I had the pleasure of meeting Yi Guo early in 2017 when he was completing his doctoral thesis at Macquarie University, Australia. I took an instant interest in his research which I found so interesting and significant. I was keen to learn about the state of press freedom in China today and in the recent past. It is widely assumed in the West that press freedom – which is inextricably related to freedom of speech, liberty, democracy, and human rights – has hardly existed in China and that the concept of press freedom has eluded the understanding of the Chinese. Many would also say that Chinese political culture underpinned by Chinese traditions, culture, and society is to blame. It is tempting to think that it is as simple as that. But in fact, the subject is more complicated than that, and the notion of press freedom, as the Chinese have understood it in recent times, needs to be explicated with sophistication and nuances.

Guo, one of the foremost representatives of a new generation of Chinese media and historical studies scholars who understands China from the inside while at the same time firmly grounded in the social science theories of Western academia, is eminently suited to tackle this important subject. Rather than arguing that press freedom as the West understands it was existent or non-existent in modern China, the book instead focuses on the changing Chinese conceptions of press freedom, exploring the basic question: how did educated Chinese, and sometimes the common people, understand it at different historical junctures and over time? To answer this question, the book departs from previous works, mainly historical, which focused on the authoritarianism of Chinese rule on the one hand and the ‘democratic struggle’ for freedom, democracy, and human rights on the other. Guo employs a conceptual-historical methodology derived from his media and communication studies training and informed by his broad knowledge of Chinese history, culture, and society to argue that the Chinese notion of press freedom has not been static over the past hundred years. Rather, it has varied over time and space under variable circumstances and in the context of social changes taking place at different historical junctures.