Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs.
Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and Chinese Culture and Communication at Wheaton College (IL) and Taylor University (IN).
Joann has a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and an MA in teaching from the University of St. Thomas (MN).
She is the author of Survival Chinese Lessons and The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China.
Her personal blog, Outside-In, can be found at joannpittman.com, where she writes on China, Minnesota, traveling, and issues related to "living well where you don't belong."
You can find her on X at @jkpittman and on Facebook at @authorjoannpittman.
She makes her home in New Brighton, Minnesota.
International students are no longer only going to the West to study; they are increasingly going to China. There are profound implications for this trend, not only for global international student ministry groups, but for the Chinese church as well.
Shenyang—the largest city in Dongbei (东北) and well worth a visit.
For a deeper understanding of some of the issues facing the church in China today, check out this e-journal from Germany.
A conversation with Dr. Carsten Vala of Loyola University on the current situation of the church in China.
Ten books that will help you thrive in the midst of cultural change.
The guest editor's perspective. . .
The author points out key issues related to Bible availability in China including supply, demand, and distribution. She also addresses the impact of the Internet on this issue.
If I can’t become an insider, can I at least become an acceptable outsider?
This is the time of year when many people are going to China and facing new routines in a new place and a new…
Seeking to understand the effects of the overseas NGO law.
Ten years ago I was in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. I had been in the city since it was announced as the host, and watched it get ready— stadiums to construct; roads to build; subway lines to put in. The city transformed itself before our eyes.
This tendency towards fixing (be it personal or societal) can often be a cultural clash point. We look around and see so much that we don’t understand and the “why” questions start bubbling to the surface. Is our motivation to fix what we perceive as broken, or to learn how the society is organized and the thinking behind it?