This study investigated the influence of various types of Chinese metalinguistic awareness on spelling through the mediation of character reading and copying, using a path model with young Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. A total of 221 Grade 3 Hong Kong ethnic minority students were given a range of measures including Chinese spelling, orthographic awareness, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, character reading, copying, and listening comprehension. The path model fitted well with the data and accounted for a substantial 83% of the variance in spelling. This showed that, controlling for listening comprehension, (1) both orthographic awareness and morphological awareness, but not phonological awareness, contributed to character reading, which had a dominant direct influence ([beta] = 0.74) on spelling; (2) only orthographic awareness contributed to copying, which had a statistically significant, though comparatively slim, direct influence on spelling ([beta] = 0.10), and (3) other than the aforementioned indirect influences, orthographic awareness also had a direct effect on spelling ([beta] = 0.18). Given the complexity of Chinese orthography, Chinese spelling in CSL learners likely depends on (1) high-quality mental representations of characters and good visual--motor integration, which are reflected in good character reading and copying, and related to both orthographic awareness and morphological awareness, and (2) orthographic awareness is a critical component skill facilitating spelling directly and indirectly.