In the sweltering summer heat on the streets of China's cities, it's not unusual to see people covered from head to toe to protect themselves from the sun. Pang Shuo is one of them.

Pang, a lady in her 20s who works for an Internet company in Shanghai, commutes between her home and office on an electric scooter every day. The trip takes just 15 minutes but she has on hand a whole set of equipment to protect herself from the scorching sunshine. She wears a helmet, a sunproof light jacket, a mask that can shade not only her face but also her neck, and a pair of sunproof gloves to ensure that not one single inch of her skin is exposed during her ride.

Data from market consultancy QuestMobile show that, in April, 177 million users viewed sun protection-related content on six social media and short video platforms including Douyin, China's TikTok, up 34 percent year on year. Of the users, 53.4 percent were under 30 years old, indicating young people's increasing interest in sun-protective products.

The Chinese people's obsession with protecting their skin from the sun is not new. Since ancient times, light skin has been a preferable physical characteristic that indicated a person's social status, as it showed they didn't have to toil in the sun. There are several variations of an old Chinese saying that is still often repeated today. It goes, "White skin can help conceal 100 physical flaws."

In addition to the pursuit of fairer skin, the popularity of sun-protective measures also results from people's growing awareness of the potential harm of excessive exposure to sunlight. According to the website of New York-based nonprofit organization Skin Cancer Foundation, which empowers people to take a proactive approach to daily sun protection and the early detection and treatment of skin cancers, two types of ultraviolet (UV) light are proven to contribute to the risk for skin cancer: Ultraviolet A (UVA), which has a longer wavelength and is associated with skin aging, and Ultraviolet B (UVB), which has a shorter wavelength and is associated with skin burning. Unprotected exposure to UVA and UVB damages the DNA in skin cells, producing genetic defects, or mutations, that can lead to both skin cancer and premature aging.

The extremely high temperatures this summer are another contributing factor to the popularity of sun-protective measures. More people are embracing tourism and outdoor sports such as cycling this season after China adjusted its COVID-19 control measures late last year, creating an increasing need for sun-protective products.

Sun protection craze 

In addition to the already popular sunscreens, physical sun-protective measures are gaining more popularity.

Data collected from January last year to April this year by Qian-gua.com, a social media industry consulting platform, show that sun-protective clothing has appeared more often in comments and been searched more often than sunscreens on Chinese social media and lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book).

Monthly retail sales of sun-protective clothing on e-commerce platforms in China reached 600 million yuan ($83.4 billion) in May, up 353 percent year on year, according to Shangzhizhen.com, an e-commerce big data monitoring and research platform.

Compared with sunscreens which need to be reapplied several times a day, physical sun-protective measures have a number of advantages. Pang told Everyday People, an account under People magazine on the ubiquitous Weixin super app, that she had used sunscreen as her main method of protecting her skin from the sun during her time at university. She had tried many brands of sunscreens and applied them to her face, neck and limbs several times a day. However, after using sunscreens for nearly two years, she found her skin became sensitive and would often break out. She then gradually switched from chemical to physical sun protection.

It's notable that women are no longer the only consumers of sun-protective products. The sun-protective product market for men, babies and children is also expanding. 

QuestMobile data show that sales of sunscreens for babies and children on Douyin reached 133 million yuan ($18.5 million) in April, accounting for 24.2 percent of the total. On Tmall, an e-commerce platform run by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, there were twice as many men purchasing sun-protective clothing in June as there were during the same period last year. There are now a growing number of products exclusively developed for men, such as larger hats and sun umbrellas.

According to a report on sales of sun-protective products on social media platforms in 2023, compiled by Feigua.cn, a social media industry consulting platform, those born after 2000 account for 37.3 percent of male consumers of sun-protective products, becoming a rising consumption force in the market.

A hot market 

Sensing the increasing demand for sun protection, many companies are launching new products to grab a larger market share. Brands specializing in the sector such as the Shenzhen-based UV-protective umbrella and clothing company Beneunder are being joined by outdoor apparel makers such as U.S. brand North Face, and even Bosideng, a major Chinese manufacturer of down jackets, in the race to shield Chinese consumers from the sun.

Zhu Gaofeng, chief financial officer and Vice Chairman of Bosideng Group, told China Securities Journal on June 29 that in the previous three months, sales of the company's sun-protective clothing had surpassed 200 million yuan ($27.8 million) in total.

According to a report on the prospects of the sun-protective clothing industry, published by Huaon Industry Research Institute, the market scale of the sun-protective clothing industry increased from 45.9 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) in 2016 to 67.5 billion yuan ($9.4 billion) last year. The report predicted the figure will reach 74.2 billion yuan ($10.3 billion) this year.

There is also a wider variety of sun-protective products on the market, including light jackets, hats, sunglasses, gloves, forearm sleeves, face masks and stockings. Almost every part of the body that can be exposed in the sun has a corresponding product to cover it.

An updated version of the "facekini" has recently become a hit with consumers. The term was coined several years ago to describe a swimming cap that extends to cover almost the entire head, with openings for the nose, eyes and mouth. The new-generation facekini covers the entire face except for the eyes.

Sun-protective products now also feature many new functions. For instance, Internet-based new consumer brand Bananain claims its sun-protective clothes use a fabric that can make people feel cooler, and Bosideng is using UV-Cut fabric, a hi-tech product with a high-density fabric structure that provides more protection against UV rays than traditional fabrics such as nylon and polyester.

With the new functions come higher prices, with some items of clothing selling for as much as 1,000 yuan ($139).

However, industry insiders caution that a higher price does not necessarily mean higher quality.

Wang Yongdong, a dermatologist with Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, told Qianjiang Evening News that no sun-protective clothing offers unique hi-tech protection. There are primarily two ways for them to offer protection from the sun: tightly knitted fabrics that reduce the amount of sunshine that can penetrate and a coating to increase refraction.

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation's website, the Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF), which indicates how much ultraviolet radiation (both UVB and UVA) a fabric allows to reach one's skin, is a main criterion for sun-protective fabrics. For example, a UPF 40 fabric blocks 97.5 percent of the sun's rays and allows 2.5 percent to penetrate, thus reducing the exposure risk significantly. According to China's national standards, a fabric with a UPF of more than 40 qualifies for sun-protective fabric. However, some brands now claim their clothes have a UPF of more than 100, meaning that more than 99 percent of the sun's UV rays are blocked.

Wang said it's unnecessary to buy clothing with super high UPF. Those with a UPF of 30-50 are sufficient. Also, a 100-yuan ($13.9) protective jacket may differ from a more expensive one in terms of breathability of the fabrics, but the level of protection they offer will not be different if their UPF is the same.

(Print Edition Title: Blocking the Sun)    

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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