Ted,
I would have thought, with all the time you've spent in China over the years, ....you would have been very aware about the Chinese trying to keep there complexion as white as they can ... Men and Women!!
Goes back Thousands of years where the gentry had their fair complexions and the peasants dark complexions. It all comes from working out in the Fields day in day out...lol!!
Even today, if you see farmers out in the fields during the long summers, their faces and hands will be covered, The older members of a family won't particularly bother too much about it, but the young and middle aged, ...WILL!!
David.....