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 There is no doubt that this 21st century is being a Chinese world. I remember with nostalgia a volume from the collection “Rumos do Mundo, edited by Cosmos, under the direction of Vitorino Magalhães Godinho, which made available in Portuguese the French homonymous collection, with the title The Chinese World. Published in 2 volumes, the first even before 1974. Mi father was a “subscriber” to the work, and as such he received the different volumes at home, in exchange for a monthly payment. The work was thus more important. I remember that at that time I leafed through the first volume with astonishment (the second vol., published in 1975, gave little attention to it), where it spoke of the rise of the formation of the Middle Empire, as China later became known. I've never been an enthusiast for Asian issues. I did not sympathize, neither near nor far with the Maoist drifts. Still young, through reading Marco Polo, I followed the adventures of the great silk route, which then connected the east to the west. Then I followed the Chinese cultural revolution from afar, the death of the great helmsman, the rise and fall of the “gang of four”, the consolidation of politics a two-system regime, with which Deng Chiaoping deftly hits the “paths of Chinese time”. But I remember that on these pages I was dazzled by the porcelain and the history of this china, which is largely exotic. Later, in adolescence, the Chinese restaurants in Lisbon were cheap and exotic, suitable for friends' gatherings, which allowed, with their small dishes, the inevitable sharing, which allowed them to enjoy flavors, which at the time we thought exotic. I also ventured into adventuring with xau-xau and shop-suei rice dishes in the maternal kitchen, without much success.Even then, the Orient was seducing a generation, either because of its Taoist philosophy (the meeting of the forces of Yng and Yang), or because of its openness to business, with which part of the new entrepreneurs tried to invest the meager capital accumulated in the then joining the EEC.In the mid-neinteens, the Middle Kingdom renews its lost splendor and imposes itself in international relations with a way of doing politics that is very unique. Thus the predictions that this century would be a Chinese century were fulfilled. It already is, and we are still going through the 1920s. Chinese influence extends to the whole world. We know the Chinese intentions to make the “new silk route”. The famous Chinese surplus buys debt and companies (tying states and positioning itself in business).Some writings on the threats of China, of its pretensions to an influential role in the current world, are piling up. We know, for example, that in this pandemic, China has insinuated itself, whether in an insidious way or not, in the various European governments, offering help here, over there. An agile diplomacy, in the face of the faltering steps of Europe that failed the first collective response. And the signs of danger of dissolution, the warnings do not stop. If we need to reinvent humanity, we have to reinvent the place of Europe and the place of culture.