The Chinese translations of H. C. Andersen's tales date back more than 100 years. His tales have been extensively read by Chinese readers and have provided rich resources and inspiration for Chinese authors. Ultimately, Andersen's tales have achieved various forms of afterlife in China through translation and the reading of translated texts. At the same time, this afterlife has also enriched meanings of Andersen's tales that were not carried in their original texts. The original texts, their translations and the Chinese modern literary works as post‐texts have thus woven a net that meshes various types of intertextual relation created by translation practices. The present study will try to present these relations through textual analysis. In addition, through analysing the intertextual relations created by literary translation, this study also attempts to stimulate greater academic interest in the cultural and literary functions of translation, which are two of the important social functions that translation practices may fulfil.