Topic 1: Chinese NBA star Yao Ming announced his retirement from basketball in Shanghai on July 20. He played for the Houston Rockets for nine seasons but missed 250 regular-season games over the past six years because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Chinese basketball fans paid great attention to Yao's retirement and held heated discussions over the issue through micro blogs.

NO MORE: Actually I think it's tragic that it should end like this. However, this result is unexpected as well as understandable.

TULIBING6124: Yao Ming's retirement from basketball is really kind of unacceptable. He was an important reason why I watched the NBA games many years ago. Best wishes for him!

JINFFERYII: Now we can see how influential Yao Ming is since the audience rating of CCTV dropped without him, without the Lakers, without Boston Celtics this year.

QUYIMA: China's sport is elite sport, and Yao Ming is the top of the pyramid. However, many other people turn out to be someone like Zhang Shangwu, the retired athlete who makes a living as a performer on the street.

Topic 2:

Wendi Deng experienced an immediate response when a man attacked her husband, the News Corp Chief Executive and Chairman Rupert Murdoch, during a parliamentary committee hearing on phone hacking at Portcullis House in London on July 19. Her efforts to protect her husband triggered much discussion on the Internet.

YI FAN: I think possibly Wendi Deng's move this time has increased the chances of her being named the successor at News Corp. Rupert Murdoch's son may be eliminated after the phone hacking scandal.

SEDIMENTARY ROCK XI XI: After watching the video of Wendi Deng protecting her husband, all I want to say is that Chinese women are very powerful.

YYPERTH: Wendi Deng, the woman the Western media called tiger wife/hidden dragon.

DANBODOWNTOEARTH: I had lunch with a few nurses the other day and Wendi Deng became a topic of conversation. One nurse said: "One lesson I came away with was about women who dare to devote themselves to someone." Another responded: "How come I wasn??t lucky enough to marry one like her?"

All the information is from Sina Weibo