Pale and Proud

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and there are little white fluffy clouds sailing slowly across the blue sky. And yet, outside, there are umbrellas as far as the eye can see.
You see, in China umbrellas are not just for rainy days, they are for the sunny days as well. In fact, they are almost more important on sunny days then rainy days. That’s because Chinese people (and women in particular) value pearly white skin.
As someone with northern European heritage and pale glow-in-the-dark skin this has come as one of the biggest culture shocks. My whole life I have been mocked for my naturally pale skin. I’ve been called a ‘ghost’ and a ‘vampire’ and all manner of things since I can remember. In my youth I tried to go tanning, but after a few hours in the sun I was never golden tan like my friends, but beet red like a fresh cooked lobster.
It’s something I get remarks on constantly and have accepted as a natural part of my life. In fact, I don’t think about it often. Until I got here that is. On my first day somebody remarked on my skin.
“You have such nice skin,” they said.
“Really? Thanks. It’s too bad that I’m so pale,” I said.
“No, your skin is so white it is beautiful!”
At first I thought it was one of those “just being polite to the foreigner” kind of remarks, but they kept coming and coming. I’ve since heard that many people are jealous of my pale skin and some students don’t even want to sit next to me because I make them look darker by comparison. These kind of comments blow me away. (Somebody jealous of the thing that has been mocked my whole life?!) Western culture values tan people as successful, healthy and more attractive. Pale people are seen a slightly sick and weak.
But here in China pale is attractive. Since the ancient times the paler the person, the more important or richer the person is perceived to be. Like someone with un-callused hands, a pale complexion means they are not farmers or workers and are likely more educated or are rich enough to stay inside and let someone else do their work.
As a pale person, I think there is some wisdom carrying summertime umbrellas. We all know that too much sun is bad for a person, especially someone who is naturally pale. Also, umbrellas don’t just block the sun, but they make a little shade that cools the temperature. This comes in handy when you live in southern China and the mercury is pushing 100. (Although it is annoying when you are trying to walk down the sidewalk and you are constantly being thwacked in the face by umbrellas.)
But just as westerners take tanning too far, Asians take the pale issue into unhealthy territory. You can’t walk into a department store, supermarket or turn on the TV without being bombarded by skin bleaching products. Even well known companies, like Olay and Avon cater their cosmetics and creams to pale bleaching products. Since I can’t read the labels, I am too worried to buy face moisturizer here I think they all have bleaching cream.
In fact, many disreputable companies have marketed bleaching cream that is high in mercury. In 2002 thousands of women across China were getting sick from one companies cream that had mercury level 6,000 to 65,000 times higher than what is considered safe.
So while I won’t be carrying an umbrella on sunny days anytime soon, or be promoting skin bleaching products, I like the pale culture here. That’s ’cause I can be pale and proud!