Recently, a 76-year-old named Liu Zengsheng was praised on social media platforms. Liu was photographed by passengers taking a subway with an LED sign hanging from his waist that read: "Please do not give up your seat to me."

Liu, a Dalian resident in northeast China's Liaoning Province, uses the sign on public transportation to prevent people from feeling pressured to offer him a seat. "When senior people like me are standing in front of younger people, they always offer their seats to us, even when sometimes they are tired."

Offering seats to others who are in need is a virtue rather than a legal obligation. Harmonious behavior comes out of kindness and the principle of interpersonal communication. Young people usually give up their seats to people in need including the elderly, children and pregnant women. It should be appreciated and encouraged. But no one should regard it as their obligation. Some blame or even beat young people who do not want to offer seats, which smacks of moral coercion.

Both the enhancement of social order and encouragement of comity are indispensable to the improvement of public morality.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Beijing Youth Daily on JULY 2)