The article depicts anti-colonialism in modern Chinese literature based on Mo Yan’s novel “Death Smells of Sandalwood”, its translation into Russian was published in 2024 (translator - I. A. Egorov). The work is considered in the aspect of anti-colonialism, which is applicable to the situation of protests against the introduction of foreign corporations into China, subjugating the lives of the Chinese at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The article examines the depiction of the Chinese people self-identification, their view of “strangers” and identifies the artistic techniques, used by the author to depict the characters’ self-identification. The novel by the Chinese writer is analyzed in the context of the folk and musical art of China. The article examines the transformation of motifs and images in the modern novel of Chinese classical literature. The main characters are examined in terms of their attitude to the colonial policies of foreign countries and the actions of their own Chinese government. The article presents Mo Yan’s view of the traditions, mentality and way of life of the Chinese people. The purpose of the work is to identify ideological and artistic manifestations of anti-colonial themes in the text of Mo Yan’s novel “Death Smells of Sandalwood.” As a result of the study, we describe the plot motifs and the characters’ images, illustrating the author’s position regarding colonial policy.