A YouTube video from a member of the Shanghai expat community.
(SHANGHAI) 2007-2010 The use of parasols and skin whitener as perceptions of beauty have long been telegraphed to Chinese by Western media to the point where doing business while black in China can be a challenge. Take a read/listen to this piece for American Public Media’s Marketplace. It starts at 4:40 in the broadcast.
Here’s the background about it. A related article in the Communist Party-controlled Global Times quotes and credits Bill here.

In addition,
This 2009 story for PRI’s The World, “Western Expats in Demand in China,” examines Chinese views of race and the value of being white in China.
This story, produced with Scott Tong for American Public Media’s Marketplace “Paying a Visit to Jews of the East” starts at 22:58 on the minute counter examines the relationship between Jews and Chinese in China.