The aim of the research is to explore a category of Chinese contemporary popular novels, namely, the workplace novels. Through the textual analysis of nine narratives centered on the professional life of young white-collar women, this dissertation emphasizes the contradictions between an idealized professional world and the harsh realities faced by the heroines. It interrogates representations of female professionals, of the members of the new middle class, as well as the possible influences of the government on the novels. Indeed, their rhetoric seems highly congruent with official discourses on the "population's quality" and on the building of a "harmonious society".