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 Twitter @jkpittman.com and on Facebook at @authorjoannpittman.
She makes her home in New Brighton, Minnesota.
Fifteen years ago, a Chinese writer who goes by the name of Huo Shui, wrote an article for the ChinaSource Quarterly called "Keys to Effectiveness in an Ever-Changing China." While China has continued to change, the things he talked about have stood the test of time. Or, as a friend of mine used to say, “things are the same, only more so.”
So, what did Beijing look like the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series?
Harbin, situated in the heart of China’s northeast is the capital of Heilongjiang province. Once part of the Manchu homeland and later a Russian outpost, the city today is one of the major industrial and commercial centers of northeast China.
Earlier this week we posted a ChinaSource Conversations podcast in which I talked with Jackson Wu, author of Saving God’s Face and Sam Chan, author of Preaching as the Word of God about the issue of contextualization in gospel presentations. In the course of the conversation I asked them ten questions.
Since Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, the slogan “Chinese Dream” has been one of the guiding principles of the Chinese Communist Party. The way the Party sees it, the essence of the Chinese dream is national rejuvenation, or making China great again, so to speak. The vast propaganda apparatus has been mobilized to convince people in China that their own personal dreams are inextricably linked to the broader dream of a rising China.
Our friends at the International Outreach department of The Gospel Coalition (TGC) are offering a free resource to those serving in China—Tim Keller’s Gospel in Life, in simplified Chinese.
Since I lived in Beijing for the last 15 years of my time in China, it’s not often that I get nostalgic for Changchun, the city in northeast China that was my home for most of the 90s. Lately, however, I have found myself thinking of my time there and the experiences I had. I am, dare I say, homesick for Manchuria.
Much has been written the past few weeks about the draft revision to the Regulations on Religious Affairs, the main policy document that spells out how religion is to be managed in China.
October 1 is National Day in China; this year marks the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. While it used to be a day marked with military parades and revolutionary fervor, now it marks the beginning of a 7-day national holiday (“Golden Week”) designed to get people to spend money.
So, how much do you know about National Day and the history of the founding of the country?
In April of this year, President Xi Jinping gave a speech at a national conference on religion in which he outlined his vision for the role religion can and should play in Chinese society. As is often the case with speeches from top leaders, his themes were painted in broad strokes, with very little specifics. Those are typically revealed in subsequent regulations.
A look at Sanya, the Hawaii (and snowbird destination) of China.
The website NGOs in China recently published a summary of a Q&A session between the European Chamber of Commerce and the Foreign NGO Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. Seeking clarification on how the law will be implemented, the delegation from the European Chamber of Commerce posed 13 questions.