El maestro de Feng Shui: Los nueve casos del señor Wong

Feng Shui Detective #1

by Nury Vittachi

Verdadero experto en feng shui —el arte de armonizar las construcciones humanas con el entorno natural—, el señor C.F. Wong es un caballero típicamente chino, es decir, discreto, formal, sabio y reservado. Afincado en Singapur, un compromiso profesional lo obliga a contratar como ayudante a Joyce, una chica extrovertida y desenvuelta que le provoca cierta irritación. No obstante, una extraña alquimia se produce entre Wong y Joyce, convirtiéndolos en una pareja de probada eficacia. Así, cuando el azar los lleva a resolver un crimen aplicando los preceptos del feng shui, el señor Wong y su original compañera se ven envueltos en nueve casos tan enrevesados como divertidos, cuya resolución demuestra hasta qué punto esta sabiduría milenaria es capaz de penetrar en el corazón de las personas.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Asia, Humor, Short Stories, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Nury Vittachi is a journalist and author based in Hong Kong. His columns are published daily, weekly in a variety of newspapers in Asia as well as on his website. He is best known for the comedy-crime novel series The Feng Shui Detective, published in many languages around the world, but he has also written non-fiction works and novels for children. He is also noted for his role in founding the Asia Literary Review, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and was the chairman of the judges of the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008. Vittachi currently lives in Hong Kong with his English wife Mary-Lacey Vittachi and their three adopted Chinese children. Also writes under the name Sam Jam.

Reviews

[Grace Tjan · Rating 3 out of 5]

With apologies to native Singlish speakers.

Ah Lian (AL): "So, what you got with you hah?"

Ah Beng (AB): "A book."

AL: "Aiyaa, it's got kaya on it. You been reading it at the kopitiam, issit. No good- lah. Must not read books while makan. Must respect books."

AB: "Nevermind-lah."

AL: "Where got?"

AB: "At Borders."

AL: "You bought it? Usually you so kiasu. Only want to read books in the store."

AB: "No-lah. Only when I boh lui. Yesterday I got salary. So can buy buy. Besides the story is set in Singapore."

AL: "So, what is it about hah? Got a picture of cat statue holding a knife on the cover."

AB: "It's a mystery."

AL: "Oh, like Agatha Christie, issit? So, who is the detective?"

AB: "It's this guy, Mr. Wong. He's a fengshui master who solves crimes with his ang moh assistant, this girl called Joyce. There is also a Malaysian bomoh and some Hong Kong samsengs mixed up in it."

AL: "How come can find killers using fengshui, ah?"

AB: "Not just fengshui, also some smarts-lah. Can find kidnapped girl, get rid of ghosts in dentists' office."

AL: "So, is it any good?"

AB: "It's OK. Decently written, but the mystery is light at best. Got plot holes. Some humor from East/West culture clash. But how come this girl Joyce, who had lived for years in Hong Kong still don't like dim sum? How come so blur? And how come Mr. Wong never heard of Sydney Opera House? How come so bodoh?"

AL: "Dunno, ah. You always so wrapped up in books. I'm hungry. Let's go get some of that char kway teow in Geylang. Can or cannot?"

AB: "Can, can. That char kway teow, die cock stand one!"


Singlish dictionary: http://www.talkingcock.com/html/lexec...

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has to be one of the most novel sleuthing teams I've ever read. CF Wong is the older, Chinese, feng shui master who specializes in crime scenes. He is paired with a young, Australian girl who has been foisted upon him as an intern. The age and culture clashes add quite a bit of humor to the story, such as CF writing that he eventually figures out that "whatever" means yes and "as if" means no.

The setting, Singapore, is also somewhat unique and provides a good background of eastern and western themes to play against the characters. Part of the story takes place in Sydney, Australia providing an awesome description of the Sydney Harbor and Opera House (or as Wong calls it "Oprah's House.")

Little bits of feng shui philosophy are interspersed throughout the book, such as "Ideally a person should have slightly more destruction in his or her life than acquisition. That way, a person would gradually change the balance of their existence from material to spiritual as they aged." (pp 112-113) My favorite was, "Credit card bad feng shui. Makes money move away, cannot see it go. Very bad." (p. 200) Very simple, yet profound.

Add a few quirky characters who constitute the Industrical Union of Mystics, a dental ghost, a kidnapping, an arson, and a shady "bomoh" and you've got several cases weaving together in an amusing storyline that eventually brings most of the loose ends together in a satisfying climax and conclusion.

[mina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cerita lucu dan dialog cerdas, itulah kehebatan Vittachi. Aku secara kebetulan membeli seri 1 dari cerita detektif Feng Shui-nya ini di Gramedia Jogja, dan langsung tergila-gila. Sejak itu, aku selalu ingin mencari karyanya. Tabrakan antara Timur (Mr Wong, sang feng shui master) dan Barat (Joyce, the sidekick) selalu bikin geli. Catatan harian yang dibuat Mr Wong juga menarik dibaca, memberikan satu dosis Zen per bab cerita. Kita juga belajar sedikit tentang feng shui tanpa merasa digurui.

[Kaya Kobold]

Plätschert dahin. Kurzweilig. Als Detektiv jetzt nicht so ganz meins. **
Weil mir schlicht das Ende fehlt. Die Episoden bleiben offen, ich will aber wissen, was der Detektiv mit seiner Erkenntnis macht.

Als Parodie klare ***** und Empfehlung.

Das Besondere:
Alle kriegen ihr Fett weg. Der Meister, die Praktikantin, die Kollegen, die Nachbarn, die Vorgesetzen, das System....

Ich kann deswegen nicht sagen, was genau parodiert wird. Alles und nichts. Und es gehört zu einer guten Parodie, dass sich niemand auf den Schlips getreten, sich ausgegrenzt oder nicht ernstgenommen fühlt.

Die verschiedenen Systeme werden parodiert ohne den Figuren zu schaden.

[Márta Péterffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sokféle krimi van már, de először olvastam szingapúri-kínai-maláj történetet. Egyszer még Delhiben is járt a szerény, okos feng-shui mester és angol segítője, Joyce.
Nem regény, kilenc novella-féle írást tartalmaz a könyv, szellemes és szórakoztató esetek, a megoldást leginkább a józan ész, értelmes gondolkodás jelenti.
A feng-shui témában nem vagyok otthon, néhány kínai, vagy maláj szó sincs lefordítva, de meg lehet érteni mindent, a városok leírása is tetszett.
Olvasnám még Mr. Wong esetei, csak sajnos nem fordították tovább:((

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Wong is a feng shui consultant in Hong Kong who occasionally uses his skills for more than just interior decoration. In this particular book, he finds himself looking into multiple odd cases, including an apparent kidnapping, a ghost at a dentist's office, and a young lady who various psychic readings indicate that she will soon die.

The publisher's description makes it sound like that last case is Wong's primary focus throughout the book, but it actually takes quite a while before he becomes directly involved (unless I zoned out and missed something, which is honestly possible). One of the biggest issues I had with this book was the way it meandered, despite several supposedly time-sensitive issues.

Wong was "assisted" by his utterly useless office administrator, Winnie Lim, and his young intern, Joyce McQuinnie. A few pages after I wondered why Wong put up with Winnie, the author provided an answer (she'd made herself indispensable with an office filing system only she understood), but after her third or fourth refusal to answer the office phone, I decided replacing Winnie would probably be worth reorganizing all the files.

Joyce was better, once the author allowed readers to learn more about her from her own POV rather than Wong's very "Westernized young people are incomprehensible" POV. She was adrift and didn't really feel like she belonged anywhere. Although her father supported her financially (which she later realized was a good deal better than nothing), he was otherwise pretty absent from her life. Wong inadvertently gave Joyce an emotional boost when he gave her his kidnapping case (mostly because he didn't think it was a real kidnapping and he just wanted it out of his hair) since she knew several of the people involved. I could see Wong and Joyce's relationship being a big part of this series' draw later on - their difficulty communicating with each other was occasionally amusing and could be even more appealing if it was combined with Wong purposely becoming a supportive figure in Joyce's life.

For the most part, the mysteries didn't really interest me, even as the connections between some of them were revealed. I did, however, enjoy the way Wong's feng shui knowledge was worked into things (although I don't know enough about feng shui to know if it was accurate) - he tended to pay close attention to architectural plans and other information that might indicate the location of water pipes and other features important to his work. Some of those parts were so practical that it was somewhat of a shock how badly Wong reacted to the Sydney Opera House and its supposedly terrible feng shui later on in the book. (And now I have questions, because some googling indicates that feng shui principles inspired the building's architecture, but the things I've seen mentioned only slightly overlap with what Vittachi brings up in this book.)

I don't see myself going out of my way to read more of this series, but if I happen to come across another one of its books, I might try it just to see if Wong and Joyce learn to mesh better.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Then there was the nightmarish intern that his main client, Mr. Pun, had forced on him recently. He would never forget the horrific moment a gawky young female mat salleh had appeared in his office speaking a bizarre and incomprehensible sub-dialect of English.
"My dad's like 'My mate Mr. Pun's gotta real feng shooee master and you can work for him,' and I'm like 'WOW,'" she had said.
It had taken him a long time to establish any sort of proper communication with Joyce McQuinnie, who came from British-Australian parentage but seemed to speak only a strange language called "Teenager." An early breakthrough had been when he realized that her word for yes was "Whatever." More recently, he had worked out that her term for no was "As if."



~~The Sydney Opera house is famous enough to be recognized by most--primarily for its unique and beautiful architecture. However, Wong views it much differently. "But the worst thing of all was the cutting ch'i. It was a feng shui master's worst nightmare. A series of angles cut deep into the central area of the structure--it would be like a series of chopping blades, or axe-heads pointed at whoever was in the middle. The feng shui of the building must be atrocious. There was no doubt at all in Wong's mind that anyone who spent much time in that building would suffer enormous upheavals, arguments, fights, and possibly sickness or death."

First two sentences: There was something seriously wrong with the apartment, but he did not have the faintest idea what it was. He closed his eyes, tilted his head upward and inhaled deeply, seeking to strike some sort of harmony with his environment.

Meet Mr. Wong. He's a successful Feng Shui consultant, with many wealthy clients. In the opening quote he is assisting one of them, Mrs. Tsai-Leibler, the wife of a prominent dentist. However, he's also cursed with an incompetent office manager, and a bumbling teenage intern. They make an unusual crime solving team, but mysterious crimes seem to fall into their laps with alarming regularity. Mr. Wong is not averse to occasional paying work from the police department, but he isn't a fan of putting himself in danger simply to be a hero. Especially if said danger is unpaid work. So imagine everyone's surprise when he and his intern end up in Australia to be just that--unpaid heroes. Or at least, they're going to give it their best shot. Read this entertaining cozy thriller to find out what happens!

My two cents: The Feng Shui Detective is an enjoyable read. I especially loved the character of Joyce. She has enough character development-from reluctant teenager to eager crime detective-to put Vittachi squarely in 3 star territory. I also enjoyed the glimpses into Wong's journal of Chinese wisdom that are put at the end of some of the chapters. I've included a few under the quotes below--the audience is referred to as "Blade of Grass." However, the prose is simplistic, and there is too much going on with the plot, much of it seemingly random. Given a rating of 3 stars or "Good." Recommended as a library checkout if you enjoy mysteries set in unusual locations.

Other favorite quotes: And so it is with us, Blade of Grass. That which takes a long time to build, takes a long time to destroy. To do what cannot be done is difficult, but once it is done, it cannot be undone. To make sure an old tradition retains its power, it must be changed.

~~People did not understand the importance of destruction, he decided. There must be as much destruction as acquisition in a person's life. Otherwise, the result was stagnation, accumulation, and eventually a clogging up of energy flows by dead items. And this deadness immediately transferred itself to the spirit of the person living in the cluttered home. To him, it seemed so obvious. How was it that people never noticed the immediate improvement in their inner being that followed a session of throwing things away?

~~Still exhausted after her succession of late nights, Joyce had great difficulty in pulling her bones out of the over-soft hotel bed. It was as if they had been glued to the sheets. (Been there!)

~~"I got no credit card. Credit card bad feng shui. Makes money move away, cannot see it go. Very bad."
This stumped Joyce. "That is like sooooo dumb. Whoever heard of a grown-up without a credit card? I didn't even know it was allowed ."

~~The smile of a child comes from the heart. But never forget, Blade of Grass: no one knows where the smile of an adult comes from.

~~The sages and the gods gave us tales of high morality as a model for life from heaven. Yet we live on earth and have to deal with the petty needs of our earthly bodies as well. Maybe the job of bringing heaven and earth together was the true work of man during his brief breath of existence? [...] The gods do a great many things. Some are ordinary. Some are miraculous. But one thing should always be recalled, Blade of Grass: they do all things using human hands, never their own.

Further Reading: The Wikipedia page on Feng shui...as good a starting place as any for those unfamiliar with the art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui

~~ The Encyclopedia Brittanica article on Singapore. https://www.britannica.com/place/Sing...

[Fiona Brichaut · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up cheap and was ready to dismiss it as a light and silly read. It's light, yes, but also well written, charming, entertaining and funny. I love the pairing of the 50+ Chinese feng shui detective and the 17-year old American girl, especially as he struggles to pick up new English phrases and to follow her colloquialisms and her phone conversations with friends ("I was like.. and he was like ... Whatever!..."). Delightful.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light, fast read. I was a bit disappointed at first that it is actually a collection of short stories when I was expecting a novel, but they're pleasant enough, if a bit derivative. This book is sort of Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri, with his fractured "Asian English", meets Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe with her knowledge of human nature; plus a good sprinkling of "aphorisms" along the lines of the old Kung Fu TV series--except the student is adressed as Blade of Grass instead of Little Grasshopper (not much of a change, there). The author goes so far as to pretend that the book of Gleanings from Asian Wisdom actually exists, and was actually written by the main character of the book. Ah, well. He wasn't the first to do that, either: I direct the interested reader's attention to Dorothy Gilman's book The Tightrope Walker, which is liberally sprinkled with quotations from another of her own novels, The Maze in the Heart of the Castle. They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery; Mr Vittachi is evidently most sincere.

The main character is a Chinese Feng Shui master in Singapore--a person who helps people organise their buildings, rooms etc in order to maximise the flow of beneficial energy. Feng Shui itself has nothing to do with solving the problems he encounters, however. He meets occasionally with a group of "mystics" (I believe the word would actually be "psychics") that supposedly get together to help each other and the police solve crimes and problems, though they never actually do that thanks to their "gifts" or "powers" or whatever. Mostly it's the MC pulling rabbits out of hats and aces out of his sleeve a la Agatha Christie (and Conan Doyle in his weaker short stories). Some of the plots are pretty good; others are disappointingly predictable.

The language the author puts in the mouths of many of his characters is meant to represent some kind of "Asian English"--though it is inconsistent, particularly in the mouth of the MC who goes from near-pidgin English to total fluency with no warning or transition. There's also a bit of misused and abused English in the actual narrative--one makes an ascent of a staircase (if one must); an ascension means "rising up to heaven." Also, might is the past tense of may, therefore one would not make the statement "They may have to flee" when using the narrative past tense. I know this, I teach ESL for a living. It's my day job. Another tiny quibble--I doubt very much that Asian men in various countries (and they do cover the ground in this book, from Singapore to Hong Kong to India to Viet Nam and back again) would be intimidated by his assisstant, a 17-year-old white girl--no matter how loud and bossy she is. (I've been a 17 year old white girl, which the author has not. I have empiric knowledge that he is lacking.)
But for light entertainment, harmless enough.

[Sharakael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book :D It's actually a collection of 9 stories, each an interesting mystery ranging from murder to missing money. I was looking for something short to read, so this perfect the bill as I could read one story each night.

While each story has its own charm and character, the stories were not written as pure murder mystery; few of the stories doesn't really give you enough hints or clues so that you'd be able to solve the mystery yourself. But all the solution was ingenious, plausible, and very entertaining to read. Plus, the characters were very lively with personality that befits their nationality. Fortunately it doesn't fit the characters into stereotypes.

The one thing that's charming about the book is also the one thing which I thought might select its readers... I can see how people from South East Asian countries can read the book and delight in all the small details about the culture, but for people from a different culture... I'm not sure... I'm Indonesian, so the book is hillarious, but I'm not sure if people from, say, European countries would laugh at the same jokes I did...

Since I'm picky about order, I'd wait for the second book in the series to be released Down Under... despite having already bought book 3, 4 and 5 months ago... I need to read the second book first...

[Angelic Zaizai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suka baca buku detektif ??
Detektif yang ini beda dari yang laen..
metoda penyelidikannya berdasarkan feng shui..
herannya bisaa aja sukses membongkar kasus yang didapatnya..
udah gitu kocak pula orangnya... pelitnya setengah mati...

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light read. Too light, maybe. Many wrong malay words and expressions. The redeeming factor is the start of each stories.

[Margarethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

kleine Krimigeschichten rundum FengShui und kleine Länderkunde drumherum .--zum Schmunzeln

[Nina ( picturetalk321 ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming cozy-crime collection of nine short stories, each featuring feng shui master /cum- detective Wong, aged 56, and his English assistant, the 17-year-old Joyce who is doing her internship with him. Each story focuses on one feng shui commission that inevitably devolves into a crime mystery. The two main characters solve the cases with charm, wit and a dash of Zen.

The stories are mostly set in Singapore but one each is set in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam. The stories boast the local texture, foods and topographical detail that are the hallmark of crime novels with the addition of much feng shui lore which I, for one, enjoyed a lot. I also really liked the diversity of languages and ethnicities, bypassing the usual dichotomy Western/Eastern (except for the stereotypes that Wong and Joyce believe about each other).

The relationship between Wong and Joyce evolves only marginally from its initial antagonism and linguistic misunderstandings. I also found it a pity that Joyce's numerous being-attracted to young men incidents never come to anything. It would have been fun to have some personal emotional plotlines running alongside the clever crime mysteries. Aso at times, the pace does drag.

It is interesting that the Sri Lankan-Hong Kongese, Buddhist-Muslim author echoes the diversity found in his novel in his personal life.

Format: small fit-into-handbag paperback. This is the original Chameleon edition, printed in Hong Kong in 2000.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Master Wong mystery. The long suffering Feng Shui practitioner tries to sort out the modern world with his Australian intern, Joyce McQuinnie, who speaks "teenager" and is barely comprehensible to the detective. Add to this a secretary, Winnie Lim, who refuses to work but who developed a file system only she understands. And then there is the Singapore Union of Industrial Mystics, a self-admiration dinning society composed of Madame Xu and Dilip Siuha. While not exactly scientific, they all logically pursue cases based on very different assumptions, allowing Wong to see events from a totally skewed perspective that, along with an insight into human greed, somehow gets him to the solution.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Wong is a geomancer who is asked, much against his will, to take on a sassy young western school leaver who is more interested in debunking his methods than learning from them. He speaks text book English, she speaks colloquialese and the frequent misunderstandings that result are often hilarious. However, over a period of time she demonstrates a perspicacity that turns out to be essential in solving their mysteries. Justice tends to be more poetic than judiciary and this adds to the charm of the stories. This was a delightful read with many laugh out loud moments. I’ll certainly be looking for more in the series.

[V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is unique. I didn’t know how simplistic this book would be but it turned out to be much more exciting and educational than I could’ve imagined. It’s one of the few books that I sat down and read every chance I got. Normally I read several books at a time because my attention span doesn’t last.
This is also very funny and the characters are believable and …flawed. Adventure! Mystery! Menace & esoterica. And… Feng Shui lessons all rolled into one great story.
Years ago in a literature class I was taught that lasting novels included characters who undergo a change of attitude in their basic beliefs , attitudes,
and this is one of those books!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

C. F. Wong is a feng shui consultant in Singapore. In his free time, he's writing a collection of Oriental Wisdom. Due to his interesting and unique way of looking at things, he can sometimes help the police solve crimes. C. F.'s young intern convinces him to go to Sydney, Australia to help save her friend's life. There is much confusion due to language barriers and the fact that they initially have no idea where to search for the missing girl.

I enjoyed the humor in this mystery, along with the philosophies of the great sages interspersed throughout the story.

[Shantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I will try the next one too. I would have given it 4 stars, the only thing I didn't really like about it was that there was a new mystery for every chapter, so I think that was about 7 mysteries. I thought the Hong Kong chapter was very interesting. Has way of portraying his Asian-ness and her Western-ness was pretty spot on

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light weight but sort of fun cultural detective stories set in SEA. The feng shui master uses as much western logical deduction as feng shui to solve situations that often do not begin as mysteries. The stories reminded me of the "Chinese" Judge Dee stories. Might read some more of this series.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories begins with a shout-out to Arthur Conan Doyle, and justly so; Vittachi crafts mysteries that are mostly about setting and character. Feng shui master C.F. Wong and his assistant (17-year-old westerner, Joyce) form a memorable cross-cultural duo.

[George Eraclides · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvelous mix of Asian themes and detective fiction, with a marvelous overlay of droll humour. When you hire the Feng Shui detective he will solve the crime and reorganise your house. For a fee of course.

[Wendy Yap · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique, captivating book for those who have spent some time in the region. (Others may not catch much of the local Malay/Cantonese dialect which is where much of the charm is.) The tension between east and west, as portrayed by the two main characters is, however, a tad overdone in my view.

[P.L. Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely marvelous.

[Betty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely incomprehensible

[Bas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, but some of the stories are a bit thin.

[Kat Ashworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and colourful storyline where the main characters of the series get to know one another, bound together by curious mysteries.

[Frances Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light very enjoyable read. Loved the serialised chapters which allowed me to finish a ‘complete’ story in one sitting.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very amusing start to a series I need to track down. Hard to find in the US.