It’s normal in Taiwan to see a lot of anti-ageing and whitening products, and I’ve no doubt it is the same in most of East Asia.
This is because East Asians easily fall for marketing tricks. It's the same for luxury products, like brand clothes and accessories. Anyway that doesn't have anything to do with ageing but rather with a certain sense of narcissism (wanting to look the best, to draw attention on oneself by looking good or looking rich, all things which are frowned upon in a lot of European countries, although not in America).
Western people don’t mind the sun as much as Asian people. In Australia, people are really into a day out at the beach. They love to surf, despite of the shark attacks. For many East Asians, safety comes first. So, East Asians would not go. In East Asia it is a common routine to wear sunscreen everyday, people believe that early signs of wrinkles will occurred, if the skin is not protected. Yes you are right, in East Asia, the sun is indeed bigger. However, some East Asians even use umbrellas or wear protective garments on their hands and faces to protect their skin against the sun. This is a bit extreme! However, having dark skin is so undesirable in Asia, women do that to look high class.
You are generalising too much. Don't forget that a lot of people who migrated voluntarily to Australia are people who like the sun and heat. But the majority of North Europeans (and Australians too) have too fair skin to sensibly stay exposed to the sun. Like smoking, being too tanned is generally regarded as a sign of low social class by northern Europeans and even North Americans.
The food I ate growing up was full of vegetables and meat, with a bowl of rice or noodles.
Me too. What's your point?
Most of the time vegetables are steamed or boiled, and there is hardly any oil and fat in the meal.
Did you grow up in France? Chinese food is generally quite greasy, and Japanese food, despite the stereotypes (sushi) contains a lot of deep-fried food (kara-age, tempura, tonkatsu). The Japanese also prode themselves on having the most fatty beef in the world (Kobe beef) and the price of raw tuna in sushi shops increases with the quantity of fat (from cheap low-fat maguro to 3x more expensive ootoro).
Cheese, Pizzas, Sausages, Burgers, Fish and Chips, Meaty Pies, Bacon and Eggs and Processed food as well as sweets are eaten far more in Western countries.
Sorry but you are describing British and American diet, not average European cuisine. I was 18 the first time I ate a burger. I have eaten less than 20 times in burger restaurants like McDonald's and almost all of them were in Japan or in Southeast Asia because they are so ubiquitous. I don't think that my parents have ever eaten in a McDonald's, KFC or even had fish & chips. A lot of people in Belgium would be too concerned about their health to even enter a fast-food chain.
In general, East Asian people are more conservative, in the sense that the majority do not drink a lot of alcohol, don’t use drugs and deal with stress differently, as it is normal to be working long hours and working hard all week and all year round.
I don't know where you get your information, but East Asians countries tend to drink more spirits (hard alcohol) than almost anybody else in the world, alongside East Europeans. Just look at
those statistics. South Koreans have the highest consumption per capita (32 litres per capita per year, against 20 l for Russians). The Thai are 7th, the Japanese 11th and the Chinese 13th, and Filipinos 16th, well ahead of the US and all Western Europeans countries. The Chinese, Thai and Japanese drink in average 11 litres per capita per year, that's over twice more than the Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, Belgian, French, British or Spanish (no data for Italy, but it can't be higher).
Where you found proof that Scandinavians or Californians exercise a lot and smoke less?
French people definitely smoke more than Australians, but they don't look older. Californians exercise a lot, hmmm my impression of Americans is that they are very big.
According to
official statistics, the French and Australians smoke almost exactly the same amount of cigarettes (about 1000 per adult per year), but over twice less than the Chinese and South Koreans, who rank respectively 9th and 15th worldwide. Even Japan ranks 21st, with 1,700 cigarettes per adult per year. So whatever your impressions, these are the facts.
As for Scandinavians smoking less, Denmark ranks 40th, Sweden 70th, Norway 94th and Iceland 95th for cigarette consumption.
According to the CDC, California is the only state with Utah where less than 20% of men and less than 15% of women are cigarette smokers (well, as of 2002, it is even lower now).
As I said above, tobacco consumption is higher in lower class or less educated people. According to
those EU stats, people who went to college or university smoke 2 to 3 time less than people who didn't go further than secondary school, and that is true for every European country surveyed.
For exercice, the EU has of course conducted detailed surveys like
this one. Its conclusion (page 12) is that "Overall,citizens of the Nordic countries take sport the most seriously, with Sweden(72%), Finland (72%) and Denmark (64%) all outstripping the EU average of 40% forpeople exercising ‘regularly’ or ‘with some regularity’."
I don't have data for the USA, but it's well-known that Californians are the most exercice addicts.