An 11-year-old girl shamed us adults as media reported yesterday that she presented small red lanterns in appreciation to those on a bus who gave up their seats to the elderly and to mothers carrying babies.

The primary school pupil in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, said she decided to do this because when she took the bus to school every day, she saw young people refusing to give up their seats.

My immediate reaction when I read the story was that we should try our best to prevent our children from losing this precious, untainted human goodness.

But on second thought, I found my idea ludicrous. How can children preserve this natural goodness under the current social circumstances where adults contend with each other for the largest possible personal gains, where mass media and the entertainment industry boost the values of self-promotion, and where unethical individuals have contempt for anyone trying to denounce them. It is adult society, not the kids, that needs to take some action.

I don't mean that we Chinese have drowned all sense of virtue and justice in the present national craving for material well-being. It is true that many traditional virtues still survive.

For instance, there have been frequent reports of street outrages fueling strong public indignation and the plight of the poverty-stricken triggering floods of donations. But it is also undeniable that "minor" offenses against social dignity are rampant, such as littering, spitting, jaywalking, jumping queues, smoking in public, "forgetting" to flush after using a public toilet. In short, our society is suffering from a serious lack of public ethics.

Giving up seats in a bus to those in need was common before China embarked on the drive for economic growth some 30 years ago. Today, however, it's a rarity. There are numerous photos on the Internet showing a young man or woman occupying a seat with a gray-haired senior citizen standing nearby.

What caused this change?

In the years before the 1980s, society-wide education on communist ethics resulted in high public esteem for selfless morality. Egoistical behavior was despised. Acts of sacrificing personal interest for the public good were commonplace. As a side effect, however, any private, individual desire was nipped and personal freedom restricted.

The reform and opening-up drive liberated people's minds. The perception grew that pursuit of personal interest is human nature and not despicable. Enjoyment of material comfort was no longer regarded as shameful. The government even encouraged people to earn more and spend more.

Things went to extreme, however.

In the three decades since then, selfish desires have swelled as personal wealth fattened. While renouncing the trite methods of preaching on ideological correctness, the younger generation became weary of all teachings on public ethics.

While despising the past suppression of human desires, many gave up any ethical constraint. At times, attempts to uphold ethical correctness would even be jeered at.

It may be wrong to claim that most people have lost the sense of ethics, but it is a fact that most people choose to be silent before a conflict between wrongdoing and someone's attempt to correct it.

Now everybody says that our social ethics are seriously corrupted while continuing to do the same things.

Let's all move to mend our ways to improve our ethical environment. Let's not disappoint our innocent kids like the girl with the red lantens.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/07/2007 page9)