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
10 / 90
Kimi, aged eight, wearing a white shirt as he recites Man Jiang Hong in a competition against a red and gold background.
03 · 10 · 2026 · Office · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Man Jiang Hong · 满江红

A weekend in the office: some blues, a glass of whisky, a cigarette;

A WeChat notification interrupts the raspy blues voice; a video, Man Jiang Hong, Kimi’s competition recitation at the age of eight, flows from the Marshall speaker, with “crystal-clear diction”;

“Do not let the years slip idly by, until youthful hair turns white and only empty sorrow remains.”

I write this note; outside the window, Parque das Nações is very quiet;

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 4

Meng · Inexperience

Classic text · interpretive translation
It is not I who seek the inexperienced youth; the inexperienced youth seeks me. — Zhou Yi · Meng, Judgment

Meng concerns learning and the initiative to seek guidance: it is not I who seek the inexperienced youth; the youth seeks me. Age alone is no guarantee of knowing everything. Here, we borrow the hexagram as a way of looking at a shift between the speaker and the listener.

The father was listening to blues when his child’s recitation entered the office. The same warning against wasting time was a line recited by a child in a competition; this weekend, it is a sentence heard by an adult. The child may not have meant to counsel his father, and the father may not have changed anything as a result. Yet familiar words, spoken by a younger voice, can become a question again.

Reading in briefFamiliar words, in another voice, can be heard anew.
READER ECHOES

What stays with you here?

Waiting for your voice
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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 →