Guo Yuhua

Guo Yuhua is a Chinese liberal intellectual and professor of sociology at Tsinghua University, noted for her criticism of the Chinese government.

Early life and education Guo was born in 1956 to parents who worked as military officers for the central government in Beijing. Her father was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, dying of liver cirrhosis in 1968 after being denied medication. Guo was sent "Down to the Countryside" to perform labor in Wuhan, returning to Beijing in 1980.

Guo received her doctorate in folklore studies at Beijing Normal University in 1990, with her dissertation written on Chinese folk culture, ritual, and religion. She joined the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and in 2000.

Career and views Guo is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Tsinghua University. Her research focuses in particular on rural communities, the rights and interests of their citizens, and the relationship between state and society in China. She frequently posts her criticisms of the government on social media, including through WeChat and Sina Weibo accounts, the latter of which she claims has been blocked seventy-four times between 2010 and 2018.

Guo was an outspoken supporter of Xu Zhangrun, another Tsinghua professor, who was prevented from teaching in 2019 after publishing a public essay critical of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping.