The purpose of this article is to identify specific features in the illustrations of Russian artists of the late twentieth century to the literary works of China. The relevance and novelty of the work is determined by the fact that the chosen angle has not yet received any understanding in Russian art history. As a result of the study, a conclusion was made about the organic synthesis of the traditions of the culture of the Middle Kingdom and the main trends in the development of modern Russian illustration. Among the features of the work of illustrators are such as: individual interpretation of images in accordance with the author’s ideas about the culture, life and nature of China, the correlation of national fine art and Western movements, the influence of animation techniques, Chinese traditional painting and graphics, an emphasis on the image of the inner world of characters, as a marker reflecting the semantic aspects of the content of literary works.