"Go away, go away!" I kept saying this as I walked down Nanjing Donglu, the most bustling shopping centre in Shanghai.

It was an unpleasant experience I had the other night when I went shopping with some friends. As usual, the street was decorated with colourful lights, so we were enjoying Shanghai's prosperity and vitality. However, our happy time only lasted a short while. As we were walking down the street, a bunch of young men rushed towards us, urging us to take leaflets from their hands. Their pushing was so offensive that we felt extremely threatened, in particular when they reached out their hands to our chests. In response, each of us spontaneously cried out: "Go away!" After five or six "Go aways", the young men finally gave up pushing us.

But the nightmare hadn't finished. After walking another 20 metres, another bunch of lads turned up and did the same thing. This time, instead of asking them to go away, we chose to run as fast as our legs could carry us. To be honest, I hadn't run so fast since I finished my PE test at university!

"China's No.1 Shopping Street" has become an insecure and even threatening place for me. Such offensive leafleting must definitely be stopped as soon as possible. Leafleting must be done in an orderly manner. What is more, it must not physically disrupt passers-by or force them to accept the leaflets because that not only infringes the rights of other people, but also disturbs public order.

As such, street rules and their strict implementation become absolutely necessary and urgent to prevent this kind of threatening behaviour in public. Otherwise, citizens may panic, and Shanghai's image may also be seriously damaged.

Moreover, consideration for the rights and feelings of others should not merely be a rule for good behaviour in public but the very moral foundation of a civilized society. As far as those leaflet distributors were concerned, passers-by were just recipients rather than human beings.

In other words, there was no concern or respect for people in their threatening behaviour. Ironically, their unethical conduct results in arousing outrage in pedestrians and automatic refusal, exactly the opposite reaction to the purpose of leafleting.

Hence, there is a need for us to be mindful of our spiritual or moral duty in this fast-paced city. As we continue to pursue economic success relentlessly, we should not delay or neglect our spiritual or cultural development.

An over-emphasis on modernization and money-making may blind us to the very fact that economic prosperity is impossible without a moral infrastructure. At any rate, a city of sustainable development doesn't mean a city that, despite its economic prosperity suffers from spiritual poverty.

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