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The platform outlined in red looks so fragile—like a footnote to walking on thin ice in life.
Read the note ↘Memoirs of a Chinese restaurateur in Portugal, read through life’s changes and the I Ching.
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
A life told through choices, losses and changes rather than a résumé.
From arriving in Lisbon to the Madrid expansion, family, and the pandemic.
A new digital beginning with XIAOXIONG®.
Photographs and short texts about Lisbon, restaurants, architecture, and the moments that do not fit inside the chapters.
90 translated notes · English edition
The platform outlined in red looks so fragile—like a footnote to walking on thin ice in life.
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“The oceanarium sheds the bustle of the day and returns to quiet;”
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“In the lower-left corner, the shadow holds up a phone;”
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“In the distance, two cable cars glide towards the end of the line;”
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“Beneath the streetlights, a family passes, seen from behind;”
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“The sky, so blue;”
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There are three statues of Gil, the Expo mascot; this is the one at the north gate of Parque das Nações.
Arms outstretched, Gil stands between the two rows of white frames, witnessing the transformation of the former Expo grounds into one of Lisbon’s most modern waterfront neighbourhoods.
Two young people are happily chasing each other; farther away, two police officers witness it all.
Gil, the mascot, has been quietly guarding the north gate of Parque das Nações for twenty-eight years now;
“The sky is so blue;”
Heng means lasting.
Heng’s duration distinguishes an object’s permanence from life’s continuity. Gil has stood there for twenty-eight years; the young people’s chase lasts seconds. Public space accommodates different spans of time.
The monument preserves the Expo’s origins while people inhabit the present. A place’s continuity also depends on its ability to welcome new uses.
Reading in briefKeep the old image; make room for today’s life.Young people run past, and I remember my younger self. Xu Wei’s song accompanies the roads I have travelled over these years; hearing it today, I still feel a wish to set out again;
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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;
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.