In an age when fake news, alternative facts, conspiracy theories and suspension of social media accounts constitute a vital part of everyday life, one cannot help rethinking the role of the media and reconceptualizing the notions of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in both democratic and authoritarian societies. As an enormous number of Twitter accounts have been suspended, banned or deleted, one may wonder where the fine line lies between a proper action to maintain a safe environment for users and freedom of expression in the public sphere. Yi Guo's Freedom of the Press in China: A Conceptual History, 1831–1949 is a timely contribution that enhances our understanding of freedom of speech and the press, providing a historical dimension and cultural specificity, namely, China in the first half of the 20th century.

Freedom of the Press in China argues that press freedom has been an “essentially contested concept” without an “authoritative or consensus definition.” In the context of 20th-century China, the notion of freedom of the press “has developed through interpretations and reinterpretations by generation after generation” (p. 23). Hence, this book is not intended to confirm the existence or nonexistence of “press freedom as the West understands” but “focuses on the changing Chinese conceptions of press freedom” (p. 11). The book's introduction clarifies the concepts of freedom of the press and freedom of speech and situates the author's discussion of press freedom in the framework of translingualism and transculturalism. The first chapter explores the introduction of the concept of press freedom since the 1830s, by Western businessmen, European Protestant missionaries and Chinese diplomats. Although such writings had an insignificant impact on Chinese society, their authors were undoubtedly trailblazers in their efforts to promote press freedom as a fundamental right. The second chapter turns attention to the creation of chuban ziyou as a neologism in China at the turn of the 20th century. Guo underscores the role of Japanese literature in transferring the idea of press freedom to China. I suggest that the readers also resort to Fei-Hsien Wang's 2019 book, Pirates and Publishers: A Social History of Copyright in Modern China (Princeton University Press), for further information about the evolution of terms concerning publishing and copyright in Meiji Japan and Chinese intellectuals’ borrowing of such Japanized Chinese words.

The third chapter focuses on Chinese intellectuals’ embracing of press freedom in the opening years of the 20th century. Chapter four discusses Sun Yat-sen's anti-liberal stance and the “San-min Doctrine of Journalism” held and publicized by Nationalist Party (KMT) members, including some liberal-minded journalists and officials. Here, the author could have further clarified the line between party ideologues and liberals inside the KMT. My own research into Ma Xingye 马星野 (1909–1991) and other KMT bureaucrat-journalists finds that the boundary between the two has always been artificial (See Qiliang He, Newspapers and the Journalistic Public in Republican China: 1917 as a Significant Year of Journalism, Routledge, pp. 136–73). In chapter five, Guo investigates the expressions of press freedom in China's constitutions and textbooks published between the 1910s and 1940s. This chapter highlights an “indifferent attitude” of both politicians and the public in China towards press freedom. (p. 141) Chapter six centres on the conceptual debate in the 1920s and 1930s on press freedom. Because of their “individual circumstances and preferences,” the debaters disputed with one another along the lines of “people's right versus human rights” and “freedom versus limitations” (p. 161). Ultimately, the emphases on the rights of the people as a collectivity and the limitations of press freedom paved the way for the canonization of the “San-min Doctrine of Journalism” (p. 175). Chapter seven examines the last call for press freedom on the eve of the communist victory in China. Guo argues that the movement to advocate press freedom was driven by political motives and finally became weaponized by the Communists during the Civil War in China. Here, the author could strengthen his argument with a further discussion of the role of the discourse on press freedom in factional struggles inside the KMT in the late 1940s. In the Conclusion, Guo wraps up the issues raised in the book and points out that such issues have “theoretical and contemporary implications” in today's China.

As a history of concepts, this book succeeds in historicizing press freedom in the first half of the 20th century by illustrating varied understandings and interpretations for different writers, journalists and politicians. Hence, the book's publication responds to a recent scholarly trend that underscores the Sinification of concepts originally from the West – press freedom in this case and “copyright” in the abovementioned book by Fei-Hsien Wang, to name but a few. One of my major concerns regarding the book, however, is its keyword, “press freedom.” In Chinese, chuban ziyou and xinwen ziyou (literally, freedom of news) are two interrelated but still separate ideas and practices. This book seems to have lumped the two together under the umbrella of “press freedom.” In consequence, the book's chapters constantly switch between the two: chapters two, five and six are about chuban ziyou, whereas chapters three and four centre on xinwen ziyou. Readers may demand further clarification and elaboration of the category of press freedom in the context of 20th-century China. Moreover, the author misses some key works on journalism history, such as those of Chin-Chuan Lee. That said, the book is a well-researched scholarly work and will appeal to anyone – particularly advanced undergraduate and graduate students – interested in the history of journalism and publishing, intellectual history and social history in modern China.