When William Narciso Paulinha, a Filipino street hustler, meets Shem C, a disreputable and social-climbing writer embittered by his lack of success, the Feng Shui scam of the century is born. Under Shem C's guidance, Paulinha assumes the persona of Master Chao, a revered Feng Shui practitioner from Hong Kong. Distorting the Eastern concept of Feng Shui -- the mystical Chinese art of creating a harmonious environment, promising its adherents peace and prosperity -- to accommodate Western demands, they peddle their peculiar brand of this holistic philosophy among New York City's elite.

As this latter-day confidence man cuts a swath through upper-crust society, his biting observations form a comic portrait of class resentment and revenge. An auspicious debut, Fixer Chao raises questions of race and privilege, character and identity, and of what it means to be Asian at the turn of the twenty-first century.