I had never paid attention to the arrangement of the evening news anchors, a young Korean woman paired off with an old white man, at my local TV channel in Seattle until I heard Sheridan Prasso's lecture at the University of Washington the other day. "Have you seen an Asian man teamed with a white woman on the news?" she prodded. Prasso, a former Business Week Asia editor, in her new book, "The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient," asserted that the Westerners' misconstrued perception of Asian women made it impossible to create the odd pair.

The basis of the Western misconception of the Asian female is typically rooted in fantasy, mainly for Western men afflicted with what Prasso calls "yellow fever," the exoticized Asian woman as attentive and seductive. According to her, this misperception originates from the European imperialistic spirit as well as the missionary complex. Under the British colonial project, especially during its Victorian period, Western male perceived the Asian female as exotic and sexually decadent. For them, as Prasso described, "The 'Orient' has always meant lands far away, full of opulence and sensuality, danger, depravity, and opportunity." This European belief was exported to the new world, America, without any criticism.

Meantime, at the turn of the 16th century, as Western missionary work began to evangelize untamed Asian territory, Christian missionaries pitied the plight of women in Asia. They were poor, abused, and even abandoned, having no statutory right in the society. This mixed imperialistic and the missionary complex created the image of the Asian female as "sexually vulnerable, at the same time, poor thing" who needs desperately help from outside. Ever since, it became a rescue mission for Western men to save Asian women.

The imported version of the imperial adventure along with the missionary complex has been particularly well maintained and fostered by the American media. Hollywood projects Asian women as "dehumanized and sexually venerable" objects. In the eyes of popular culture, they are depicted as geishas, "submissive, servile, exotic, sexually vulnerable, mysterious, and guiding" or Dragon Ladies, "steely and cold as Cruella de Vii, lacking in the emotions or the neuroses of real women, however seductive, desirable, and yet untrustworthy." They became subservient goddesses, docile wives, and vixens.

In the movie poster, Charlie's Angels, for example, among the three women featured, only Lucy Liu shows her cleavage. For Prasso, it depicts how Hollywood intentionally manipulates Asian female sexuality. Prasso also samples Singapore Airlines, in which the female flight attendants are trained to be vamping for their passengers, and thereby using the body as the marketing scheme. Turning to other productions, Prasso considers "Madame Butterfly" as the archetypal story of Western notions about the Asian mystique: a delicate Japanese woman with undying love for a dashing American naval officer. It is the loyal, self-sacrificing Asian beauty that is betrayed by a fickle Westerner, a story replayed in "Miss Saigon."

Moving to the streets in Asia from the pop cultural scenes, Prasso adds her personal experience of her 15 years in Asia. At a Bangkok nightclub, observing Western men are fascinated by the supple flesh of delicate Asian female bodies, Prasso describes, "It is an easy purchase, this experience of Asia that is fantasy _ indulging and, ultimately, 'remasculating' _engendering feelings of masculinity or dominance which these Western men may have found diminished in their own cultures."

Still on the streets in Bangkok, as she witnesses numerous Asian women escorting Western men with bald heads and pot bellies, she couldn't help but think, "What are they thinking? What does she want for dating the paunchy middle-aged man?" She believes that the Western man exploited the Asian woman, and vice versa: the Asian woman out of her need for money and Western man out of his sexual desire. Not only from the street but also from the growth in demand for mail order brides from Asian countries testifies to the exploitation, she laments.

In a nutshell, Prasso believes that it is unfair to stereotype the Asian female as submissive and sexually available. As a Japanese adage says, "Ten people, ten colors," Asians do have their own varieties. Contrary to Western perceptions, not all Asian women are submissive, obedient, or sexually insidious, she argues.

Later in the discussion session after her lecture, I raised several questions: "Who are those Western men or Americans chasing after Asian female? Aren't they what the Southern Californians would call, UCLA (Ugly Caucasians Living with Asians)? Aren't they at the bottom of the Darwin's food chain that they couldn't get what they want in their own land because of their low social status and therefore only option left for them is to chase after those Asians? I know, without any empirical data, it'll be difficult to press the argument" Prasso admitted that it is true partially and added, "Just street wisdom will give us a telling insight. In England where I used to live, they say that if you can't make it here, that is, to find your girlfriend, go to Hong Kong."

After her lecture, I was glad to see someone who boldly proclaims that the prevailing myths must be eradicated in Western culture. However, it won't be rectified easily unless the spirit of the imperialism and the missionary complex disappear from the Western mind, and unless the economic and social conditions of Asian females in their own countries improve to the point where they won't be demanding the provision from the Western men. In spite of the plethora of stereotypes, in final analysis, we still need to define ourselves individually.