Let it be, without forcing it;
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®.

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
39 / 90
View from the lawn of Lisbon's Justice Campus towards Parque das Nações, with a lamp post centred between offices, hotels and streets
View from the lawn of Lisbon's Justice Campus towards Parque das Nações, with a lamp post centred between offices, hotels and streets
11 · 09 · 2026 · Campus da Justiça de Lisboa · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Central Axis

From where I stand on the lawn of Lisbon’s Justice Campus, the lamp post in the centre looks like an axis, dividing the office buildings, hotels and streets of Parque das Nações between the two sides.

In this view of Expo, the city is orderly, but the sky is entirely unplanned.

“The lawn beneath my feet is very neatly trimmed;”

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 60

Jie · Limitation

Classic text · interpretive translation
Through the measure of heaven and earth, the four seasons are formed.

Jie makes measures discernible. Trimmed grass and buildings show maintained order; the lamp as an axis also depends on the photographer’s position.

The sky looks free, but that does not imply an absence of regularity. Human arrangements and natural variation operate at different scales.

Reading in briefSee the order, and recognise where its measure comes from.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Laughing at the World · 笑红尘

Sarah Chen · 1080p HD

The buildings have their order, yet I end up noticing the grass. The song’s carefree refusal to wrestle with everything accompanies that passing remark;

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READER ECHOES

What stays with you here?

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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.