In 1939, Zhang Ruogu translated Voltaire’s (1694-1778) well-known play L‘Orphelin de la Chine: la morale de Confucius en cinq actes into Chinese. It was published as a series in Shanghai’s China-America Daily, and later as a book entitled The Orphan of China in 1940. In fact, before Voltaire’s work was published, Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao was first translated into French by the missionary Joseph de Prémare (1666-1736) in 1735. It was called L‘Orphelin de la Maison de Tchao, tragédie chinoise. It was very popular in Western Europe for a time, and therefore Voltaire adapted it as his drama The Orphan of China (1755), which became the better-known version. The issues surrounding the translations of L‘Orphelin de la Maison de Tchao and The Orphan of China have captured the interest of scholars of Chinese culture and literature. However, only a few have taken note of Zhang Ruogu’s translation of The Orphan of China. This paper compares Voltaire’s The Orphan of China with Zhang Ruogu’s translation and sees Voltaire’s adaptation as a transcultural reinterpretation of its predecessor. The paper also makes certain observations regarding the historical context – the fact that Zhang Ruogu’s Chinese translation was done during the Sino-Japanese War – and analyzes the cultural implications. It further points out that this Chinese translation was not perfectly faithful; rather, it could be viewed as a transcultural practice whereby a translator sought to enrich his own culture through an examination of the “other.” Zhang Ruogu admired Voltaire’s discourse on exoticism and emulated him by using translation as a means to renew his own national culture and revive his nation. This paper explores the ways in which Zhang Ruogu’s translation of The Orphan of China constructed a China that was clearly different from, and perhaps more exotic than other nations, and thus affirmed the selfhood of Chinese culture.