Personal Profile

Hu Yong is a leading scholar in the study of the internet, digital media, and digital society in China. With over three decades of engagement in internet research, he is widely recognized as one of the earliest researchers, advocates, and policy promoters of digitalization in the country. His work consistently explores the intersections of culture, technology, and politics, with a particular focus on human agency in digital environments.

Before joining the faculty of Peking University in 2008, Hu Yong spent nearly two decades working across China’s major newspaper, magazine, television, and online media sectors. His professional experience includes roles at China Daily, Lifeweek, China Internet Weekly, and China Central Television (CCTV).

From 1995 to 2000, Hu Yong was a founding member of Lifeweek, China’s first weekly news magazine. As a senior writer and columnist, Hu Yong became one of the first to recognize the significance of the internet and bring its impact into the daily lives of Chinese people. He authored a long-running column, “Being Digital,” which was later compiled into the book Internet: The King Who Rules (1997). This work stands as China’s first comprehensive monograph on the internet, covering its origins, development, current state, and future trends.

Between 2002 and 2008, Hu Yong served as a producer at CCTV, China’s largest national television network, where he led the production of several highly influential news and current affairs programs, including Economic News, Dialogue, and We. He also served as editor-in-chief of Win in China (2005–2006), a nationally broadcast reality television program on CCTV-2 that featured entrepreneurs competing for investment in their projects and companies. The program reached a core weekly television audience of approximately 20 million viewers and, through rebroadcasts, online platforms, and DVD distribution, an extended audience of nearly 200 million nationwide.

Hu Yong is among the earliest scholars in China to engage in research on the internet and digital media, and has published numerous academic papers as well as a wide range of authored and translated works. He is a founding director for Communication Association of China (CAC) and China New Media Communication Association (CNMCA). He is also an Academic Committee member of Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS). Currently, he directs the Institute for Information Society Studies (IISS) under China Information Economics Society (CIES).

Hu Yong is a member of the Steering Committee of Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), an interdisciplinary conference that brings together scholars, analysts, industry leaders, journalists and legal practitioners from around the world to examine the impact of the Internet on Chinese societies, including its social, cultural, political and economic aspects, as well as how China is changing the Internet. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Social Media, 2013-2016.

Hu Yong is active in industry affairs as he is co-founder of the Digital Forum of China, a nonprofit organization that promotes public awareness of digitization and advocates a free and responsible Internet. He also co-founded Chinavalue.net, a leading business new media in China. In 2000, Hu Yong was nominated for China’s list of top Internet industry figures.

Hu Yong is also a pioneer in the study of Chinese business history with a number of books and journal articles. He told the inside story of the rise of Haier, the world’s biggest white appliances multinational, and its revolutionary approach to management and leadership in Haier Purpose: The Real Story of China’s First Global Super-Company, published by Thinkers50, the global platform for management thinking. In 2017, he was nominated for Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award. In 2018, he was included in the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. In 2023, he published Seismic Digital Shift: Rethinking Our Digital Future, analyzing the profound impact of digitalization on economies and societies, particularly focusing on China's experience. It explores how technologies like AI, IoT, and big data are merging traditional and digital economies, challenging existing models and creating new opportunities in business, governance, and daily life.

Research Interests

Digital Media and Digital Society

Internet Politics

Internet Governance

Digital Economy and Management

Contemporary Chinese Documentary Film

Social Impacts of Artificial Intelligence

Courses Taught

Global Television

New Media & Society

Internet and Politics

Internet of Meanings

Modern Independent Documentaries in China

Internet Innovation

Academic Contributions

Hu Yong is a pioneer of digital media studies in China and has made foundational contributions to the field. He is the originator of key concepts such as Being Digital, Commons-Based Media, The Internet of Meanings, and Seismic Digital Shift, which have significantly shaped scholarly and public discourse on digital transformation in China. Through his research, teaching, and policy engagement, Hu has played a crucial role in advancing the theoretical development and practical understanding of the digital society.

Hu Yong’s major publications include Internet: The King Who Rules (1997)，the first book introducing the Internet to Chinese readers; The Rising Cacophony: Personal Expression and Public Discussion in the Internet Age (2008), which received the prestigious Wu Yuzhang Humanities and Social Sciences Prize in China, and Seismic Digital Shift: Rethinking Our Digital Future (2020/2023)，documenting major transformations in the Chinese cyberspace.

His other works include: Information Wants to Be Free (2014), Networked Politics (2014), An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge: The Practical Wisdom of Management (2015), The Logic of Popular Culture (2022), Media: Return and Innovation (2023), Post-Truth after Posthumanism (2023), and The Misguided Paths of the Global Open Internet (2023). He has also translated a number of influential works, including Being Digital, Here Comes Everybody, Cognitive Surplus, Too Big to Know, and The Technology of Freedom.

Hu Yong’s academic honors include China Media Project Visiting Fellow, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong; China Internet Project Visiting Fellow, Graduate School of Journalism, The University of California, Berkeley; Visiting Fellow, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Arthur Ross Fellow of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, New York; Visiting Faculty Fellow, Center for Ideas and Society, University of California, Riverside; Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University; Guest Professor, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University; Guest Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna.