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
34 / 90
A three-legged table lamp casts warm light over an office desk at night beside a computer, speaker and whisky glass
A three-legged table lamp casts warm light over an office desk at night beside a computer, speaker and whisky glass
15 · 09 · 2026 · Parque das Nações · Office · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

The Table Lamp

An IKEA table lamp for €9.90: a plastic shade covered in polyester fabric, three little legs. “A lâmpada é vendida em separado” — “Bulb sold separately” (a reminder doing the marketing).

Driving costs down to the absolute minimum: that is the game the ‘big manufacturers’ play in plain sight.

“The table lamp only needs to light its own corner;” 🥃

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 30

Li · The Clinging

Classic text · interpretive translation
Brightness arises twice: Li.

Li’s light depends on conditions. “Bulb sold separately” makes that concrete: the advertised price leaves something to add before light appears. Judging the object includes the whole required to use it.

Lighting one’s own space defines a measure. Darkness beyond it remains: limited illumination can suffice without making our knowledge complete.

Reading in briefLight has a range; judgement needs to know its limits.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

True Heroes · 真心英雄

Jonathan Lee, Wakin Chau, Hu Ge & Jin Dong · 1080p HD

A cheap lamp lights my desk while I keep building a product. This song brings me back to years of making things with my own hands, one step at a time;

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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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.