Cui Yongyuan

Cui Yongyuan (Chinese: 崔永元; pinyin: Cuī Yǒngyuán; born February 20, 1963) is a former Chinese TV host and professor at Communication University of China.

Cui rose to fame for hosting Tell It Like It Is on China Central Television (CCTV) from 1996 to 2002. His affable and natural sense of humour pioneered a brand of relaxed and unscripted presentation style that marked a departure from the rigid and staid nature of many Chinese talk shows. After a battle with depression, Cui returned to CCTV to host Talk with Xiao Cui from 2003 to 2009. From 2012 to 2013 Cui hosted the Chinese version of Thank God You Are Here. He left CCTV in 2013 to be a professor at his alma mater Communication University of China.

After leaving CCTV, Cui has been known as an anti-GMO food activist and whistleblower. In 2018, his feud with Feng Xiaogang over Cell Phone (2003) led to his exposé of the "yin-yang contracts" pervasive in the Chinese entertainment industry, which resulted in Fan Bingbing's blacklisting and industry-wide tax reforms. In 2019, Cui helped Judge Wang Linqing allege China's Supreme People's Court of corruption in the "billion yuan mining rights case." After the authorities denied these allegations, Wang was convicted, and Cui was effectively banned from the Chinese internet. In 2020, Cui launched his YouTube channel.