One good answer to why Chinese and Japanese-Americans specifically, but generalizing to all Asians "got less fucked in today's society" is the excellent book _C

One good answer to why Chinese and Japanese-Americans specifically, but generalizing to all Asians "got less fucked in today's society" is the excellent book _Color of Success: Asian-Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority_, tracing the way that white Americans viewed Asians from the Yellow Peril era to the current model minority one. Strong recommend, even if it is about as dry as a Perl book.