周宁现任华源协作伙伴关系与中国事工副总裁，并担任《每周中国快讯》（ZGBriefs）编辑。
加入华源协作之前，周宁曾在中国工作 28 年，期间担任过英语教师、语言学习者及项目主任，也为在中国工作的机构与企业提供跨文化培训。她曾在明尼苏达州的西北大学（University of Northwestern–St. Paul）教授中文，并在惠顿学院（Wheaton College）及泰勒大学（Taylor University）教授中国文化与沟通。
周宁拥有西北大学社会科学学士学位，以及圣托马斯大学（University of St. Thomas）教学硕士学位。
周宁著有 Survival Chinese Lessons 和 The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China 两本书。
周宁也经营个人博客 Outside-In（joannpittman.com），分享对中国、明尼苏达州、旅行，以及“如何在不属于自己的地方好好生活”等主题的观察与思考。
读者也可以通过 X（@jkpittman）及 Facebook（@authorjoannpittman）关注周宁的动态。
周宁目前定居美国明尼苏达州新布赖顿（New Brighton）。
One of my favorite China books is The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History, by Joanna Waley-Cohen. In it she chronicles China’s historical interactions with the outside world, arguing that China has never been as isolationist as historians have suggested. What the West often perceived as isolationist policies or attitudes were instead China’s insistence that authority must never be surrendered to outsiders.
My first visit to Wuhan was in January of 1984. I was travelling with a group of 17 teachers on a boat trip down the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Wuhan. We disembarked in Wuhan three days before Spring Festival, and set out to acquire 17 train tickets to Guangzhou. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.
Today we are launching our first-ever online training course titled "Serving Well in China" for people working in China or preparing to work in China.
In many ways our worldview can be thought of as our operating system—the way in which we process and organize information and make sense of the world. For westerners, our worldview is built on legal frameworks such as guilt and innocence; however, most non-western cultures process the world based on honor and shame.
On Thursday night my landlady called and asked if she could come over to see me because she had some translation questions for me. Anyone who's been in China for a while knows the fear and dread that well up inside at the sound of someone asking for help with translation work. "Just read it over. It won't take long." Those words always precede hours of painful and laborious mental gymnastics trying to translate phrases, like the one in the title of this post, from what we call "Chinglish" to English.
Has China reached the Lewis Turning Point? What does that mean for migrant workers in China?
This course is less about a set of answers and more about presenting a framework with which to process the complexities of China. When you encounter confusing situations or cultural differences, what you learn here will help you reconcile them with your cultural background and expectations.
One of my favorite China books is Peter Hessler’s Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. Shortly after the book was published in 2010, a CNN travel reporter interviewed Hessler about the book. There was one particular exchange that caught my attention.
Some things just don’t translate well from Chinese into English. Take, for example the annual government meetings that are taking place in Beijing this week. In Chinese the meetings are referred to as Liang Hui (两会), which literally means “two meetings” (sometimes also translated as “sessions”). Using such a term in English to describe a conference, however, leads only to blank stares.
I have been to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, twice and have three distinct memories.
Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a summit of local (Minnesota) Chinese-student-ministry leaders to discuss ways to help new Chinese believers prepare for returning to China.
When it comes to China reporting, two of my favorite writers are Peter Hessler and Evan Osnos, both of whom write for The New Yorker. They recently took part in a forum hosted by Asia Society to examine four decades of reporting on China by the magazine. Editor David Remnick moderated the event, and joining the conversation were three other New Yorker writers, Orville Schell, Zha Jianying, and Jiayang Fan.