Definitely not "recent." This has been going on a long time.

I lived in Taiwan for 7 years, and witnessed a lot of this, and wasn't bothered by it unless one or the other partner was being lied to (which happened rather often) or abused in some way. I also found that plenty of foreign men in Asia still wanted to date me (a white woman, also living in Asia) - usually it was the guys who'd been there a while, realized there was no free pass (a relationship isn't going to suddenly become easy because you're dating someone from another culture), and craved the familiar taste of home.

I do have to say this though - the guys who wanted to date an Asian woman because they're "more submissive" generally got their asses handed to them. An Asian woman isn't a plaything, no matter how much porn you've seen and enjoyed. She's a living, breathing human with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, and men who pretended otherwise got pretty fucked up in those relationships. You'd think as a white woman watching this, I'd feel vindicated, but I didn't! The cultural differences made for some very painful situations - not just for the white dude, or for his beautiful Asian wife/girlfriend, but also for their children if they had them.

Relationships are almost always hard. Throw in a language barrier and cultural differences, and you've got a lot to contend with. Still worth it for many. I saw some beautiful relationships among those who survived the difficulties.