“Children of the Herd Era” (2017) by Liu Zhenyun became the fifth novel of this Chinese writer translated into Russian. Liu Zhenyun gives us a fascinating story about the tragicomic intertwining of the destinies of several strangers, like a herd blindly following their instincts. In his favorite satirical vein, the writer shows the moral decay of all layers of Chinese society - from high officials to ordinary people, their moral disorientation and the absurdity of everyday life. Liu Zhenyun's laughter in this novel reached new heights, and there is no equal to it in recent Chinese literature.