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®.

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
31 / 90
A periodic table mural on the Pavilion of Knowledge, with a human figure painted at the lower right and people resting beneath trees to the left
A periodic table mural on the Pavilion of Knowledge, with a human figure painted at the lower right and people resting beneath trees to the left
17 · 09 · 2026 · Parque das Nações · Pavilion of Knowledge · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Elements

On the outer wall of the Pavilion of Knowledge in Parque das Nações is a periodic table entitled “Ciência Viva na Rua” — Living Science in the Street.

The human figure at the lower right seems embedded in the table like another element — made of elements, yet standing beyond them to observe the world.

On the left, people rest in the shade of the trees; on the right, a person has become an “element” in the wall;

“A person stands outside the elements; and is also part of them.”

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 30

Li · The Clinging

Classic text · interpretive translation
The sun and moon cling to heaven; grain and plants cling to the earth.

Li concerns what things depend upon. Made of elements, the observer sets them out in a table; the body remains in the world while thought creates distance.

That distance enables analysis and can suggest an illusion of standing outside the system. The painted figure returns the observer to the table: understanding also requires including one’s own position.

Reading in briefThought can step back; existence remains within.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Existence · 存在

Wang Feng

The figure in the wall stands among the elements, while outside it someone observes what they too are made from. “存在” asks not for a standard answer but for a person’s place in the world; this photograph leaves the question between the elements and the human being.

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READER ECHOES

What stays with you here?

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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 →