This paper reports on a contrastive study of temporal reference of events in small clause between English and Chinese. Two versions of Chinese translation of Little Women and the original novel have been employed as the data. After analyzing the data from the aspects of temporal adverbials, default viewpoint aspect of predicates, aspectual markers and model verbs, we come to the conclusion that compared with in English. the category of tense in Chinese is less orominent while the category of aspect is more highlighted, and the future time is more marked with the use of model verbs as categorical markers than the past time and the present time.