Biographies of Western exemplars first published in Meiji Japan left a deep imprint on readers in the late Qing period in China. This was particularly true of “women’s self-help” writings, sold in immense quantities at the time in Japan. Not only were individual volumes translated in timely fashion, but also the copious materials from these sources appeared in the biography columns in Chinese women’s journals. This essay will examine three consecutively published and influential late-Qing women’s journals: Nübao 女報 (Women’s journal, later renamed Nüxuebao 女學報 [Journal of women’s learning]), Nüzi shijie 女子世界 (Women’s world), and Zhongguo xin nüjie zazhi 中國新女界雜誌 (Magazine of the new Chinese woman). I shall explore the ideas inherent in the biographies of Western heroines in these journals by locating them within the respective Chinese and Japanese circumstances when the journals were published. I shall also look for connections between these translations and the objectives of other women’s journals.