Several of my friends insist that Asians require more personal space than white Americans. However, if I'm in a room with a white girl and an Asian girl the Asian is much more likely to end up touching me (especially the Chinese ones). I'm too uptight to initiative physical contact with anyone, so if it happens the girl started it. My only white friend who's ever an exception to this is a Romanian immigrant. So why the difference between what everyone's telling me and what I'm observing?

I don't know about the Asian ones, but being obsessed with culture, I can say that the Romanian one, I know why. In European Countries, the personal bubble is just smaller. Not because they're perverted, just because it's culture. Just like Americans hug a lot, where in Europe hugs are much less common. It's just a cultural rule that no one talks about...it just happens.

It's a stereotype. There are always exceptions.