Roxy,
Well, I'm always hesitant to talk about the 'disadvantage' of being Asian in a dating world, etc...because I don't want to be that person who uses 'race' as an excuse.....ok but to your point:

Yes, I think Northwest has become better in terms of 'tolerance'....but I still think much of it is on the surface. Definitely people are more accepting, etc in terms of hanging out, being friends, etc.

But for deeper relationship, I still think people are still a bit stand-offish...might not be for a US/born-raised Asians, but for people in the middle (Asians who have been here in the US for a while), it's quite difficult....people can feel that you've 'assimilated' but still not quite "American" enough. I think even in college, most of my dates were non-Americans (regardless of race) and not surprisingly, I hate to generalize, majority of my friends are either California transplant, or at the very least have been to outside the country. I noticed the hardcore Portland, born and raised people (especially from smaller town) are operating at a totally different wavelength...not just the women...people in general..sorry to be stereotyping, but I still experience this until this day.

I'm not a hardcore religous nut, but I go to my house of worships and it's interesting to see that I belonged to a certain group for almost four years....it took me at least a good two years before somebody invited me to lunch (after I brought the topic up numerous times), but there were other people who became 'friends' with each other very very quickly even only being there for two months. It could be a pure personality mismatch, but if that's the case...it's interesting it only happens with certain group of people. I've heard in the past some women say that they got tired of bad men, bad dates..THEN they start to 'open their mind' a little bit and started dating other races...it's almost you have to be treated very badly before you can 'consider' going out with me. No thanks.

I don't think other Foreign men (European) have this problem many people in the US have always liked European men...how often do you hear "British accent is sexy" "French accent...ooh lalaa". Not too many say "Oh my goodness, that guy from Chen's Golden Wok....the way he pronounced 'garlic chicken'....me likey!" Not so much!

Many people also assumed that I only want Asian women (which at this point, yes I'm leaning towards them). I've heard anywhere from "Yeah it's good for you to marry a nice girl from back home" or "You should go back and marry yourself a nice Asian girl". Normally they imply that Asian women are 'submissive' (blech i don't like that word) and more subservient to their husband, etc..etc..

One even told me I think 'American women is too much for you' LOL!(I kid you not)

I will have to say in general, it's somewhat better than when I first came here back in the 90s...finally I don't get the "wow, I detect some accent, but you speak english so well" anymore. My mom/dad actually went to Vancouver and after they got back they told me a bunch of teenagers were making 'ching chang' kinda noise and pointed at them when they were waiting for their seat at a restaurant. This was back in 2008.

But in bigger cities like Portland, it's not as bad.