When in China, talk as the Chinese talk.

However, many Chinese-language media do not use standard Chinese, which has caused some people to worry about the future of Putonghua (or Mandarin).

The average Chinese-language newspaper has 46 language errors, according to a report released at a national conference on newspapers and magazines earlier this month. Then add the fact that the Internet inevitably confuses people because of unusual words easily found there.

"The booming newspaper and magazine market has a mixture of good and evil people. Anybody, even those who failed to finish their primary school education, can become an editor or reporter.

"More language and logic errors can be found on TV, especially teleplays, which puts me in a bad mood almost every night."

Chen Xiaochuan, editor-in-chief of China Youth Daily

"The low quality of language in the media affects children and young people. The beautiful words that moved us many times in the past now have no charm for youngsters. They are more interested in stories online and on TV.

"None of the more than 50 youngsters in my class has read any of the Chinese four masterpieces. They prefer short sentences, funny words and a weird language style."

Xia Chunyan, a middle school teacher in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province

"My son in high school speaks a new language that I cannot understand, and most of it he learned from the Web. He said in his composition that somebody 'looks like a big frog escaped from the museum'. In his language, weishenme (why) has been replaced by weixiami (feed with shrimp), zheyangzi (this way) was replaced by jiangzi (soy purple), and '555' means weep and 'ppmm' means beautiful sister. I do not understand why standard language and grammar have been moved out so easily."

Wang Bin, a mother in Chongqing

"The Chinese language is quite tolerant, taking in different styles of words. We should encourage standard language and help upgrade the percipient ability of the public. When people enjoy the beautiful rhythm, structure, and rhyme of good Chinese, they will certainly discard bad language."

Li Baijian, professor at Shanghai University

(China Daily February 8, 2007)