"I grew up with the dialect, but my son doesn't speak it. I used to insist on speaking the dialect with my son at home, but he soon shifted to Putonghua, which was spoken in kindergarten."

Shanghai resident WANG YAJING, commenting on a pilot program to begin this year in which children in 20 kindergartens in Shanghai will be encouraged to speak their local dialect.

"If you missed him as Willy Loman, you missed a Willy Loman for all time."

Actor STEVE MARTIN, commenting on the acting ability of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won great praise for his stage performance of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman, following the Oscar-winner's death from a suspected overdose in New York last Sunday.

"Xi's interest in sports, especially popular events, really closes the distance emotionally between him and the people."

LU YUANZHEN, sports sociologist at South China Normal University, said last week that President Xi Jinping's love of sports has helped strengthen his ties with the public while projecting a positive national image for China on the world stage.

(China Daily 02/09/2014 page1)