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
48 / 90
A riverside café with white parasols, empty chairs and two little birds; a beer in the foreground
A riverside café with white parasols, empty chairs and two little birds; a beer in the foreground
05 · 09 · 2026 · Parque das Nações · Riverside café · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Slump

It is the weekend, and Parque das Nações is a little quiet.

The white parasols are open, the tables and chairs set out. Only a few tables are occupied.

The restaurant trade feels like it is still in a slump. Will it pick up in the second half of the year?

On the chairs outside the café are two little birds. A Chinese saying comes to mind: so few visitors that sparrows can gather at the door;

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 12

Pi · Standstill

Classic text · interpretive translation
Heaven and earth do not commune: Standstill.

Pi describes interrupted connection. Ready tables and few customers show a gap between provision and response; one weekend deserves attention without representing the whole market.

The birds give quietness a visible form. Assessing recovery needs other periods and business evidence; the hexagram organises the question without predicting the next half-year.

Reading in briefOne quiet place raises a question; further observation approaches an answer.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Starting Again · 从头再来

Liu Huan · 1080p HD

Empty chairs worry someone who has worked in restaurants. This song holds on to the will to find a way through after knowing hardship;

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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.