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
90 / 90
The Oceanarium façade and curved waterfall in the Water Gardens
The Oceanarium façade and curved waterfall in the Water Gardens
11 · 08 · 2026 · Lisbon Oceanarium · Lisbon · Sam Wang
LIFE NOTE

Water-Curtain Cave

The part of Lisbon’s Oceanarium in Parque das Nações with the fish-scale façade is called the Edifício do Mar, or Sea Building. Designed by Pedro Campos Costa, it has thousands of white, three-dimensional ceramic tiles layered like fish scales, casting different shadows as the light changes.

Beside it, in the Jardins d’Água, or Water Gardens, a distinctive curved artificial waterfall forms a curtain of water. A group of children are splashing and playing beneath it.

The sound of water and laughter takes me straight back to childhood — to the “Water-Curtain Cave” in Journey to the West.

I CHING READINGOpen another reading
I CHING READING · Author’s interpretation
Hexagram 24

Fu · Return

Classic text · interpretive translation
Returning along the way, return comes in seven days. It is favourable to have somewhere to go. — Zhou Yi · Fu, Judgment

Fu’s return happens through water: present play evokes childhood imagination. The children’s today and the author’s past cross, making a distant place familiar.

Memory brings closeness and can overlay old stories. Keeping the cave association while watching today’s play makes returning a fresh beginning for observation.

Reading in briefReturn to old imagination, and discover present play.
MUSIC VIDEO CHOSEN FOR THIS STORY

Where Does the Road Lead? · 敢问路在何方

Jiang Dawei · 720p HD

This curtain of water brings back the Journey to the West I watched as a child. The music starts, and Sun Wukong is back;

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 →