Korea and Asia have a thing about wanting lighter skin color that has existed before they even interacted with Caucasians, as others have mentioned.

They don't want to be Caucasian, folks. They do have a premium on lightness and that's not actually better because it still leads to discrimination against darker people. Colorism is still bad, if not more nuanced than "Oh those Asians want to be white sooooo bad".

Back in the pre-internet days we'd have phone conversations. And you'd have to pick the phone up when it was barely even ringing so your parents didn't hear it.

For real...and no parents yelling at you to get off the computer because they wanted to use the phone. Kids these days don't know how easy they have it.

No this is not new. I graduated from high school 20 years ago, except instead of texting we'd go to the all night diner and drink coffee, then drive around and smoke weed.

It's just a poor translation. They mean pale.

White as the color, not the ethnicity. They like pale skin, and they have since before white people ever stepped foot in Korea.

My biggest problem in those pre-laptop days was sneaking into the computer room without my folks noticing and remembering to mute the speakers so that the tortured screams of the login process wouldn't wake them up.

And what of people who work the graveyard shift? Are we not vamps?

What about insomniac housewives? Where is our special word?

Just logged in and you already win the internet today. Well done.

This is new? I used to do this when I was in HS (and I graduated nine years ago), except instead of texting it would be late night AIM chats and the such. Best time to use dial-up, obvi, since no one is gonna call at 2am.

I don't appreciate the erasure of college students who stay up all night with empty cans of red bull everywhere trying to study for their exams. We deserve representation too! #yesallcollegestudents

It's common all over Asia, not just in the eastern part.

Well. . . being pale is the goal, not being Caucasian. I think our culturalism is getting in the way, here. I've been all over Asia and it seems to me that Asians like being Asians, but they also like being lily-white. Just like some people here like going to the tanning salon and being extra dark. Doesn't make anyone…

This is very common in (East) Asia. All cosmetic counters at department stores feature skin whitening products predominantly. (you've probably also seen Asian ladies walking around with umbrellas on sunny days - they don't want to get tanned :))

Hey, something worth talking about happened in Flushing. Impressive. Anyway, Asian cultures have always valued pale skin as a form of status (I've read that it was a status of wealth thing) even before they knew about white people. Though something tells me the ad agency who thought this up didn't think it all the way…

"Do you wanna be white?"