A common species of songbird that favors lightly wooded habitats, it can frequently be seen in towns, suburbs and urban parks within its range.

The light-vented bulbul was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3] Gmelin based his entry on "Le gobe-mouches verdâtre de la Chine" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat.

[5] The light-vented bulbul is now one of 32 species placed in the genus Pycnonotus that was introduced in 1836 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie.

Chinese bulbuls are seen frequently in Shanghai, where it is perhaps the third most common bird after tree sparrows and spotted doves.