It's the same for Caucasian people. There's a big market of tanning products and people generally tanning as some people believe a tan makes you look more healt

It's the same for Caucasian people. There's a big market of tanning products and people generally tanning as some people believe a tan makes you look more healthy / shows you have wealth as able to travel somewhere hot and sit in the sun, not working indoors in some factory. Likewise, in poorer SE Asian countries, having a tan means you have likely been working in a field all day, a lot of SE Asian people believe a tan makes you look poor. They are both the same thing. People don't want to look poor and want to look higher up on the class system.