whitening creams/saving face

There are more skin whitening creams and more advertising for skin whitening creams here in Taiwan than you can shake your fancy blemish-stick at -- beautiful milky-complexioned models stroke their faces auto-erotically on the oft-repeated commercials on TV -- everyone pushing some miracle-product that will clear up spots, smoothen your skin, give you that pearly-peachy tone that seems to elude most of the population... (In fact, I've never seen so much bad skin!)

Is there some secret Michael Jackson fetish? Are the Taiwanese just imitating the Japanese, but in the sub-tropics where heat, sun and humidity conspire to keep good skin away? Is it post-colonial?

At the local water park, a beautifully designed multi-acre palace of fun with swimming pools, wading pools, slides fountains, playgrounds and more, mothers huddle under umbrellas while the children scamper and play.

Every woman wants her face to be a blank page, white and powdery as mochi.