little sun umbrellas

I do love the sun umbrellas that the women walk around with in Shenzhen (southern China). they're lighter & smaller than rain umbrellas (from what I can tell). usually they're light coloured, or have little flowery patterns, and the handles are much smaller. the women flip them over and carry them when not expanded above their heads, and sometimes the cover hangs below and swishes whilst they walk. they always seem to have something in their hand, yet they seem to carry them so effortlessly. both young and older women carry them around town. I tried my (rain) umbrella today, whilst also carrying a coffee & bag of toast and of course I caught every gust of wind and had the umbrella flipping all over the place. (it also has a broken handle so I have to hold it on the metal shaft rather than the handle, which makes it even more awkward to carry). you really need them here as it's so hot during the day walking around outside - 35 degrees today & really humid. I end up all red-faced and sweaty even after a few minutes outside (especially coming from winter back home - my body hasn't adjusted slowly to the heat yet) and the Chinese women seem to be cool, calm and collected. they're needed here for shade. though the skin whitening ads here are just as disturbing as other parts of asia. I should try take some better photos of the umbrellas but I don't like to take too many close-ups of people in the street, so it's a bit hard to see the umbrellas in detail in the photos below. I want to get one of the umbrellas for home. I can't recall seeing them there though we need them just as much in summer. maybe I/someone should start importing them and get a trend going in Australia ;) if I'm home during summer and you see someone in the inner west (awkwardly rather than daintily) carrying a light sun umbrella you'll know who it is..