Women of the Orient. Boye Lafayette De Mente

      PREFACE

      Immediately following publication of Marco Polo's tales of the almost mythical land of Cathay, small bands of European adventurers, missionaries, and traders began making the long journey to the Orient. Some of them braved the perils of sailing uncharted seas in small ships. Others trekked for months across bandit-infested mountains and deserts.

      As the centuries passed, the exotic lure of the Orient grew stronger, attracting an ever increasing number of Western men. By the advent of the present century this stream of American and European men pouring into the Far East had become a flood.

      The lure of business profits, of making religious converts, and expanding or protecting political influence were given as the reasons why Western men were drawn to the Orient as if by some magnetic force. But why did so many of these men stay on in the Orient after they had succeeded or failed in their original purpose? The answer is simple. They stayed on because of the women!

      Of course, many men may deny this, but after carefully considering the various advantages and disadvantages facing foreigners who live and work in the Orient, it seems to me that no other reason is even remotely possible.

      It is an established fact among those who have firsthand knowledge of the matter that Western men have traditionally been fascinated by Oriental women. Both Marco Polo in China and Will Adams in Japan would probably have found some way to shorten their visits if it had not been for the charms of the young ladies made available to them. In recent years the growing number of international romances has proven that this fascination is not always the "love them and leave them" type. The old rationalization that it was only low-class, uneducated men who went for Oriental girls has also been thoroughly discredited.

      There is considerable evidence that the more highly educated and cultured the Western man, the more likely he is to truly appreciate Oriental women— whether or not they have pretty faces and seductive figures.

      Which group of Oriental women is the prettiest or the all-around best from the girl-watcher or girl-hunter's viewpoint is, of course, a matter of personal opinion. Some Western men consider Thai girls the most beautiful women in Asia. Other Western men believe the girls of Taiwan are the most appealing. Veteran New York Times foreign correspondent Robert Trumbull once observed that the tawny complexion, piquant faces, cascading glossy black hair, and incredibly tiny waists of Vietnamese girls undoubtedly made them the most attractive women in the Orient. Other men are just as lavish in their praise of the beauty, personality, and manners of Korean and Malaysian girls.

      For the record, more men vote for Japanese girls as the all-around best. Some of the advantages Japanese girls have are sociological—greater independence from their families; more freedom to cater to their own desires—while others are strictly mechanical. The abundance and high quality of transportation and recreational facilities in Japan, for example, have a fundamental influence on male-female relations. As many playboys who travel the Orient are quick to point out, making contact, entertaining and keeping in touch with girls in less advanced areas is often more difficult, time-consuming, and less rewarding. From my own experience and that of others, however, there are compensating factors which make Seoul or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) just as interesting if not more so than any of Japan's leading cities.

      There are many fundamental differences among the women described as Oriental, not only in appearance but in attitudes and personalities. A Korean girl, for example, is as different from a Chinese as a French girl is from an American.

      There are also several points of view in considering what Oriental women have. A lot can be made of the argument that it isn't so much what they have but where they have it. It is a well-known fact that men are very adaptable and able to adjust their attitudes and tastes to fit a wide variety of circumstances. Throughout history men have proven that they will take up with whatever females are available. This has led the "it's not what but where" theorists to the argument that if there were Western girls available in the Orient on a par basis, Western men would prefer them.

      Much to the chagrin and embarrassment of many American women subjected to this test, it has been proven numerous times that Western men choose Oriental women when given a free choice. During the weird, wonderful years of the U.S. military occupation of Japan just after World War II, when there were thousands of American women there amidst hundreds of thousands of love-hungry GI's, most of the women found they could not compete with the petite, compliant Japanese lasses—even though many of the American girls resorted to the last weapon in their arsenal. Similar circumstances have since proven the same point in several other Asian countries.

      The Oriental girls referred to in this book include Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipina. The nationalities are covered separately in the order in which the American traveler is most likely to meet them on a routine tour of the Orient.

      My purpose has been to attempt to discover and analyze what