This is such a wildly unsubstantiated theory, that should simply be immediately disqualified from any serious consideration by the fact that countries like Thai

This is such a wildly unsubstantiated theory, that should simply be immediately disqualified from any serious consideration by the fact that countries like Thailand, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea all share exactly the same obsession with skin whitening. The western obsession with tanning has exactly the same characteristics, but I don't see people presuming that some oppression narrative is the only possible way to explain it.