Umbrella story

I was escorting the missus and daughter around the town in a hot afternoon on a short shopping errand. As the missus don't know how to drive and the daughter normally tags along with her mom during such Sunday forays into the town I am always the family chauffeur by default.

Although it was a Sunday it is usually difficult to find free parking in the town centre because people who work during the weekdays are only free to come out to do the following week's shopping on Sunday. But today I was lucky. I spotted an empty and shady lot in front of the BSN bank. Even in the shade the afternoon sun was blazing hot.

As I was locking the car with the remote I noticed daughter already holding up an umbrella beside her mom and both of them were standing by the the shade waiting for directions from me.

As it was a sunny day I asked daughter why she was holding the umbrella. Besides I didn't see any woman except the two of them carrying umbrellas in the street.

I always think that the umbrella's main use is to protect you from getting wet in a thunder storm. I do carry a foldable umbrella in my bag when I go to work and only use it to during rain so that I can walk to the LRT station without getting drenched in water.

"The weather's extremely hot today," daughter answered as if it was the most natural thing to do. How come other ladies I saw going about their errands in the town were not using umbrellas, I just wondered. Then I noticed some beads of sweat running down her face slightly flushed pink by the hot sun rays.

Then I understood. The hot sun was only part of the reason. The other reason is probably she didn't want her fair and smooth complexion from getting too much tanning from exposure to the sun. Probably it is also a mother and daughter bonding thing as the missus also has the habit of using the umbrella to shield herself from the sun rays. Perhaps having a fair complexion and smooth skin is a big thing for many Chinese women. The obsession to associate fair complexion and smooth skin with beauty probably explains to some extend the rapid mushrooming of marketing of  women' beauty products such as whitening creams in recent years.

Looking at the three photos the reader will be inclined to think that many Chinese women are the same in their desire to be beautiful whether they are in Beijing or in Kuala Lumpur, or whether in modern times or in in yesteryears.

The three pictures show Beijing women of different eras holding umbrellas to shield their complexion on sunny days. The first picture shows a tall woman dressed in a stunning red cheong sam with a matching pink umbrella standing in the shade beside a tree-lined boulevard.  The second, not so flattering image shows a tired woman squatting in a public square desperately covering herself under the shade of the umbrella. The last one in black and white captures the typical dress sense of women in a busy street scene in old China.

It is in the nature of woman to be looking elegant and beautiful all the time. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just that in matters of beauty man and woman may have different perceptions. In the case of the ubiquitous umbrella to most guys it is just a utility tool to shelter from the rain and probably think it silly to use it to keep out the sun rays. To the lady apart from taking cover from the rain, the umbrella is also seen as a beauty and health accessory to upkeep her fair complexion and also to protect her skin from being damaged by the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.