Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam showed her fans a rare photo of herself at age 15, in a long post on social media about her schooling days.
The 59-year-old posted on Aug 23 a picture of her student identity card for the school year 1980 to 1981, when she was studying at Maryknoll Sisters’ School in Hong Kong.
“Back then, I was attending an all-girls secondary school,” Lam wrote in Chinese. “After class, I would always walk down the hill from school with my two best friends who lived near me, as we chatted and laughed all the way. It took about 20 minutes – not too long.”
She added they would stop by a busy neighbourhood to have some street snacks before they headed home in a tram, with the journey taking 30 minutes.
“After getting off the tram, there was still a distance for me to walk before reaching home,” she wrote. “Along the way, the aroma of snacks from small food stalls and carts wafted through the air, making it hard for me to resist grabbing another bite.”
The singer said life back then was simple and beautiful, with no mobile phones or Internet. Her routine then consisted of attending classes, studying, taking exams, going to school and returning home.
“I had plenty of free time too, so I would draw pictures and copy lyrics,” she added.
When her favourite songs came on the radio, she would record them on cassette tape, gradually compiling a collection of her own “favourite hits”.
She said most of them were English-language songs, and writing out the lyrics was a way for her to practise her English.
“No one could have imagined that those seemingly random (experiences) would slowly accumulate over the years, eventually leading me to the microphone and stage,” she said. “It seems that many paths in life are paved unintentionally.”
Lam released her self-named debut album in 1985 and went on to become an established singer with hits such as Home Again Without You (1990) and At Least I Still Have You (2000).
She is on her Resonance 2025 world tour, her first major concert tour in seven years, after being out of the public eye for four years. She recently played in Qingdao, China, on Aug 9, and is scheduled to perform in Tianjin on Sept 13. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
