Get Your Tan On — In China (While You Karaoke)
November 28th, 2006
Several months ago the China Law Blog did a great post on how tanning salons are taking off in China.
Last week the Wall Street Journal did its own piece on this topic (click here for the article). This China Law blog post and WSJ article are definitely worth checking out — it’s amazing to see how a great business opportunity appears to be developing in China due to the increased standard of living for China’s urbanites. Anybody want to invest in some tanning salons with me in China??
When we are in Shanghai in particular, you will see many women wearing visors to shield their faces from the sun and/or carrying an umbrella to do so. Clearly, most upper class Chinese (currently) have a different view of the merits of UV rays from the sun than do Californians.
As an aside, I have asked one of my good friends in China (Dr. Wu) to be on the lookout for a tanning salon we might visit where we can spend a few minutes with a small business entreprenuer asking him about what he/she does and how he/she does it. This would be a very different type of visit than one of our visits to a multinational firm and could offer us a good balance and a very different perspective. However, do be aware that I think it will be a longshot for me to pull this off — e.g., finding a tanning salon with enough space to comfortably house 40 people for a 30 minute chat sesssion does not likely exist in all of China and I assume you don’t want to stand out on the street to talk to such a business owner (and/or it will likely be difficult to get him/her to come to our hotel and present).
On a different note, no visit to China can be complete without visiting a karaoke club. Yet, this Wall Street Journal article reminds us that doing so will likely result in a copyright violation (at least for the club owner and/or the DJ); although it does appear that the Chinese government is doing a better job of cracking down on this no-no. I am sure that no karaoke clubs in the US run afoul of copyright laws in this regard! (Yes, that was said tongue-in-cheek.)
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, China, Misc.
5 Comments Add your own
1. Lindsay Yoshitomi | December 1st, 2006 at 11:29 am
I spend my summer vacations on Maui where my mom is from. The image of people covering up in the sun to avoid getting brown reminds me of my grandmother. Whenever we would tell her to come along with us for a day at the beach, she would sit there under an umbrella with long sleeves on. I noticed my friend’s grandmother would also cover up at the golf course or poolside. For that older generation it was not as much of a health issue as it was a class issue. Only peasants get brown, I was told, or as the article indicates, a sign of being a field worker – quite a contrast to our generation where a tan depicts a life of leisure. Well, our grandmothers look great for their ages, something our generation can hardly anticipate if we “fake and bake” too much.
With western influences infiltrating China, the young Chinese were bound to be affected. I’m not surprised that they would want to look tan and healthy. They are a bit behind the times, but it looks like they will catch up. For the tanning industry, it was a smart move to fill that niche. Just when you think a business has depleted a market, a place like China beckons expansion. I am surprised however, that Chinese companies have not jumped on that band wagon knowing that the sales of sun-care products have continued to rise year after year. I wonder if it is their conservatism that just does not want to promote tanning. And just as the baby boomers now can’t get enough of anti-wrinkle, anti-aging products to reverse the effects of their sun tanning years, this could also be a future market for China too, if the tanning trend continues.
I remember my mom saying they always used baby oil for a deep tan, much like the olive oil used by the Chinese – no UV protection. So, with skin care companies now offering tanning products to remedy that need, what’s next? They might not be ready for the anti-aging, anti-wrinkle products that have flooded the cosmetic market here and increased profits tremendously, but there is the in-between stage of skin care. After tanning, they’ll need après-tan products to keep their tans and to soothe and nourish their skin. If the Chinese will pay $36 a bottle for Banana Boat tanning lotion, who knows what they would pay to keep that glow. You would think skin care industry would be drooling over the prospects of China.
The other night I caught a bit of a program re China and fast foods. A doctor was saying how obesity has risen 16% as a result of eating fast foods. The tanning boom could follow this trend with a rise in skin cancer and skin damage. Although the young people do not seem to care too much about the after effects, it is another area skin care companies could use to promote even more products.
2. Chris Carr | December 1st, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Good comment!
Re: the 16% increase in obesity among Chinese item, I always struggle with obesity figures as applied to China. There are tons of stories that have been published lately about about how the Chinese are falling for fast food just like we do here, and are getting fat in the process.
The problem is, when I go there, I can count on one hand the number of “obese” locals I have seen. I.e., so is “obesity” defined by the American standard (where lots of people here are heavier then they should be?) or is it the medical definition of obesity?
Just be aware of this as you read stories about China filled with facts and figures, and, apply the skills you are learning in your stats course with Dr. Borin of being able to better recognize a piece of data in a story from a bad/meaningless one.
3. Kerry Huang | December 5th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
I doubt tanning salons will become very popular in China. It was a fad in Japan for a while when several pop stars started to sport a tan but the majority of Asian countries, including China still believe that being pale is better. Being tan in America is to appear healthy but in China it about social class instead of health. This is because being tan is equated with being “poor” because only poor people work outside and become tan. Wealthier people have office jobs indoors or do not work at all and stay home, thus are pale. Of course people can “cheat” and use whitening products to appear pale and thus wealthier. Whitening products are so popular in Asia that even American cosmetic companies have whitening products. Three years ago while in China I saw a commercial for an Olay whitening product that I have never seen in the states. A beauty product line in Asia is not complete without at least one whitening product. Some cosmetic companies, such as Shiseido, have several whitening products at different price points.
The pale is better mentality is prevalent in all of the fashion magazines and media in Asia. Every Chinese (Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan) fashion magazine has a ton of whitening product ads and all of them are endorsed by a major celebrity. Nearly all celebrities are pale and work very hard to maintain their paleness. Only a few Hong Kong male celebrities are tan. To my surprise maintaining a pale complexsion is not limited to women. In the summer of 2004 a friend and I were in Taiwan. We spent time with some of her male friends and they were always covered in long-sleves and long pants. One day we asked them why don’t they wear shorts and short-sleve shirts. Their answer was that they do not want to become tan.
It will take several decades before China’s economic growth benefits all of China. Until then, many educated urbanites probably will want to be pale so that they will not be mistaken as “from the country side.”
4. Kristin | December 15th, 2006 at 2:13 am
I know as an MBA student I am always supposed to be looking for bigger and better business opportunities. I agree with Dr. Carr that investing in tanning salons in China is potentially going to make somebody very rich. However, as I read the WSJ article I couldn’t help but be a little bit sad that it seems some Chinese are adopting western views of beauty. I have always been told “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This implies that everybody has a different view of what defines beauty. Any female (and possibly male) that is a student at Cal Poly has probably struggled with believing this saying at some point or another. Just look around the next time you are at Cal Poly’s gym. Every girl is 5’5’’, 120 lbs, has long blonde hair, and gorgeous bronzed skin. How are we supposed to believe that everyone has a different view of beauty when everyone is striving to look exactly the same? It wasn’t until I came to Poly that I even considered “fake and baking.” I quickly found myself forking over a lot of money during the winter months to maintain a “healthy glow.” The article says this healthy glow is an indicator of wealth and class in China, and is different than the “dim and course skin of day laborers.” But is this healthy glow really healthy?
Some could argue that sunlight is needed for the body to manufacture vitamin D. While this is true, according to the FDA it doesn’t take much sunlight to make all the vitamin D your body can use, and it certainly takes far less than it takes to get a suntan! Another argument I have heard in favor of tanning beds is that they are a safer means of tanning than actual sun light. However, it has been proven that exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation — whether from sunlight or tanning beds — damages your skin, increasing your risk of skin cancer and premature skin aging. In fact, malignant melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, has seen a sharp rise in recent years, perhaps due to the increased exposure to UV radiation from tanning beds.
If the Chinese are really interested in maintaining a truly “healthy glow,” their best (and safest) bet is to use sunless tanning products or bronzers. All in all if anyone is interested in selling these products in China, I would be much more inclined to invest in this venture.
5. Andrew Gardner | December 15th, 2006 at 6:28 am
I am amazed to see that the something so American as tanning has found its way into Chinese culture. My stereotypical American view of the Chinese has been a desire to maintian light skin. I agree with Kristin in the fact that it would be very difficult to tell the difference from a “fake and bake” and a natural tan from spending hour upon hours laboring in the fields.
Dr. Carr, I do think that investing in tanning salons would be a very good investment. However, it does seem to leave a very large portion of the Chinese population behind. Perhaps the business should provide tanning to the young wealthy Chinese and sun screen to the millions of Chinese that are “lucky enough” to get a free tan from long hours of laboring in the fields.
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