"I think translation is much harder than writing: It only took me 43 days to write Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, while it took Swedish sinologist Anna Gustafsson Chen six years to translate the work."

Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Prize winner for literature, addressing a reception at the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm on December 7, during his tour to the Sweden capital to receive his prize

"One or two accidents should not make us give up efforts to strengthen PE education for students."

Sun Qilin, a professor at the PE commission of the Ministry of Education, in response to a 21-year-old Chinese college student's sudden death in Shanghai on December 10 after warming up for a basketball class, the third sports related casualty in 22 days

"I don't believe that Chinese, with its thousands of years' history, will vanish simply because it has absorbed a few foreign words."

Xu Jiujiu, a linguist at the Institute of Linguistics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, calling for open minds on the revision of The Great Chinese Dictionary, one of the most authoritative reference books in China, which will be updated over the next few years, on December 10

"Several provincial governments have started to put more emphasis on using environmental performance to evaluate officials. However, progress will depend on whether leaders at all levels can change their perception of growth."

Cao Rongxiang, an environmental researcher at the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, saying that the government's perception of growth will determine the success or failure of promoting ecological progress