MacFall, I think your friend is pretty much completely wrong. I notice that a lot of men have a "thing" for Asian women specifically. I don't know. But being a little white girl, I've often wondered.
I've heard it explained that Oriental women tend to look a lot younger than their western counterparts, and guys like them because we're all secretly into really young girls.
I don't think that's quite true, but it's the only explanation I've heard.
Protip: don't call them 'Oriental'.
Why not? It's a technically correct way to differentiate them from Indian, Pakistani, Persian and other non-Oriental Asians.
They don't like it, and it just sounds stupid.
"They" don't include any of the ones I know, and it sounds less stupid than "those women who live in the Asiatic Geographic area which includes China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, Tibet, Vietnam, The non-Polynesian Pacific Islands, and the Easternmost parts of Russia".