East Asians (and specifically Han Chinese) were never called White.
Is there something about sunlight deprivation that sharpens the mind?
No, but I suspect that the necessity to survive the winter led to increased evolutionary pressures.
I would hardly consider places like the valley of the Congo or Australia or the Sahara to be evolutionarily soft.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.