Skin color

As incomes rise in China, more and more money is being spent on beauty products, and a popular category consists of skin lightening creams.

Our tour guide to the Forbidden City on Monday told us that Chinese women are very concerned about skin color, which explains why they are often seen carrying umbrellas.

White skin is the ideal. According to the tour guide, many Chinese women are afraid of getting tanned, for fear that their husbands will find them unattractive. “If they come home with a tan,” she said, “their husbands will say, ‘You’re black.’”

The American and European in our group laughed and explained how Westerners spend their money at the tanning salon.