Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom

The City of Perth Library is delighted to join Women in Media WA and Boffins Books in hosting Cheng Lei as she discusses her debut book.

Journalist Cheng Lei's memoir is a powerful and harrowing account of her 3-year ordeal in China which began with her arrest in 2020. Her writing offers a glimpse into China's ultra-secret state security prisons and what it takes to survive such incarceration with your humanity intact.

Cheng Lei is an Australian-Chinese journalist who has worked for both Western and Chinese media. At the tensest point in Australia-China relations, she was detained for supplying "state secrets to overseas organisations" and was jailed in Beijing for 3 years and 2 months. Diplomatic efforts secured her release, and she was reunited with her family in 2023.

Lei currently works as a presenter for Sky News. She received the Press Freedom Award from the Australian Press Council in 2024 and was the Australian of the Year in 2023.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase on the night.