Looking for Chinese novel websites where you can find the raws for that cultivation epic or danmei you're hooked on? The short answer: go to the platform the author publishes on. That's usually Qidian for xianxia, xuanhuan and other male-lead web fiction, JJWXC for romance and danmei, or Faloo, Ciweimao and a handful of others. Then run the chapter through a translator like OpenNovel, whose glossary locks character names in from chapter 1 to chapter 1,000.
Introduction
Raws refers to the original, untranslated chapters of a web novel, posted on the site where the author first published them. Every English translation, fan or official, MTL or hand-edited, starts from those.
If you searched for something like novel543, you're after one place with every Chinese novel on it. Sites like that usually repost chapters from the official platforms, so we won't link them here. The source gets the newest chapters first anyway.
Which Chinese Novel Websites Do Authors Actually Publish On?
There are a lot of Chinese web fiction platforms, but these are the ones English readers usually end up on.
Qidian (起点中文网) - The big one for male-lead web fiction: xianxia, xuanhuan, urban, system novels, the 2,000-chapter power fantasies. If a novel on NovelUpdates has a cultivating MC and a power ranking, there's a decent chance it started on Qidian. Heads up, some of its paid chapters use encryption that OpenNovel can't translate, so not every locked chapter will work.
JJWXC (晋江文学城) - The home of Chinese romance and danmei. Most of the danmei you've heard of, and a huge chunk of female-lead romance (historical, modern, transmigration, quick-wear), was first serialized on JJWXC. If that's your lane, we've got a full guide on how to read danmei novels, plus a walkthrough for translating JJWXC VIP chapters, which have their own formatting quirks.
Faloo (飞卢小说网) - Another long-running Chinese web fiction platform, and one a lot of readers search for by name. It isn't on our supported raw websites list right now, so you may need to copy the chapter text in manually.
Gongzicp / Changpei (长佩文学) - Another big danmei site besides JJWXC.
Ciweimao (刺猬猫) - Web fiction with a lighter, otaku-adjacent flavor. VIP chapters work with OpenNovel too.
Fanqie (番茄小说) - A newer platform that a lot of current Chinese web fiction is published on.
Most of these sites mix free and paid chapters, and the setup differs per site. We keep a running list of raw websites we support, with notes on which ones need the browser extension.
How Do You Read Chinese Raws in English?
Here's the workflow most raw readers end up with.
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Get the original Chinese title. - Searching the English title on a Chinese site almost never works. Look the novel up on NovelList or NovelUpdates, which usually list the Chinese title and author. You can also try the NovelList raw finder, or paste the English title plus "raw" into Google.
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Find it on the official platform. - Use the list above. Xianxia and xuanhuan usually means Qidian, danmei and romance usually means JJWXC or Changpei. Search the Chinese title on the site and open chapter one.
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Make an account and unlock chapters if you need to. - The first chapters are often free and the newer ones often paid. Sign-up on Chinese sites can be fiddly, so for JJWXC there's a step-by-step walkthrough linked in the JJWXC VIP guide.
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Translate the chapter with OpenNovel. - Paste the chapter link into OpenNovel, or use the Chrome extension on sites you have to log into. It's free to try and works on web, iOS and Android. The getting-started guide covers setup.
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Lock the cast in the glossary. - Most of the main characters show up in the first few chapters. If the MC's name comes out wrong, a sect gets translated literally, or a cultivation rank reads better in pinyin, correct it in the glossary right then. Later chapters pick up your version automatically, so you can just keep hitting Next.
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Why Not Just Use Google Translate on the Raw Site?
You can, and for a quick peek at chapter one it's fine. Over a long novel it gets rough.
Names don't stick. Plain MTL guesses a name fresh every chapter. A name gets romanized one way, translated literally the next, then mangled into some English word. A glossary pins one version for the whole novel.
Pronouns wander. Chinese drops subjects all the time, so old-school MTL fills in whatever pronoun it feels like. Annoying in a xianxia, genuinely confusing in danmei. AI translation that reads more context, plus a glossary that records each character's gender, keeps it much steadier.
Cultivation terms turn into soup. Realm names, techniques and sect titles are where raw MTL breaks down hardest. Lock them in the glossary and they stay put.
Formatting breaks. Some sites, JJWXC VIP chapters being the classic example, come out of browser translation scrambled. The JJWXC guide has a screenshot of exactly what that looks like.
What Common Mistakes Should You Avoid?
- Searching the English title on Chinese sites. Get the original title first.
- Assuming one site has everything. Each platform has its own authors and catalogue, so check where a novel was first published before you go hunting.
- Skipping the glossary early. Sort out the main cast's names early, not 300 chapters in when you've gotten used to a bad spelling.
- Switching translators mid-novel. Every tool spells names its own way, so hopping between them brings the name chaos right back.
- Relying on reupload sites. They go down without warning and take your bookmarks and progress with them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best Chinese novel websites for raws? Depends on the genre. Qidian is the go-to for xianxia, xuanhuan and male-lead web fiction, JJWXC is where most Chinese romance and danmei is published, and Changpei is another danmei favorite. Faloo, Ciweimao and Fanqie round out the bigger names. Our raw websites list shows which ones OpenNovel supports.
What is novel543? Novel543 is one of the sites that repost Chinese web novel chapters from other platforms. OpenNovel isn't affiliated with it. We'd point you to the official platform the novel was published on instead, where you get the latest chapters straight from the source.
Where do people on Reddit find Chinese raw novels? If you want Chinese novel sites that stay up, stick to the official platforms in this post: Qidian, JJWXC, Changpei, Faloo, Ciweimao and Fanqie. NovelUpdates and NovelList usually tell you which one a given novel came from.
Is there an official English site for Chinese novels? Some Qidian novels are officially translated on Webnovel, which is run by the same parent company. Danmei gets official English print releases from publishers like Seven Seas. Most novels never get licensed, though, which is why so many readers translate the raws themselves.
Can I read Chinese novels in English for free? Lots of Chinese novel websites have free chapters, especially early on, and OpenNovel is free to try. Paid VIP chapters still need to be unlocked on the original site first. If you get stuck, ask in OpenNovel's Discord.