Background　Mechanical ventilation provides an effective means to assist breathing and gas exchange during general anesthesia. It is noteworthy that mechanical ventilation sometimes could induce or exacerbate lung injury (ventilation induced-lung injury, VILI). Increasing number of investigations were conducted to advance our understanding of the causes of VILI, and revealed that protective lung ventilation might reduce the severity of VILI.　Objective　To review new progress of lung protective ventilation strategies during general anesthesia.　Content　This article reviews some theories and pros and cons about lung protective ventilation strategies, low tidal volume; proper positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP), recruiting maneuvers (RM), control of plateau pressure and FiO2.　Trend　Although integrated research of various lung protective ventilation strategies have achieved remarkable progress, individualized lung protective strategies need further investigations to improve the quality of anesthesia.