Chapter 1

 The birth of the grandchild brought a big disappointment to 陳燧棠's parents, because she was a girl. His mother got so angry and made a propose to make him to get marriage with a second wife. This is a quite common in Hong Kong at that time. It was a traditional since the Quing era, and it was quite popular that a man married a mistress or second wife in case that his wife did not bring boy baby, if his family was rich. The colonial government tended not to interfere in such reality from the standpoint to respect Chinese manners and customs for Chinese residents.
　

The establishment of monogamy with legally binding is in 1971, the reform
regulation of marriage. There was a marriage law which prohibited bigamous
marriage till then, but it was preserved.
  

The Chinese letter "美" of  美齡 has a pronunciation, mei, and it's same as that of a letter "尾". "尾" means "end" or "last," so the baby girl was named as 美齡 with hope that she was the last girl.


   Fortunately, their fifth and sixth child were boys. The idea to have a
second wife disappeared. 彭端淑 would have felt relieved.
    美齡,who got the nickname "美美" Mei mei, was a small girl like a
 premature baby when she was born, but she grew swiftly. She began to speak
when she was 16 months old and could talk easily after she was 18 months
old. She was a lively, curious and cheerful girl.
　

　
　

　When she was one year old.

　

 When 美齡 was two years old, she was baptized. I don't know the name of  the church, but it seems that's  聖瑪加利大堂( 聖瑪加烈聖堂?)St. Margaret's Church, where she often went to when she was a child. Her Christian name is "Agnes." People in Hong Kong have an English name as well as Chinese name, even though they may not be Christians. This is an influence from the U.K. and especially, they are required to have English name when they go to school. All of her brothers and sisters have English name, such as Paul/ 柏齡, Irene/依齡, Helen/ 曦齡, Joseph/康齡 and Abraham/ 宇齡. By the way, her father is Henry and her mother is Rita.
   
    When  美齡 was three years old, her family lived with two other families, her parent's brother's and sister's. The home was chirpy because number of children in the home was eleven. Among the children, the naughtiest girl was 美齡.
  One day,  美齡 had fallen headfirst into the water pot used as a refrigerator and almost died. It's said it's because she was interested in her face wavily reflected on the water in the pot and absorbed in looking that, or it's because she tried to take up the watermelon in the pot. Her girl cousin was near by the pot by chance and said to 美齡's mother that "Shoes are floating on the water." Thanks to her, she had a hairbreadth escape from death. She often played inside house rather than outside.
　

　
     When 美齡 was four years old, she entered a mission kindergarten called 聖安當幼稚園. She was with her cousin on her way to and from kindergarten.
    It was because she wasn't able to reach doorbell to push due to her
shortness in height. She had been unable to push the doorbell to enter the house when she had a quarrel with him and came back home alone.
    Her marks at the kindergarten was excellent and she was a 一等生 (an honor student). She was put in charge of the conductor of choir and gave a speech representing the children at the finishing ceremony of the kindergarten. She sang hymns in the choir and her relation with song has begun at the time.
　

　

　When she was three years old
After she entered the kindergarten, her naughtiness was polished and she did nothing but led the way in playing a trick. There is an episode that she pushed down her friend in retaliation for her being pushed down by the friend. At that time, she was severely scolded. For this reason, "Not to retaliate" became her principle since then.
    Anyway, it seems that she was unyielding very much since she was a
kindergarten's child.

   When 美齡 was six years old, she entered an elementary level at Mary Knoll Sisters School (now Marymount Secondary School) which is a prestigious girl school. The school was a Catholic mission school.
   Though she was an elementary level student, she was a short in height as
ever. Her seat was always in the front row of the class  and she was often called by her teachers. Because she was conspicuous, she was not able to be
late for school. But in her elementary level, she didn't study very much but always played.
　

　When she was seven years old

    When she was in grade fourth, she went to the sea to swim with her friends and almost drowned because of the cramps on her legs. She usually went to swim with her family and eventually became a good swimmer. During the years when she was in Canada to study, she often went to a pool to swim.
　

   She often played with her brothers or sisters, especially her elder brothers, rather than her friends. She was always being teased into tears.


And she was a "stubborn crybaby" who didn't easily stop crying.
   She was unable to get her parents to care so well because she might have been middle-born in her siblings. She was also unable to get her siblings to care. As she tried to get them to care, she was often scolded. And she told her father about it, then she was again scolded by them due to it.
　

  Her quarrel with sibling was a fairly serious and she had been once beaten
with a hanger by her sister. But even so, she had never apologized. She was
always stubborn.
  

  She always wanted to play with them, so she made an effort to become a good girl. Her "trying-hard spirit" which carries on through her life, might have been begin at the time. "The middle-born is pitiful." says she looking her childhood.
　

  At the same time, she was a shy girl who was not very good at talking with people, so she was not good in making friends. This might be one of the reasons that we can't hear she fell in love at that time, though it seems that  she had one-love with a male friend of her sister  依齡's.
.
The report cards of her first and second grade were an outstanding one.
She was one of the top five, but in her third and forth grades, it went down to an average. When she was in grade sixth, her teacher adored her, so she worked hard to became a top student again. At the time, she had a longing for her teacher.
　

During the grade seventh, she began to play basketball to help her get taller. She was selected as a regular defence member for her agility. And she was also in relay team because she was nimble on her feet. She was a kind of sporty-girl but didn't have a opportunity to use it since then.

　When she was ten years old

　
During the grade seven, she was a high achiever student as ever. An IQ test was held and she got a testimonial which only four students were able to get for the test. But her junior high school years was a strong rebellious age. She rebelled about everything.
  

It was a join at her volunteer activities, which made such 美齡 change 180-degree and determined her subsequent life.
   Because of the mission school, she has learned about the teaching of Christ. She later mentioned in her book that it was through her volunteer activities which actually has helped  her to learn about real meaning of the teaching of Christ - not theoretically but rather physically and mentally.
  

As a leader of YCS (Young Christians Student), 美齡 engaged in visiting many places such as: hospitals for children and terminally ill patients with cancer, orphans' homes, an institution for mentally-handicapped patients and others. She comforted them or sometimes read Bible on every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. After she was in grade tenth, she visited a prison for woman and institution which took care of teenage girls who became pregnant. Through these activities, she held a conviction that she herself had what she was able to do for people and realized wonderfulness
and importance of selfless love. At the same time, she also realized the fact that she was not able to do anything and got frustrated at her own power. For this reason, she had a desired to do something to help them.


As I mentioned earlier, she was basically a shy girl and not very good in talking with others, so she was first useless being in derision of children. She told them story but they immediately got bored and began to make a noise. So she decided to sing instead. After that, she was begged to sing for them, she sang and taught them songs. This has help her to know the power of songs.
  

Her volunteer activities continued for four years including above activities. After that,  美齡 debuted as a singer and was gradually withdrawn from the YCS activities. But her passion for volunteer never faded away.
  

When it comes to song, belonged school chorus. When she was in grade eighth, an American nun named Rosalie came to her school to teach. She was a beautiful woman with blue eyes and blond hair. 美齡 listened to her  singing at a folk concert at the school and was so impressed by with her singing voice. The next day, she found Sister Rosalie was also an advisor of the folk songs club. She asked Sister for joining the club to listen to her sing again. She sang a song called "A place in the Sun" as an audition and got accepted into the club. She started to attract to the sounds of guitar as well as to singing different kinds of songs after joining the club. At the Christmas time that year, she got  her sister Irene's guitar
from her and began to practice, even though it was a self-taught practice.
  

 During this time,  美齡 was interested in Western music and listened the  music of artists such as: the Everly Brothers, Peter & Gordon, Rick Nelson, Paul Anka and Cliff Richard as well as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Later in 1978, when she came back to the music scene, she said she liked Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, James Taylor and Rod Stewart.

When she was fourteen years old

 When 美齡 was in grade ninth, she sang a solo for the first time at a folk concert with an advice from sister Rosalie. The song was "A Place in the Sun." This might has also been "Come Lord Jesus." At this time, she had her own guitar from her parents. That guitar became one of her treasures.

The audience accepted 美齡's song. The encore didn't easily stop. "My feeling has got through to them." She felt it's a sure proof in their reaction. Through this experience, she came to deem that song was a communication tool which was given to her and that she herself was a messenger who got love across to people using it. "Song as a tool for
conveying a message" or "communication by song." This is her approach to song and it has become her root since then.
After that,  美齡 had accompanied  herself at a school's party or a folk
 concert. Before long, the rumor spread to outside her school and she appeared as a guest performer at other school's parties.
 It was the birth of an amateur folk singer,  陳美齡. However, the number
 of songs in her repertoire was very limited to a few at that time.

She appeared as a guest performer at a boy's school  party
 And finally,  美齡 was going to attract professional's attention. 美齡 didn't forget her duty as a student. When she was in the final grade (12th), she got the second highest mark of 120 students and got an outstanding mark on the all Hong Kong's unified examination. Her favorite subjects were English literature, Geography and History, and her weak subject was Mathematics.