Quotable

"He seems to carry all human life on the tip of his pen. In Mo Yan, a forgotten peasant world arises, alive and well."

Per Wastberg, a writer and member of the Swedish Academy and chairman of the Nobel committee, commenting on Mo's writing. Mo, the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, received the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm on Dec 10.

"I also want to say that the baijiu industry, which has been developed for thousands of years, won't collapse because of one person's doubt."

Yuan Renguo, chairman of Kweichow Moutai Group, saying that there is no plasticizer in its products. A blog writer named Shuijinghuang had said there were plasticizers in a Moutai product he bought. After the blog was published the company's stock price fell sharply. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it will examine Moutai's products.

"Astronomically, there is nothing special about Dec 21 this year."

Zhu Jin, head of Beijing Planetarium, dismissing predictions, said to be based on the Mayan calendar, that the world will end on Dec 21.

(China Daily 12/14/2012 page2)