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
19 / 90
Screens, a lamp, a whisky glass and an ashtray in the office late at night
23 · 09 · 2026 · Parque das Nações · Office · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Solitude

Late at night in the office: a blues tune, a glass of whisky, a cigarette;

“Be natural, don’t force it;”

🥃

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 52

Gen · Keeping Still

Classic text · interpretive translation
Stop when it is time to stop, move when it is time to move; when movement and stillness keep their time, the way is bright.

Gen speaks of stopping. Tonight, that may simply mean putting work aside for a moment and listening to a blues tune through to the end.

The light from the screens and lamp shares the frame with the shadows. As a reflection of yin and yang, light and darkness coexist; solitude has its own shades.

“Be natural, don’t force it;” For this moment, there is nothing more to schedule for oneself.

Reading in briefPause a while and let this moment be your own.
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.