My wife is afraid of the sun

[tonado]

My wife said the sun in USA is so strong. In China, it is always hazy. She worries about getting dark. In China, getting a tan is not good. People with dark skin are farmers and low class workers. Before she leaves the house, she would put tons of sun block and lotions. She even wanted to bring an umbella while walking outside. I told her that people would think you are nuts if you carry an umbella in the sun. One thing I don't understand is that she likes to wear shorts and low cut tops but she is afraid of getting dark.

[chinadave2001]

My wife said the sun in USA is so strong.  In China, it is always hazy.  She worries about getting dark.  In China, getting a tan is not good.  People with dark skin are farmers and low class workers.  Before she leaves the house, she would put tons of sun block and lotions.  She even wanted to bring an umbella while walking outside.   I told her that people would think you are nuts if you carry an umbella in the sun.   One thing I don't understand is that she likes to wear shorts and low cut tops but she is afraid of getting dark.

Hi Tony,

I spent a lot of time at the beaches in Qingdao and observed exactly this kind of behavior. Women would go to the beach, put their feet in the water, and still hold onto an unbrella. When swiming in YanTai, the serious swimmers all wear these masks (they look like ski masks/terrorists) to prevent getting any color. When I asked about this, the following reasons were given:

1) It's not considered healthy

2) Some believe that only farmers/peasants would have such a skin color.

3)The ideal is to be as white as possible - white is considered to be beautiful. There are all kinds of whitening creams available -

Dave

[owenkrout]

Yeah, very common in China. My take is that it is that they are primarily being worried about being thought of as a peasant. My wife is very disappointed that she could not find the whitening creams here in the States. I took her to the county fair yesterday and couldn't convince her that people would think it strange that she was walking around with an umbrella. Finally had to make her fold it up as some of the horses were frightened by it.

 

Being from North-East China, my wife is surprised by the heat as much as by the cloudless sunny days. It has been over 100 F a few times and she announced that a person could die just from standing out in the sun.

[newman]

My wife is also from northeast China and has similar concerns about the sun and her skin darkening. Most of the time when she is outside she wears a wide brim straw hat. She's satisfied with it but I've given up on trying to convince her to wear short sleeve clothes.

[Guest enight]

hehee...

 

it's fashion to have 'beach' suntan in Chinese cities, ... of course you can tell the tan is getting from hard working in farms or lying on the beaches...

 

well.. it sounds a bit prejudice to talking about being farmers, labors or peasants are low class... I belive people is judged by their behavior not the class

[owenkrout]

People should be judged by their behavior not their social standing, but that is often not the case.

[Mick]

As Owen mentioned, I also noticed this aversion to dark skin while I lived in China. Many of my students were obsessed with being "whiter". My wife is medium complexion, not very white but not dark and she doesn't seem to concerned with skin tone as an issue. I guess that's a good thing because we lived in Shantou, Guangdong for a long time and the sun there was brutal. Located smack on the Tropic of Cancer. I lived for many years in Florida and even southern Florida didn't compare to the blaze during the summer in Shantou. Easy to get dark there just walking to the market.

[Yuhui&Eric]

Same here with Yuhui

She's a SPF45 freak

 

 

ooops. Wifey forgot to sign off AGAIN !

Eric

[Argyle]

Hi All,

 

My fiancee, who is from GZ, carries an umbrella every day, rain or shine! She reminded me to bring an umbrella AND a hat when I come to GZ for her interview. I told her that I like to get some sun, but that seemed to alarm her. She muttered something in Cantonese... Even over the phone I could tell she was shaking her head

 

But, she seems excited by the prospect of boating on the Gulf Coast, and really wants to see Florida, so who knows...

 

Best Wishes.

[TimD]

My wife is very disappointed that she could not find the whitening creams here in the States.

Lancome<sp> makes some whitening creams. The stuff my wife uses is from the states. Matter of fact a friend of hers is bringing some back for her.

 

It has been very hot here these past few weeks. Like you guys have said, to be white is considered in fashion and only the farmers have dark skin.

 

Last weekend we went to a vineyard on an island across from where we live and everyone was taking shade under umbrellas, except for me of course. I was soaking it all up. If white is considered sexy then I must have the "sexiest" legs in all of China

 

One thing I noted the other day while we were driving around were the people on their bikes with the umbrella holders, never seen that before

[AZwolfman]

It has been quite warm this summer here in LV, with many days over 110 and over a week over 115. My wife seems to enjoy the heat, as it is much drier here than in Beijing. She did get a sunburn the first day at the beach though. She said that was new for her.

[tonado]

Yeah, very common in China.  My take is that it is that they are primarily being worried about being thought of as a peasant.  My wife is very disappointed that she could not find the whitening creams here in the States.  I took her to the county fair yesterday and couldn't convince her that people would think it strange that she was walking around with an umbrella.  Finally had to make her fold it up as some of the horses were frightened by it.

 

Being from North-East China, my wife is surprised by the heat as much as by the cloudless sunny days.  It has been over 100 F a few times and she announced that a person could die just from standing out in the sun.

My wife also is disappointing that the white cream is not available here. I didn't even know it exists. She said everyone in China and Japan use them. It is funny that in America, people use tanning cream to make themself darker.

[sandyyu]

hehe...when i was in Shanghai, I was always teased by my friends that i came from Africa since i have tan color skin, but it's totally different situation here, i have been asked many times where i did my tanning in the store here....they said you got a perfect tanning color, which shop did you go? haha...... ......they don't know it's just my natural skin color....

 

 

 

Sandy

[TimD]

Tanning stores....ahhhh the great American tradition of baking ones skin. We also call them "Bake and Fakes"

 

Now what makes more sense, using an umbrella to shield one from the sun or placing ones half naked body under intense light to cook the skin....who should be staring at who

[sarah36]

Beauty is only a comparative idea based on a general environment. It's almost like a fashion. While in China, there was a saying that too much sunshine can cause skin cancer, and also to be white was supposed to be beautiful.The psychology to be good looking is nothing wrong. But actually this idea of being white had become out of date two years before I came to America. Many young girls and boys in my home city made them very dark in summer to match their shorts and t-shirts, which nobody thought to be ugly. And some HangKong movie stars became famous after they made their skin dark).

 

No matter how people think or look, no matter it's in China or America,no matter you are rich or poor, the real beauty of a person comes from the good heart not just from the good looking.