Amin is a name that may sound quite exotic to many Chinese people, but it's actually the name of a Chinese woman who has established a successful music career over the past decade in Japan. With the success of her latest album, "Across Loulan Girl", the capable singer is coming back to her home country after being away for the last ten years.

After performing with veteran singer Matsutoya Yumi in September, Amin returned to Shanghai with her band to promote her latest release. The new album contains 13 tracks and one music video, most of which are performed in Chinese as a way of expressing her longing for China and her hometown, Shanghai .

The theme of homesickness runs throughout the album and is reflected in the songs, mainly produced by Amin in Japan, and should resonate with the millions in China struggling to make a living away from home.

Originally named Wu Huimin, the singer received an early musical education from her composer father, learning traditional Chinese instruments and taking part in children's choruses and art troupes, laying a solid foundation for her future singing career.

Amin first found fame in China when she won the Casio Singing Contest in 1985. After releasing three albums in China, she left for Japan to further study music in 1992, where Wu became Amin and got actively involved in the music scene, setting up her own band and releasing several more albums.

Amin paid frequent visits to China as a solo singer as well as to taking part in UNICEF's charity concert in 2001, while all the time actively keeping her career alive in Japan, producing music and hosting a TV show.

In 2003, Amin won fame among the Japanese when one of her songs was used for a popular advertisement. The song won people's hearts and the album, "Chai," reached 17th place in Japan's Oricon Chart with 150,000 sales, setting a record as the first Chinese album to enter the Japanese top 100. The single also became the first Chinese-language song in Japan to be selected for the best advertisement sound track.

Amin has set a rare example being excepted in the Japanese market as a Chinese singer who can perform in both Chinese and Japanese.

(China Daily 12/30/2005 page5)