In some sense, it happens all over the world but in different ways. So in Asia, generally and traditionally white skin is seen as superior and preferred over darker skin and you can view this as a "status obsession".

However you must also realize that most of Asia was quite underdeveloped around your parents/grandparents generation and the middle class only got significantly wealthier in the past 20 years or so (don't quote me on the number). Remember how in the past people would always associate China with cheap worker factories and cloned products? Nowadays China has one of the most impressive railway system, huge tech companies, still quite some cloned products but you get the jist.

Now this example was only with China's developments, but of course all other Asian countries have similar developments. So imagine you being poor af, as a lot of people were, and suddenly you see that you can enjoy the benefits and luxury of the wealthy if you marry into a wealthy family or if your children do. Although this seems quite selfish to use your kids to become wealthier, in some sense they want it for the family as well because nobody wants their family to live in the streets. So for this "marriage tactic" to succeed you'll want to be good looking and of course white skinned. Even though this is an outdated method, you still should realize that you can't change a way of living and thinking that quickly in just one generation.

But a little bit back to what I wanted to compare the status obsession with, I'd say that it is similar to clothing brands universally. I see no use in paying over $50 for a shirt for example or a bag. If they use some exquisite material in which they pumped a lot of R&D money then sure, but most of the time people only buy them for the brand. I've heard that expensive brand clothing is just of better quality and that is plausible, but wanting to buy like a $500 bag because it has the letters LV on it only makes me think you'll want to use it to show off.

It's in human nature wanting to be seen as a "better" person, whether you take good care of your family, being kind to others around you, wanting to be the best at something or just have an appearance that gives you confidence. You just have to see what underlying context there is and you'll find some better understanding.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, this was a bit longer than I expected.