論文目的檢視華裔女性如何尋找家園，專注她們面臨種族及性別歧視，同時討論跨國主義對於家國概念的影響。跨國主義不僅影響美國主流社會，也衝擊華裔美國人的生活。華裔女性不僅是美國少數族裔，同時也受跨國主義影響，我將探討她們如何努力找尋家園。她們至少採用四種不同方式來找尋家園，更避免採用造成種族或性別限制的策略，免得主流社會用限制概念來隔離華裔美國人。透過閱讀四個文本，我強調華裔女性想展現文學中尋找家園的主題，透過分析作家們的語言及寫作技巧，我相信她們讓女性尋找家園的主題更豐盛。
本論文挑選四本華裔美國文學小說，關注文本中如何展現家園，尤其專注女性的家(園)空間議題。四本華裔女性小說家的文本：伍慧明《骨》、莊華《跨越》、任璧蓮《愛妻》、譚恩美《百種神祕感覺》刻劃不同類型華裔家(園)的空間，所謂家(園)的空間並非侷限在居住的地點，論文中運用家的觀念，指涉居住地點外，同時也論及祖國概念。
我透過三個觀點來分析華裔女性家園空間尋找回家的路徑：個人、族群與(跨)國族觀點，首先，每個人建構出自己的最理想的家庭空間，不同概念導致家庭衝突，然而女性之間因家庭概念類似而引發共鳴，則能建立盟友關係；其次，族群觀點來看，中國祖國外，中國城是華裔美國人的新家園，提供華裔社群的保護卻也形同隔離空間；最後，家(園)空間亦指涉心目中永遠的祖國，全球化跨國文化對中國祖國的形象有相當影響，因此我也處理華裔女性跨國家(園)議題。接下來是論文的大綱敘述。
第二章討論伍慧明《骨》，華裔女性如何逃脫舊金山中國城的拘禁，進行她們的尋家之旅，同時挑戰華裔中國城看不見的隔離邊界。
接下來，跨越出中國城，華裔女性在大城市的市郊築家。任璧蓮《愛妻》實驗性的刻劃華裔女性家(園)成了多種族文化交叉空間，第三章討論她們如何在中國城外進行尋家之旅。
第四章探討譚恩美《百種神祕感覺》，中國與美國之間的旅行，顯示華裔女性回中國尋根，同時也討論兩國都是祖國的可能性。
最後，華裔女性旅行跨越多國國界，跨國界旅行延伸個人找尋家庭，找尋家鄉，尋找祖國的範圍，都在第五章莊華《跨越》展現。

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how Chinese American women search for their homes, focusing especially on the racial discrimination they face, and concentrating on the sexual discrimination they encounter. Along the way, I will take into consideration the trend of transnationalism, which exerts notable influence over people’s sense of belonging and their ideas of homes. Considering Chinese American women to be ethnic Americans and also under the transnational trend, I will further elaborate that Chinese American women have struggled to find their homes in their own ways.
My dissertation selects four prominent Chinese American novels and aims to contribute to the question: How do these four novels represent homes, women’s home in particular? The four Chinese American women novels I put together in this study, Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone, Gish Jen’s The Love Wife, Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses, and Chuang Hua’s Crossings, sketch different Chinese American home settings. So-called home in fact consists of more than one location. The home, which I choose to elaborate in my analysis, alludes to both the location we presently inhabit and homeland elsewhere.
To investigate Chinese American women’s home-space, I take three major routes in the itinerary, that is, individual, community and (trans)national perspectives. Firstly, people conceptualize their ideal home-spaces and take different routes home. The differences sometimes bring conflicts to a family. Sometimes, resonant ideas of home form a powerful female bounding among women. Secondly, inhabited places in the United States, maybe Chinatown, are considered new homelands for Chinese Americans. Chinatown as an ethnic enclave segregates Chinese Americans from the rest of the American world but necessarily provides communal support for the growth of Chinese Americans. Thirdly, the homeland, where they are longing to go, is another meaning of home, and its image is undergoing change under the influences of globalization. Therefore, I approach Chinese American women’s homes from a (trans)national perspective.
I put Ng’s Bone in my Chapter Two. Starting from San Francisco Chinatown in the United States, Chinese American women have been trying to escape from the choking confinement from a closed Chinatown community. They need to undertake a journey, challenging an invisible racial border of Chinatown.
Next, beyond Chinatown, Chinese American women find their homes in a suburban neighborhood. Making homes in multiracial and multicultural societies is never the same with that in Chinatown. More complicated interracial interactions take place in an experimental Chinese American home portrayed by Gish Jen in her third novel, The Love Wife. That is to say, Chinese American women go on a journey, exploring space out of Chinatown. Therefore, I place this trip in my Chapter Three.
Moreover, my Chapter Four examines Amy Tan’s Hundred Secret Senses. Traveling back to China draws routes for a journey between China and the United States. Such a journey indicates a possible homeland for Chinese American women in China. Therefore, a homeward journey has become a trip back to ancestral home. It further expands the meaning of home from an individual quest for homeland for Chinese Americans as an ethnic group.
Eventually, Chinese American women travel farther to other counties, taking a transnational journey home, and finally return home in the United States. A homeward journey therefore extends from an individual quest for home, gradually in quest of her homeland, and to a transnational journey among various nations. Hence, Chuang Hua’s Crossings is discussed in Chapter Five.