1918年至1924年，上海公共租界以西人基督教和道德改良人士為主成立了進德會，發起為遏阻性病蔓延並改良上海道德風化的禁娼宣傳運動，終而迫使工部局不得不宣布以五年為期廢絕娼妓。本文以進德會為中心，探究這些外人道德改良者致力於拯救華人墮落的靈魂，力圖通過傳播基督教教義和西方文明來改造中國，故不同於工部局或一般西人將租界禁娼限於公共衛生和社會治安方面的考量，更為關注改善外人社區的道德風化和解救白人妓女，以便更有效地對華人進行道德示範和宗教拯救。然而，長期以來讓他們感到痛心疾首的，是上海租界存在眾多西人性病患者和白人妓女，致使基督精神和西方文明在華人面前威嚴掃地，並成為其內心深處難以抹去的道德焦慮。在這個意義上，發生在此時上海租界的禁娼，就不只是一個外人市政當局和道德改良人士單方面、或單向度對中國社會進行現代性改造和靈魂拯救的故事，且也事關當地華人社會∕外人社區就兩性關係意義上爭辯到底誰的文化或文明係屬莊重∕放縱、純淨∕淫蕩的相互道德認知和文化想像。這是否也可視為西方人在所謂「外人冒險家樂園」的上海、乃至半殖民地的中國，所承受的另一種的「白人的負擔」？

From 1918 to 1924, the Shanghai Moral Welfare Committee, established mainly by Western Christians and moral reformers in Shanghai's International Settlement, launched ananti-vice campaign aiming at preventing the spread of venereal disease and ameliorating local moral welfare. They compelled the Municipal Council to declare the abolishment of prostitution within five years. Focusing on the Shanghai Moral Welfare Committee, this article shows that Western moral reformers took the salvation of the fallen souls of the Chinese as their mission and hoped to reform China by means of preaching Christianity and Western civilization. Unlike the Municipal Committee or most Westerners, who limited prostitution abolishment to concerns for public health and social order, the Shanghai Moral Welfare Committee was more concerned with the improvement of the morality of the foreign community and the salvation of the foreign prostitutes so as to set good moral examples for the Chinese and promote religious salvation more effectively. However, what made them embarrassed and ashamed was the fact that there were many foreign patients with venereal disease and foreign prostitutes in the International Settlement, which seemed to highlight the hypocrisy of Christianity and Western civilization before the Chinese, and thus became the source of moral quandary. In this sense, the Anti-Vice Campaign in Shanghai was not merely a story of modern sexual reform and Christian evangelism of the Municipal Council and moral reformers, but also lay at the heart of discussions that reflected the mutual moral recognition and cultural imagination of the local Chinese society and the foreign community: when talking about sexual relations, whose culture or civilization was decent and pure, and whose was wild and lascivious. Could this perhaps be regarded as "the White Man's Burden" for Westerners who considered Shanghai the adventurers' paradise and China their semi- colony?