This research aims to find out the hidden meaning associated with the ethnic Chinese economic motives in the Bukalapak advertisement of the Lunar New Year Cincai 2017 edition. This ad illustrates the existence of a perception of the ethnic Chinese economic motives that developed in society. The stereotypes are that they are generally people who are calculating, cheating, and cunning in economic activity. This is actually based on discrimination that has been going on since the Dutch colonial period until the New Order. Through these two cincai series advertisements, Bukalapak signaled the message that they wanted to realign the existing social construction in the form of an effort to change the stereotype of Indonesian society towards Chinese ethnicity. But from these hereditary assumptions, Chinese people actually only tried to survive amidst the onslaught of economic turmoil, identity and stability of the nation. The method used in this research is Roland Barthes semiotic. Where Roland Barthes semiotics emphasizes the meaning of denotation and connotation and myth. There are 2 advertisements for surgical researchers, Nego Cincai and Bayar Cincai. The use of a mother figure commonly referred to as Cincai's grandmother by netizens in an effective online forum in delivering a message of shopping invitation with Bukalapak. The results of this study indicate that the Chinese are smart people in economic activities such as bargaining and observing activities to see opportunities in facing existing economic problems and they have a self-image with the aim to maintain their culture that is increasingly competitive with the times in this modern era.