Christy, I've found a solution to your gingervitis!
You can't walk through a Taiwanese department store without noticing a large number of whitening products for sale. I'm not talking about whitening toothpaste- these products are marketed as skin whiteners.
Why? Is it because of an idealization of the white western face? Even though 99% of the people in this country are Asian, I would say at least 75% of the advertisements that you see feature a smiling white face shilling local products. Big Hollywood movies featuring pretty white faces are shown in all movie theaters with subtitles for the locals- how many subtitled movies do we see at the local cinema at home?
Does it come back to a class thing? If you're a lowly farmer and you work outside then you'd be more tanned and darker than a successful businessperson who works in an office all day. Does white=money? Even on the hottest days in Taiwan (and it's been damn hot), it's just as common to see a woman wearing a cardigan and jeans while holding a sun-blocking umbrella as it is to see a woman in shorts and a t-shirt. Have the Asians that buy these products just been suckered into a slick marketing ploy? I read that this marketing has successfully sold whitening products to a reported 50% of women in Taiwan.
The answer is probably a combination of these reasons, but can you imagine if brands like Ponds and Nivea sold blackening products at home? And what is in these products that whiten your skin? Bleach? Maybe some weekend I'll squeeze some of this crap on my face and see how close to looking like a beautiful geisha I can get :P
This is my favorite item from the whitening line of products- whitening deodorant for your hideously dark armpits. Finally a solution to my shameful problem!
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