<p>People are motivated to do good deeds to improve their reputation as a benevolent person. When prosocial behavior occurs within power hierarchies, some research suggests that helping high-power (versus low-power) recipients undermines the prosocial actors’ reputation because it elicits lower perceptions of actors’ authentic altruistic motivation. Nevertheless, prior research has predominantly focused on Western countries characterized by low power distance. Little is known about whether these findings hold in China, a society characterized by high power distance (i.e., emphasize highly on hierarchical social structures and respect for the powerholders). The current research investigated the generalizability of this negative effect in China and further explored whether this effect can be attenuated by some potential interventions or avenues. Across five studies (total <i>N</i> = 1,115), we consistently find that an actor who helps a higher-power person is perceived as less authentically motivated to care about others’ welfare, and thus gains a less prosocial reputation in China. Moreover, the salience of actors’ demonstration of authentic motivation (Study 2), the absence of recipients’ direct reciprocity (Study 3a and a pre-registered Study 3b), and actors’ previous good reputation (Study 4) can enhance actors’ prosocial reputation through eliciting higher perceived authentic motivation, and serve to attenuate the negative effect of recipients’ power on actors’ prosocial reputation. These findings underscore the importance of actors’ authentic motivation and cues indicating authentic motivation in reputation formation process when people act prosocially toward others, and therefore provide practical implications for solutions that encourage prosocial behavior.</p>