Gray fields in text make for difficult reading

I just got a copy of China Scene for review. There is a lot to like about the book, but I'm wondering what lead to the decision to place fields of gray criss-crossed lines behind certain parts of the text. It is extremely hard on the eyes. I assume the idea was to highlight those blocks of text, but I'm sure there are better ways to do so (e.g. dashed lines around the outside, thicker lines around the outside). In any case, I don't suppose there's anything that can be done for the current batch of China Scene books. I just hope future editions don't follow the same pattern.