Sunshine on My Face

If you ask me what is the one thing I will never leave at home when I go out, I will say it is my umbrella. Since I was little, I have always carried my umbrella to school, the market and then later on to work, in fact, everywhere I go. I use it not only to prevent the heat beating down on my head, but to protect my skin from getting tanned. I have noticed lately my hands have gone slightly darker — so I have started to wear gloves.

People from the West in particular are always curious as to why Asian women want to have fair skin. I asked them in turn why they would want to get a tan? *grin* .. Well, some say that it is a cultural issue because fair/white skin used to be synonymous with high social status and wealth, as it indicated such person did not work in the fields, whereas those who were not well-off and forced to work in the fields were generally heavily tanned.

Fair skin has always been a symbol of beauty in Asia. In Indonesia, women use Lulur, a body scrub made of herbs, leaves and roots, to make your skin fairer. Perhaps being fair while most of the people around you are dark makes you feel unique. Nowadays another reason why we should protect our skin from sunlight is to prevent premature aging, although I do not deny the fact that some women want to look white simply because they want to look like Westerners or just follow the trend. However, some women tend to overdo it, making themselves look pale and anaemic. If on top of that they wear circular contact lenses, they tend to look very strange. Those type of contact lenses make your eyes look rounder and bigger like cartoon characters. Perhaps the ideal image of beauty to many women here is to have Caucasian features: white skin, a prominent nose and big, round eyes.

Women such as these have their own reasons as to why they desire fair skin. White skin. As for me, I am quite happy with my natural colour, as long as I protect it from the sun. I do not want to have ‘leather jacket’ skin when I am older, thank you very much!