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
30 / 90
Blue-grey walkways overlap in a zigzag pattern, with people at different heights and buildings and trees visible through the gaps
Blue-grey walkways overlap in a zigzag pattern, with people at different heights and buildings and trees visible through the gaps
17 · 09 · 2026 · Inside a building · Walkways · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Switchbacks

Inside the building, walkways cross and stack in a zigzag pattern, like a piece of abstract geometric art.

A few people are scattered at different heights. The architecture places them in the same frame, yet gives no clue where they have come from or where they are going.

“It looks as though we are going back, but we are no longer at the same height;”

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 46

Sheng · Pushing Upward

Classic text · interpretive translation
Wood grows within the earth: Pushing Upward. The noble person cultivates virtue, accumulating small things to attain greatness.

Sheng links ascent with accumulated small steps. A passage can reverse direction while changing level: the shape of a route alone does not measure progress.

The note admits that we do not know where the people came from or are going. The architecture offers a perspective without proving that everyone is climbing. Applied to life, the reading needs evidence of what has accumulated.

Reading in briefWhether a return is progress depends on what remains.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Hills · 山丘

Jonathan Lee · 1080p HD

After half a lifetime, these walkways recall looking back after rounding a bend. The feeling and resolve to keep going in “山丘” meet this photograph: the path turns back, but we are no longer at the same height.

Quality adapts to your connection. You can select HD in the player settings.Player not working? Open the original video ↗
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 →