Campaign against spiritual pollution

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The campaign against spiritual pollution, (Chinese: 清除精神污染; pinyin: qīngchú jīngshén wūrǎn) or Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign,^[1] was a political campaign spearheaded by conservative factions within the Chinese Communist Party that lasted from October 1983 to December 1983. In general, its advocates wanted to curb Western-inspired liberal ideas among the Chinese populace, a by-product of nascent economic reforms and the "New Enlightenment" movement which began in 1978.^[2][3]

Spiritual pollution has been called "a deliberately vague term that embraces every manner of bourgeois import from erotica to existentialism", and is supposed to refer to "obscene, barbarous or reactionary materials, vulgar taste in artistic performances, indulgence in individualism" and statements that "run counter to the country's social system" according to Deng Liqun, the Party's Propaganda Chief at the time of the campaign.^[4]

The campaign reached a climax in mid November 1983 and largely faded into obscurity into 1984 after intervention from Deng Xiaoping. However, elements of the campaign were rehashed during the "anti-Bourgeois liberalization" campaign of the late 1986 against liberal party general secretary Hu Yaobang.^[5]