BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 85 percent of the people quizzed for a new survey regarded moral standards as a must in society, according to results released last week.
In the survey, conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Investigation Center through websites minyi.net and sohu.com, 71 percent agreed that moral standards will help restructure national morality, and 54.8 percent said they believed the standards can help to lift the nation's spirits.
Over 80 percent of the 3,670 participants regarded trustworthiness as the most important moral quality. Respect for one's elders ranked second, selected by 66.9 percent.
Song Tao, a civil servant working in Feicheng city in China's east Shangdong province, said that a moral person needs to have a "loving heart," taking care of others' interests and observing his own professional ethics.
Professor Luo Yuming from Fudan University said that the basic principle a moral person must observe is to be responsible for their own behavior.
According to the survey, 89 percent people thought that society lacks noble characters and 86.9 percent people hoped to enhance public moral eduction.
Liu Xuegang, a political advisor in Weihai city in Shangdong Province proposed that a program of encouraging more people to read would improve public morality.
The final aim of reading is to improve people's cultural quality so as to uplift social morality, Liu said.
"Some people will use others' misbehavior as an excuse for not obeying social norms," he went on. "However, everyone can become a gentleman or lady as long as they have awareness of self-discipline."