agnes Chan (陳美齡), the pop star with a PhD. At 14, she had the opportunity to record a cover of “The Circle Game” on a Life Record (HK) project featuring amateur folk singers. Her song was later chosen to be released separately. It sold the most singles in Hong Kong history and made her a household name in the Far East. Agnes next covered a Japanese song “Ikigai” as “Sweet Dreams” in English which also became a hit. In 1972 and at 17, she recorded “Poppy Flower (ひなげしの花, Hinageshi no Hana)” which made her a teenage idol in Japan. Her fourth single “小さな恋の物語, Chiisana Koi no Monogatari” reached No. 1 on the charts. Over the next few years, Agnes kept cranking out hits in both Japanese and English. In 1976, she announced that she was taking a break to enroll at the University of Toronto in Canada to major in social child psychology. After school, Agnes began to travel widely on behalf of UNICEF to raise awareness of the plight of children in developing and war-torn countries. In 1986, she married her former manager Tsutomu Kaneko and settled in Japan. When she brought her son and a nanny to her work, she sparked a national debate on motherhood and career (“The Agnes Controversy”). As a result, Agnes decided to enroll in a doctorate degree at Stanford University (California) and worked on a dissertation on the conflicts facing working mothers. She received her PhD. in 1994, and then co-authored a book The Road Winds Uphill All the Way: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan (MIT Press, 1999). In 1998, Chan was appointed the first ambassador of the Japan Committee for UNICEF. Agnes’ latest single is “Flower of Happiness (しあわせの花)”. Her new English-language album Forget Yourself, including a duet (“It is a wonder”) with the legendary Chinese performer, Jackie Chan, was released in the United States in February 2006.

(COURAGE AND GRACE)
Tonight the rain kisses the window
The way I kiss my child’s face
In a world that’s so uncertain
Where there’s so much pain
I want to give a little love every day
I want to live with courage and grace
I want to give a little thanks every day
And dance with whatever may come my way
With courage and grace
Tonight I watched my husband lie sleeping
I was so grateful for the home we have made
Never know where this life will lead you
You just got to go on with faith
I want to give a little love every day
I want to live with courage and grace
I want to give a little thanks every day
And dance with whatever may come my way
With courage and grace
(I pray to God)
I find the strength)
To live my life and appreciate)
To love my life come what may)
I want to give a little love every day
I want to live with courage and grace
I want to give a little thanks every day
And dance with whatever may come my way
With courage and grace