It is a quite complicated subject. It is partly a result of colonialism, partly of nationalism, partly of globalization and partly of the way world unfolded after WW2.

Basically, beginning of the century, when Asian countries got 'freedom', all the political leaders who got power were educated in western philosophy. They read western books, spoke western languages as a sign of education and adopted competing western ideologies as the model of society. The old, native one was discarded because it was a memorial of defeat. And people accepted it. You can see that everywhere - Gandhi was a barrister who wore coat before he become a monk (and all his lieutenants, from Nehru to Ambedkar, wore suits), Mao wore western clothes. Korean, Japan - they are the best examples of it. Rich people had become rich by following foreigners, and when foreigners left them alone, these same rich westernized people became rulers. Since then there is a fascination with everything west. There are some poor people who are still clinging to the old system, if they can. But the middle class has almost no option if they want to get rich.

As I said, it is a very complicated topic in sociology and there is no way I can explain it, as much as I understood it, here. I am eventually planning to write a book, starting from a dedicated blog. Will update here when I do.

I would really love to read such a book! I have been researching a lot on this topic myself, to be honest. Specifically about why India and China (the "East") are so far behind the west. And in the case of India at least, the fault lies a lot with the way history is taught. It is assumed that India was a mostly agrarian economy and the people had no way of defending themselves from superior European guns. While that is partly true, it also had a huge industry in both firearms and metal working before the British conquest, apart from Textiles.

So for India I could understand that colonialism created a West-oriented culture, but couldn't see why so in China, which was never under a foreign power. Your point about the rulers and intelligentsia being westernized makes sense in this context.

I would recommend Pankaj Mishra if you are interested in this topic. Specifically for China, here is an article: http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-Poet-Unwelcome/281819

For the same reason you would eat Chinese food when there's hamburgers, listen to Gangnam Style when there's Beethoven, or watch Japanese anime when there's Disney?

Also, China's a big place, the developer putting up a replica of the Eiffel tower is doing so precisely to separate his development from all the other ones out there.

I don't think it's the same. I've also noticed that nearly all apartment complex, villa, or furniture mall advertisements feature a style that could be described as Baroque. There are markets for traditional Chinese style furnishings, but it's as if the default for new construction is European style. This is at least true in big cities. Historical ancient cities sometimes mandate all the buildings have the same traditional style. And older homes are more likely to contain more traditional Chinese art and furniture. But for young people decorating their first home it's cheaper and much more common to buy furniture that mimics Western design.