This study explores Chinese journalists’ discursive practices of nostalgia in the context of transition and “crisis” to understand how the journalistic community looks back and looks forward at an important historical juncture. This article conducts a textual analysis of writings of nostalgia produced in a wide range of settings, including the commemoration of departed journalists, departure letters, media organizations’ anniversaries, scandals and crises. The findings reveal that the Golden Age emerging from such writings refers to the period of press reform and the rise of market media in the mid 1990s and through the early 2000s. Within the interpretative community, the nostalgia of the Golden Age serves as a benchmark to appraise the state of journalism, enhance the legitimacy of those journalists embracing the new media era, and compose a requiem for press reform and the decline of traditional media.