Let it be, without forcing it;
English
01
ENGLISH EDITION

Let it be,without forcing it;

Memoirs of a Chinese restaurateur in Portugal, read through life’s changes and the I Ching.

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If you can make ‘creation’ as natural as breathing, it is not because intention is absent; it is because all intention has already dissolved into the breath.
Sam Wang
02 · SERIAL READING

Two parts, twelve moments.

A life told through choices, losses and changes rather than a résumé.

CHAPTER I

Necessity brings change.

From arriving in Lisbon to the Madrid expansion, family, and the pandemic.

CHAPTER II

Change opens the way.

A new digital beginning with XIAOXIONG®.

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SERIAL READING

Section X — Madrid

Expansion to Madrid seemed like the natural next step after success in Portugal. A new city promised scale, recognition, and another market.

But distance magnifies weak systems. What can be held together by the owner’s presence in one city may loosen when copied elsewhere. People, rent, management, and local habits do not obey the confidence of a plan.

Madrid became a lesson in limits. Ambition is not wrong, but expansion must be supported by an organisation capable of carrying it.

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING
Hexagram 12 · Pǐ 否

Stagnation

Heaven and earth do not communicate: Stagnation. The noble one preserves virtue through restraint to avoid hardship, and does not seek honour through office. — Zhou Yi · Pi, Image

Pi offers a mirror to disagreement: agreeing on expansion at first does not guarantee shared assessments of risk later. A common past needs renewed negotiation to support the next step.

Dinner shows different boundaries for business and friendship. Leaving can end an undertaking while allowing other forms of relationship; completion also depends on how disagreement is handled.

Reading in briefCollaboration has limits; relationship can find another form.
READER ECHOES

What stays with you here?

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03 · LIFE NOTES

The city passes.
Memory remains.

Photographs and short texts about Lisbon, restaurants, architecture, and the moments that do not fit inside the chapters.

90 translated notes · English edition
Author 04
RESTAURANTS · ARCHITECTURE · HISTORY · I CHING

Half a lifetime
of notes

Hello, I’m Wang Sanxiong — Sam 🤝

The book’s epigraph is my motto, and the starting point for how I understand life, restaurants, and entrepreneurship.

I am a Chinese immigrant living in Portugal, originally from Qingtian, Zhejiang, and a restaurant owner. I love architecture and the history behind it; I love the I Ching, and use Eastern wisdom to interpret the stories hidden behind history.

A battle for small and medium-sized restaurants to reclaim their own customer channels;
The second half of life should be more exciting than the first — that is only reasonable;

【XIAOXIONG®】

XIAOXIONG®; it is not an advertisement in this book. It is proof that, in the second half of life, I am still willing to change.

FOUNDER OF XIAOXIONGWang Sanxiong · Sam Wang
Read this ongoing practice →Chinese original →