Cheapism and Race

In a certain faraway island patois, pake (pa-kay) means Chinese person. Ironically, it also means cheap. We can all read between the lines and figure out how Chinese people were "constructed" historically in this tropical paradise. Miss Cheapist does not mean to sing in the key of Asian-Am. H. Alger lovesongs, but this pake nature also allowed the Chinese to move from plantation work to saving enough money to buy plots of land from their bosses, who trusted them due to their docile, Confucian ways. Within a generation, shopping malls, and for those with smaller assets, shaved ice shops and grocery stores, to be enjoyed by the island masses were built on these plots and the money multiplied. So, as the Cheapist engages in the exchange of goods and services with other Chinese-Americans, urban and suburban alike, she tries to maintain a certain level of respect, if anything, for the sake of ancestral memory. Partially, because she suspects that the whole discourse of cheapism can be racialized, and because it's not appropriate to make fun of any other racial group besides Asians, and Chinese people are so remarkable in their diversity and behavioral range, this blog may spend some time focusing on them/us.