One afternoon, I returned home from a walk, my husband said that he smelt something, I responded it is the smell of the sun... Smelling The Sun then became the title of my this book.

Once a while I would have confused myself for who I am, I perceive China through my American eyes, sometime the other way around. Being an American, I would look into the land beyond the Pacific Ocean trying to understand the people and the natures where I came from. Having been a Chinese, I am telling my American stories that Chinese people may see it differently. No matter how, as a Chinese American, I cherish the grace from our creator to experience the two great unique nations.

I appreciate this opportunity to share my stories being as an American and having been a Chinese.

Time flies with a blink, The past fades like smoke. Yet writing endures like the warmest vessel of memory. Smelling The Sun is a collection shaped by this belief. To read these pages brings me back to those moments once quietly etched in my brain: at a street corner in a foreign city, the familiar contours of mountains and rivers at home, the low points of a life, or the subdued comfort of reunion. What remains here is not only experience recalled but feeling settled and clarified by time.

The essays gathered in this volume trace back to childhood memories, reflections formed during decade abroad, and the persistent presence of family and friends. Some were written in the stillness of night, others in afternoons bright with sun. Together, they form a record of what the years have offered and what they have taken away. In the title, "The Sun" gestures toward life's vitality, while "Smelling" suggests the quiet persistence of memory, something sensed rather than explained.

Writing, for me, has been both a form of attention and a way of keeping faith with live experience. These essays were written to preserve what might otherwise be lost, but also in the hope that they might offer readers a moment of recognition or calm. Whether you are far from home or rooted where you began, whether you are enduring difficulty or moving through ease, I hope this book may accompany you for a while, and leave behind a faint, sustaining warmth.

I am grateful to those whose presence, encouragement, and kindness have shaped this journey. May we, moving through the long current of time continue to recognize a fragrance that endures quiet, unmistakable, like smelling the Sun.