Chinese to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Fiction novel

This is in a novel about a med student living in Beijing, China. He's at a feast during Spring Festival and he doesn't know the people around him, so he uses this description. I'm completely bewildered...does white describe his shirt? Or does it describe relatively pale skin? Or is it a Chinese speaking Caucasian, who happens to work at a Chinese company that sells e-books? I assume it's not a white person but just a pale-skinned person. Google was not giving me any other examples of this expression. Note, there is a corresponding 黑圆胖子, which makes me think the main character can barely tell all these strangers apart so he calls one the pale fatty and the other the dark-skinned fatty.

酒局从下午五点钟开始，现在已经是十点了。吃残的饭菜撤掉，新的菜还在陆续地上来，川粤鲁淮阳湖南贵州，什么菜系的都有，都像味精一样鲜美，都像鸡精一样鲜美。空啤酒瓶在旁边已经堆了四箱，和某些小个儿女作家的胸口一样高。因为谁也不认识，不知道聊什么，我在和左边一个中年白圆胖子以及右边一个中年黑圆胖子闷头干小二锅头。这是四年以来，我第一次重沾烈酒，发觉二锅头还是只适合干杯用，把人迅速搞高或者搞倒，迅速分出彼此抗酒精击打能力的高低，如果慢慢品，二锅头比福尔马林更难喝。

左边的白圆胖子说二十年前他上大学读英语专业的时候，是个清癯的白衣少年，对面坐着喝酸枣汁的一个浓妆少女表示严重不信，白圆胖子从裤裆里掏出钱包，过程中露出比脸更白的肚皮，微微带毛。钱包里的确有一张旧彩照，和他的身份证在一个夹层，里面一个麻秆一样的少年，戴大黑眼镜，穿发黄的白衬衫。我从不主动看电视，好像还是在电视里见过这个白圆胖子。他的广告有一个特点，看过之后，对他的印象非常深刻，但是从来记不住广告试图推销的是什么。其中有一个广告，他好像演一个中年男人，表情极其庄重，好象急于证明没有和演妈妈或是演女儿的演员有过任何不正当关系似的。