My name is Jane Sonnenschein. I am a Chinese mother, writer, and long-time resident in Germany.

I have lived between languages and cultures for more than twenty years. In daily life, I often notice that the distance between China and the Western world is not only a matter of language. Sometimes, it is a difference in memory, family experience, emotional logic, and the way people learn to see the world.

My husband was born in the United States and has lived in Germany for more than forty years. He grew up between American and German cultural worlds, while I came to Germany from China as a young adult. In our family, English, German, and Chinese are not just languages. They are different ways of thinking, reacting, remembering, and raising a child.

Many of my essays begin in this everyday space between cultures: a conversation with my daughter, a disagreement or reflection in my marriage, a question about school and education, or a small moment when Chinese and Western ways of seeing the world suddenly meet each other.

Our daughter grows up with three languages around her: Chinese from me, English in our family life, and German from the society she lives in. This multilingual family experience has shaped many of my reflections on childhood, identity, education, belonging, and the invisible logic behind language.

I started A Chinese Way of Seeing as a quiet essay space for readers who want to understand Chinese ways of thinking beyond headlines, stereotypes, and simple cultural labels.

I write about family, education, childhood, relationships, writing, self-rebuilding, and everyday life between China and Germany. I believe that ideas should have roots. A good essay does not have to begin with a theory. It can begin with a story, a sentence, a conflict, a domestic scene, or a question that stays in the mind.

The original essays are usually written in Chinese. Some of them will be gradually translated and rewritten into English and German — not as direct translations, but as cultural retellings for readers from different backgrounds.

This website is not meant to explain China from above. It is a personal window: one Chinese woman’s way of seeing family, culture, memory, language, and the world.

I hope this place feels less like a platform and more like a quiet reading room.

English Essays

For Chinese originals, please visit 中文杂记. German essays will be added gradually under Deutsche Essays.