While Western beauty standards encourage women to strive for golden, sun-tanned skin during the warmer months, throughout much of Asia, pale skin is seen as more desirable — so much so that skin whitening and bleaching creams are commonplace, despite many associated risks.

For those looking to maintain their pale skin naturally, however, this means going to great lengths to avoid sun damage. China’s “hard sun protection” market, which refers to products like wide-brim hats, gloves, sleeves, masks, and other sun protection gear, has ballooned in size in recent years, and as of 2022 was worth some $4.2 billion.

@candiselin86 Pale skin has been a beauty standard in China for thousands of years because it’s associated with status and wealth. As a result of extreme sun protection, a survey in 2017 showed that 86% of Chinese urbanites have vitamin D deficiency. sun protection sleeves and jackets in my . #china #chinese #sunscreen #sunprotection #gloves #yacht #chinesegirls #beautystandard #beautyhacks #beautytips #greenscreen ♬ Old Disney Swing Jazz - Nico

A Chinese tutor on TikTok, Dr. Candise Lin, recently shared an informative video about the popularity of pale skin in China, opening with, “What is Chinese girls’ biggest enemy? The sun!” and adding that a popular saying in China is, “I would rather die of heat than getting sunburned”.

The video goes on to spotlight some pretty outlandish sun protection methods: someone sunbathing underneath a towel, someone wearing a lotus leaf on their head as an “anti-UV ray helmet”, using garbage bags as raincoats to cover you up on sunny days, people, including children, wearing what looks like beekeeper costumes. She concludes, “Basically, the best protection is to never expose any bit of your skin.”

As one commenter pointed out, many don’t realize that this fixation on maintaining pale skin is the result of deeply-rooted colorism, the idea that being pale is not only more beautiful but superior. Historically, fairer skin was associated with members of higher classes - if you were poorer and had to work outdoors all day, it would be impossible to keep your skin pale. Similar standards existed in Europe until tanned skin began to signify that you had more leisure time and the ability to enjoy it in sunny locales and were probably rich, and tanned skin became desirable instead.

Not only does this colorism negatively impact people who do not have pale skin, but it negatively impacts those that do; studies have found that vitamin D deficiencies are commonplace in China, with 63.2% of adults having inadequate vitamin D levels in a 2021 study.