Fellow Asian woman. I agree with your mentor. Hard work has never been the sole catalyst for success, nor is it usually even the primary catalyst. "Style" - by which I mean charisma or interpersonal skills - are equally if not more important, and don't even get me started on luck and/or privilege.

That's not to discount anyone's hard work, as hard work certainly helps sustain a career over time. However, there are plenty of extremely hard-working people and their work ethic only takes them so far. They move up a rung at a time or someone in upper management decides they are perfect where they are. What truly allows social mobility is where someone was born and then it's the extroverted, charming people who are typically the movers and shakers (with some notable exceptions).

As for the external factors such as race, gender, even attractiveness, etc., there's no reliable way of telling to what extent tokenism "advantages" or "disadvantages" an individual's career trajectory even though there are macro trends that can tell us about society at large. I think it's good to have awareness around those factors but it's pointless to obsess over them apart from being as fair (substantively, not simply formally) as possible if you're in the position to hire, mentor, or promote someone else.