American women want to look darker, so they go to sun tanning salons. Asian women want to look lighter, so they use whitening skin creams. Beauty means different things in different cultures.
It's just a gap in the definition of beauty in different cultures. Fairness/whiteness/paleness = beauty.
My mother would never understand why someone, especially a girl (me) would want to have a darker skin tone.
Also, when you see ads on the subway or on TV, you'll notice alot of them has something to do with whitening creams/masks/facial treatments etc. It gets pretty annoying.
Many Chinese women (especially for girls) have extreme fear to the sun, so you can see them opening parasols in street even in the days of hazy sunlight. it is results of a large number of woman in China whom suffering from TB and osteoporosis due to calcium deficiency.
Not all Chinese woman want to be pale. Some Asian females want to get tans. If Chinese woman do not enjoy going to the beach, then they don't have to go to the beach.
Either they don't go the beach, use large beach umbrellas, and/ or lots of sunscreen. Btw, it's not just Chinese women who avoid the sun, it's pretty much all Asian women.