The concept of skin-whitening and the pale skin beauty ideal is not new.  The practice of recoloring ones skin is directly correlated with the desire to achieve higher social status.  Historically, a person's skin color has been a clear indicator of economic and social status. As early as pre-Qin China, there has been an association between one's wealth and one's skin color.  Farm laborers who made a living by working in the sun were easily distinguishable from the Chinese upper class by their skin tone: farm laborers were darkened by the sun while the nobility were able to stay indoors and avoid sun damage.  The same skin-whitening phenomenon occurred in the west during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Aristocrats at the time used a dangerous bleaching product, lead oxide, in order to differentiate themselves from the lower class laborers.  The historic correlation between economic status and skin color naturally lead to the development of a variety of treatments in order to correct an "undesirable" dark skin tone.

The pale-skin beauty ideal is deeply embedded within East Asian culture.  China in particular has several old sayings which associate fair skin with desirability.  For example, the saying: ‘white, fortuitous, beautiful! That is the standard for female beauty” (白富美, bai fu mei).  Another old Chinese saying states: "One whiteness can cover three kinds of ugliness."  These sayings emphasize that having fair skin can "cover up" ones faults.  With respect to women, these sayings lead many to believe that if a woman has a pale complexion, she will be considered beautiful and desirable.

Additionally, there are many Chinese myths with respect to skin-whitening methods.  For example, a traditional Chinese myth asserts that pearls help to lighten ones skin; drinking pearl powder and hot water mixture supposedly brightens one's complexion.  There are also myths which associate the consumption of darker colored foods with darkening one's skin.  Eating too much soy sauce allegedly makes skin more tan while pregnant women are often advised not to drink chocolate milk so that their children are not born with a dark complexion.

There is still a clear preference in Asian societies for more fair skin.  One cannot stroll through the city of Hong Kong without encountering a variety of advertisements for expensive beauty products; the vast majority advertise whitening skin care regimens.  These advertisements are not just limited to a female audience.  Whitening products are also being marketed to men, though to a lesser degree.