Snippets from China II

Something we've noticed here in Xiamen is that it appears that every second woman is holding an umbrella - regardless of the weather. In fact, Chinese women are very concerned about their skin colour; the whiter the better, contrary to the west where the browner the better. In China, if you are brown skinned then you must have to work in the sun, ergo you must be poor/be of low social status. Meanwhile, in the west if you have a tan then you must have spare time, ergo you must be rich/possibly have a boat/are of high social status. With my lily white skin, I'm glad I'm in China ;)

Millions of yuan worth of whitening products are sold each year. Other ways, women especially, keep the sun at bay include carrying an umbrella/parasol where-ever they go (handy for sudden downpours and great for blocking out the sun). For the women who ride bikes (regular or electric) there are special sleeves and purpose-made capes to wear to protect your arms and neck - no "driving arm" for them!

We were conspicuously without umbrella the first week we were here - so we allowed Alex to choose an umbrella for us to use whilst out walking the streets. Now some are quite ornate: lacey cutouts, shiny or pearlescent colours - not many are single colour, standard-does-the-job types so this was a dicey proposition...blame jetlag. Originally meant to be Alex's to use, it soon became apparent that if it remained hers she would soon take out every Chinese person we encountered on the footpath. So it's become mine and I found her an alternate.

What do you think of the result (yes I am one of "those" no-umbrellas-up-in-the-house-superstitious kinds)?