Abstract: Russian and Chinese dystopias have similarities and differences in their genesis. The proximity of the dystopian texts of the two cultures is due to parallel historical and social processes, which are reflected in the plots of the corresponding works. The difference is manifested in the accents that both literature puts. In particular, we can say that there is no Chinese dystopia in the Western and Russian understanding: China sees dystopia more as fiction and satire. Despite this, Russian and Chinese dystopias have similar features. The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideological, plot, and motivational calls between A. Tvardovsky's poem "Terkin in the Next World" and Zhang Tian-yi's novel "Notes from the Spirit World". The scientific novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the author for the first time compares these works, designates genre signs of dystopia in both texts, formulates the specifics of the writer's assessment of the corresponding dystopian regime. The inhabitants of the afterlife, in which Terkin found himself, and the world of spirits are the image of contemporaries of Tvardovsky and Zhang Tian–yi, citizens of the state, which is metaphorically portrayed by writers as the reality of death. This infernal world turns out to be a mortal mirror for the political regime. In the case of "Terkin in the next world" it is an authoritarian regime, in the case of "Notes from the spirit world" it is a pseudo–liberal regime, and but in fact - oligarchic and nationalistic.

Abstract: The article analyzes the image of the Chinese werewolf fox, or Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精), in Victor Pelevin's novel «The Sacred Book of the Werewolf». The comparison of the main character of Pelevin's work with the images of Huli jing in classical Chinese texts is made. In the center of consideration is the nomination of the heroine, her appearance, habitat, the ability to turn around and impose a hassle, the nature of sexuality, lifestyle. It is established that the image of the werewolf fox in Pelevin is a synthetic image created on the basis of mainly two cultures – Chinese and Russian. At the same time, she was influenced by mystical, religious, cultural and literary Chinese traditions. The writer relies on the components of the image of the Huli jing, borrowed from Chinese books, but offers an expanded and reinterpreted version of them. Pelevin is primarily interested in the desire of the werewolf fox not for bodily, but for spiritual transformation, on the way to which his heroine, relying on eastern philosophy, studies the principles of her mind. The Huli jing of the «Sacred Book of the Werewolf» and the confusion that it induces act as a metaphor for reality as a whole (man, time, space, language, the outside world, etc.). The nature of reality, according to Pelevin's novel, is transformational at its core, and this feature of it is due to its illusory nature. The relevance of the article is determined by the high interest of domestic and foreign literary criticism in the work of Viktor Pelevin and comparative studies (in this case, affecting Russian and Chinese cultures). The novelty of the work is due to the expansion of the concept of werewolf in Pelevin's novel – from the bodily inversivity of the main character to the characteristics of various aspects of reality.