Mrs. Xie, a 53-year-old housewife, first read about the preference for Korean men in Japan while leafing casually through a Chinese-language newspaper. Since then, she's been sizing up Asian men on the New York City subway.

"It's true. They're bigger. I think Japanese women prefer Korean men because Japanese men are short. "

For several years now, reports from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have pointed that while Asian females have long been fawned over and dissected at length in the dating arena, their male Asian counterparts are commanding an equal (if not greater) amount of attention.

"Korean men are definitely cuter," says Amy, who is half-Japanese, half-Chinese. Her friends, a group of twenty-something partygoers on a weekend night in Manhattan's Koreatown, agree.

The dreamboat Korean man, sensitive but ripped, is the archetype of the ideal male partner. He is the prince in shining armor, albeit with a new face to reflect the needs of modern woman.

But whether the preference for Korean men is the result of an increasingly uniform standard of beauty; a fad prompted by handsome Korean celebrities in the media; a sign of cross-cultural acceptance among Asian ethnic groups--or all of the above--is up for debate.

"It's easier to find Korean men that are built like European men," says Betty, a 30-year-old real estate investor."It's harder to find Japanese and Chinese men that look like that. There are some, but not many. I think the next step in the quest for the perfect man--a perfect blend of the physical with the cultural--is to look for Hapas, Amerasians, Eurasians, etc."

Still for many, the preference for Korean men is perplexing, if not downright superficial.

"Why is everyone lusting after Korean men these days?" asked a male on a gay Japanese dating forum. On the boards of makeupalley.com, women discuss the attributes of Korean men, and wonder whether they are indeed "hot" or the better looking among males of the Asian races.

For each drawn out explanation, there is an equally simple answer:

"When the shit hits the fan, the dude's got to be able to step up, be the man, and protect your ass. Kinda hard to imagine with a stumpy little man. Shit, you'll probably end up laying your ass on the line to get that little stump to safety."

According to one African-American male whose girlfriend is Japanese, brawn bestows confidence, an attribute which translates into having “attitude"-- the one power men need to attract women. "Look, I'm ugly, but I'm very confident."

"This should serve as a wake-up call to the men who do not fall in this category to spruce themselves up," warns a Chinese-American female. "Asian men are under fire as it is--losing women to the white man. Now Japanese women prefer Korean men. What's left then? Trannies in Thailand?”

While most agree that Korean women are also bigger, and taller, their build is unremarkable to men like Paul Lee, a 21-year-old Korean-American grad student. "All Asian girls are cute. It's hard to find one with a hot body."

--Alicia Ng

copyright 2006 (ridgeway / ng)