Ningyi grew up in Shijiazhuang, a city an hour and a half from Beijing by high-speed train. Her journey has taken her across continents—from studying Portuguese in Brazil to working on political mediation in Singapore and later joining the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. It was in Bangui, the capital of CAR, that she shot her first film Eat Bitter.

In Eat Bitter, her debut feature documentary, she co-directed and co-produced a portrait of a Chinese construction manager and a Central African sand laborer—two men pursuing independence and happiness in a place shaped by civil conflict and colonial history. The film premiered at CPH:DOX in 2023 and went on to screen at over 50 international festivals. It was later acquired by the BBC and earned her the Emerging Documentary Director award at the 47th Asian American International Film Festival.

Ningyi is drawn to stories rooted in realism. She is currently developing her first narrative feature, A.M.P., inspired by true stories of Chinese sex workers in Flushing, Queens. The proof-of-concept short film, The Life, is set to begin its festival run in 2025. The feature script was a quarterfinalist in the 2024 Academy Nicholl Fellowships and advanced to the second round of the 2025 Sundance Development Track.