WHY IS SKIN WHITENING SO POPULAR IN HONG KONG?

As explained by Claire Chang, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Union Square Laser Dermatology, skin bleaching is the process by which substances are used to reduce melanin concentration in the skin to lighten it. It's an ancient process that can be traced back all the way to the 1500s and continues to be a thriving business, coming in the form of soaps, creams, pills, and injectables. Per a recent World Health Organization report (WHO), half of the population in Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines uses some kind of skin lightening treatment. And it's even higher in India (60%) and African countries, such as Nigeria (77%). It's also more common in the U.S. than many realize, with bleaching agents such as hydroquinone commonly used in products that treat discoloration and hyperpigmentation. By 2027, the skin whitening industry is projected to be worth over $24 billion dollars. But it's a business fraught with potential hazards, cautions Chang.

Get-white messages are inescapable in this part of the world. Pale Asian models peer from the pages of glossy magazines, they tout products such as Blanc Expert, White-Plus, White Light, Future White Day, Blanc Purete, Fine Fairness, Active White, White Perfect and Snow UV.

Spurred on by modern marketing and a cultural history that cherishes fairness, hordes of women across Asia are slapping on whitening lotions, serums, correctors and essences to bleach their skins.

In what may be the biggest toxic cream outbreak ever, 1,262 people flocked to a hotline set up by Hong Kong's health department, after warnings that two whitener creams had mercury levels between 9,000 and 65,000 times the recommended dose.

Skin whitening has a long history in Asia, stemming back to ancient China and Japan, where the saying "one white covers up three ugliness" was passed through the generations.

A white complexion was seen as noble and aristocratic, especially in Southeast Asia, where the sun was always out. Only those rich enough could afford to stay indoors, while peasants baked in the rice fields.

In their early bid to lighten up, Chinese ground pearl from seashells into powder and swallowed it to whiten their skin, says Chinese University chemical pathology professor Christopher Lam Wai-kei, while across the Yellow Sea, Geisha girls powdered their faces chalk white.

This obsession with whiteness has not faded over time. A survey by Asia Market Intelligence this year revealed that three quarters of Malaysian men thought their partners would be more attractive with lighter complexions.

In Hong Kong two thirds of men prefer fairer skin, while half the local women wanted their men paler. Almost half of Asians aged 25 to 34 years used skin whiteners in a business that some analysts have said could be worth billions of dollars.