The Cheeni Chronicles

As a Pakistani-born Chinese person, I often experience incidents that show me what others question about me.

I was treated like I’m not supposed to exist by some local brands.

Story time. Once it happened in 2023 with an ice pop brand, which I thought was supposed to be a one-off thing. Turns out, it’s not that one off. Just recently, a local skincare brand decided to play the same game.

Both companies had called to confirm the order. They did so by ensuring that the product was what I asked for and the address that they had to deliver to. Then hours later, they questioned my name.

I am one of those people who get ads about local products and get curious. Lured by the appeal of a brand being local, and the flashy advertisement, I make a purchase. I also do this often because sometimes I want to support the company, other times, I’m just interested in knowing what they have to offer. I found a few that are pretty good, by the way. Never have they ever asked if I was Pakistani or not. They just simply sent the order and got paid.

What is interesting is that both the brands that I am talking about had almost the same script. “Your name sounds Chinese, are you even real?” was the message. When they received the answer in Urdu, they were in more disbelief. Like, I’m not supposed to be real. I can’t exist.

Full disclosure: I am not sure if maliciousness was part of the package or not. But the casualness of the racism that I experienced at their hands is nothing short of surprising. It is so reflective of the ignorance they soak up. Their response is “We didn’t know”.

But that is not an excuse. It is a false justification. It is a way of wringing off responsibility for their own actions and disrespect. And that is their response to being called out for being racist. The lack of apologies only until the order is cancelled is also telling that the transaction was supposed to be business only. So why didn’t they treat it that way? I can’t say that this is lack of training, because basic human decency is not taught, it is felt.

Their next form of justification was treating the customer as a prankster. They both used the same script of “sometimes we get fake orders”. Mind you, this is after they had confirmed the orders by talking to me on the phone. So not only is this a lesson in basic human decency, but it is also a lesson in customer service, because this was treating a customer like a criminal. This is a big no-no in the customer service handbook. So not only did they not have the decency to hide their ignorance, they blamed it entirely on the customer who was willing to pay for their products. And I get the argument, some people can place fake orders, or make the order and then refuse to take it when it comes to their doorsteps, but is that really how you think all customers do that? Then there’s no point of having social media because that’s what you use to connect to people. It is connection that makes a company successful.

The online shopping arena is wild. Many people order things online. In Pakistan alone, the online shopping market made $7.7 billion. So, this excuse that they could treat people with non-conventional names as somebody they should disrespect baffles me and of course chips away at me.

Pakistan is home to diversity. It has six major ethnicities, but it also has space for a number of minor ethnic groups. Multiple languages are spoken here from the provincial Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto and Balochi, to Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Siraiki, Burushashki, Wakhi, Shina, Brahui, Gujrati, Memoni, Bangla, Thari, Lari, Vicholi and the list goes on. They may not be spoken by the vast majority, but they still exist in this country. This is beyond just the Urdu and English which act as official languages of the country. With knowing that that there’s this much diversity, why can names not be different then? Do they all have to sound same to remain being Pakistani? No.

Needless to say, I cancelled the orders. I cannot, in good conscience, support companies that lack human decency and respect.

I wrote this as a rant about how I felt being treated the same way, like I am not supposed to be a real person. But I leave with knowing that I do exist. The flaw is not in me; it exists in the ignorance of the people who live in a narrow world. I exist. I am real.  

Written by Vicky Zhuang Yi-Yin