‘Chinese Creativities’ and Plagiarism on the Chinese Bestseller Market The realm of contemporary popular Chinese literature offers rich examples to examine closely how works refer to or make use of extant works. The presentation focuses on the works of two extremely popular young authors Han Han and Guo Jingming, the 2004 bestseller Wolf’s Totem by Jiang Rong, that won international fame through the Man Asian Literary Prize, as well as the sequels to the Harry Potter series written by Chinese authors. To understand these phenomena, it is necessary to look beyond legal and moral implications usually associated with copyright infringement. Only through such a broad approach can we understand these creative processes – and the social, economic and cultural circumstances in which literary texts are being produced.