The opening of the academic year focuses on the cooperations between the University of Amsterdam and China. On September the 3d a symposium is organised, during which I will give a talk titled ‘Convivial China. Questioning cultural difference in research cooperations.’ In this talk I hope to debunk the always returning idea, both here and there, that ‘Chinese culture’ is so profoundly different from ‘Western culture.’ This talk also appears in a small book that will be released at the same time. Here you can read my short text for that book.