Heinrich Detering and Yuan Tan examine Goethe's portrait gallery of four "tender Chinese maidens," a small cycle of great significance. Goethe's proclamation of an emerging "world literature" in 1827 is marked by China. From literary encounters with the strangeness of this culture, he makes initial attempts at his own poetic adaptation. Even before the "Chinese-German Year and Day Seasons," his last major lyrical cycle, a first and smaller cycle of five poems about Chinese female poets is created. Since Goethe presents these texts as translations, even though they are free adaptations and new compositions, their cultural significance and literary value are still to be discovered. Their experimental arrangement includes the interplay of Eastern and Western motifs as well as curiosity about the relationship.