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
51 / 90
Beneath the glass canopy of Gare do Oriente, a CP train waits at the platform with its doors open as passengers approach from the escalators
Beneath the glass canopy of Gare do Oriente, a CP train waits at the platform with its doors open as passengers approach from the escalators
02 · 09 · 2026 · Gare do Oriente · Lisbon · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Train

Gare do Oriente is one of Lisbon’s most important modern integrated transport hubs.

A train stands beside the platform with its doors already open, as though departure time is close. The hurried figures by the escalators capture the constant movement and sense of passage that define Oriente station.

It must be around twenty years since I last took a train. I remember racing to catch the final service out of Lisbon and get to the restaurant in the suburbs where I worked. I was a commuter once.

The carriage exterior has not changed; it looks much like the train from twenty years ago;

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 32

Heng · Duration

Classic text · interpretive translation
Duration. Success. No blame. Perseverance is favourable. It is favourable to have somewhere to go.

Heng’s continuity can pass through changing people. The train looks similar and commuters still hurry; the author can now pause to observe, but the station’s routine continues.

Memory makes those figures familiar while revealing a changed position. Duration includes public life continuing day by day beyond one person’s journey.

Reading in briefA journey one has left behind is still someone else’s today.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Train · 火车

Lo Ta-yu · 1080p HD

The carriage looks much the same. The sound of a train brings back the days when I hurried back to work at the restaurant;

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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 →