Be completely honest and you'll probably admit that a look around most major cities sees an abundance of such bi-racial couplings, certainly more than, say, Asian guys with black women or black guys with Asian women or almost any other combination you care to name.

Indeed the phenom (if we dare to call it that) is so prevalent that it has ratcheted up its own wildly offensive cache of catch-words -- men who date Asian women are "rice crackers" or have "yellow fever."

Is it a sign of the times?

When I mentioned I was writing an article on this subject to a white female friend of mine, she erupted with the phrase, "What is the fascination all these dudes have with Asian poontang? Is it magic poontang or what gives?"

About 75 per cent of the women I've dated were redheads and no one gets angry at me about that (except maybe the redheads). But Asian appreciation is about more than just a preference for a particular look. There are, of course, many cultural considerations.

A Little Bit of History

In a San Francisco Examiner article titled Asian Women, Caucasian Men, Joan Walsh writes that this trend has, "Very old roots, of course. Fantasies of Asian femininity have been imprinted on the American male psyche for generations, thanks to three major wars in the Pacific and a constellation of U.S. military bases there."

And what exactly do these "fantasies of Asian femininity" entail? The story goes that Asian women are submissive, docile, eager to please their men and possessed of Geisha-like sexual prowess. These ideas come from the seeds of colonialism where anything foreign was stamped with a stereotype that made it exotic, erotic or strange.

Lorraine

Lorraine, a Canadian of Chinese descent, has come across the Asian fixation many times. She's your typical 30-something: dating and looking for love. But the idea of being with someone who exclusively pursues Asian women doesn't appeal to her. "My first reaction is that it's gross," she says. "We're all the same. Why be so specific?"

She also objects to the term 'Asian fetish' because, "A fetish is an object... You can say 'I have a fetish for rubber boots...' Whenever I hear a guy say 'I have a fetish for Asian women' they're not using the term correctly. By saying that, they're not lovers for them, they're just toys."

Michael

This trend can also make a white man who dates an Asian woman feel like he has to defend his choice in a mate. Michael is a white man who married a Chinese woman in 2005. He is all too aware of the so-called Asian fixation, "I happened to fall in love with a Chinese woman. But people look at me like I'm some kind of Asian woman collector."

Unfortunately, there are white guys out there who do 'collect' Asian women and somehow feel more powerful for it. Something that Lorraine says makes her feel like "one of many."