This thesis studies and discusses Sansei, Vietnamese refugee, and Korean adoptee’s transnational experience in their Asian “home” countries and views the accounts of their experience as “return narratives.” It concerns how Asian American subjectivity evolves through Asian Americans’ interaction with Asian community. By analyzing how the narrative subjects represent and renegotiate their relations with their Asian homelands, I point out that the historical traces of the World War Two, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War complicate Sansei, refugee, and adoptee’s relations with their Asian homelands respectively and hence make Asia a site of contradiction in their Asian American identity. Return narratives reveal that Asian American identity formation is not only conditioned by domestic racial politics in the United States but also by U.S.-Asia international politics. By understanding the narrative subjects’ self-positioning in their return journeys, I contend that the Asian American subjectivity is not only formed in the migratory routes to America but also in the constant and traumatic interplay between the country of origin and that of adoption. Hence, this thesis argues that we need to critically reflect on the U.S. centric reading method and to adopt a transpacific perspective to read Asian American cultural texts.

Chapter One maps the general picture of return narratives, including its definition and forms, and explains how it is different from dominant Asian American literature. This thesis does not read Asian American return experience as travel literature, because in return narratives Asia is not just an object of representation but also a subject that challenges Asian American subjectivity. In this chapter, I try to present the importance of return narratives to the Asian American studies field.

Chapter Two analyzes David Mura’s－a Sansei－return experience in Turning Japanese to discuss the contradictory meanings of Japan to Japanese Americans. The World War Two became a historical watershed that cut Japanese American community from Japanese community. Japan becomes an other in Mura’s identity; however, for a Sansei, Japan is also the site of cultural identification. In this chapter, I point out that the meanings of Japan in Japanese American identity should be understood within the context of War histories.

Chapter Three analyzes Andrew Pham’s Catfish and Mandala and discusses Pham’s contradictory memory about Vietnam and the Vietnam War. In U.S. public imagination, the Vietnam War offered Vietnamese refugees a chance to come to America and to become a “model minority”. But in the eyes of Vietnamese, Pham is nonetheless regarded as a successful transnational subject, someone superior to his Vietnamese brothers. This point of view from Vietnam challenges Pham’s subjectivity as a good refugee-turned-model-minority. In this chapter, I intend to show how U.S.-Vietnam international relation shaped the formation of Vietnamese American subjectivity.

Chapter Four discusses Jane Jeong Trenka’s The Language of Blood and Fugitive Visions. Trenka’s anger toward her adoption not only speaks to her discriminative experience as an Asian in America but also to the history of the Korean modernization and gender inequality. In this chapter, I try to present how Asian American identity articulates Asian immigration stories, American neocolonialism in Asia, and Asian nationalism.

Chapter Five concludes the discussion in the previous four chapters. I claim that return narratives deconstruct the imagination of Asian America as a model minority within the corrals of U.S. multiculturalism and emphasize the needs to understand the meanings of Asian America by adopting a transnational perspective.

此篇論文透過閱讀日裔三世，越南難民，以及韓國養女「回到」亞洲的回歸經驗，旨在探討亞美敘事主體與亞洲經驗交鋒的過程。透過分析亞美敘事主體在日本、越南、韓國進行身份重塑與主體協商的過程，我們發現族裔歷史以及戰爭記憶會影響亞美身份的形成。跨國經驗與亞美認同不只在「去程」發生作用，同時也在「回程」產生效果。在亞洲的經驗挑戰並重塑了亞美身份。本文並指出亞美身份歸屬的困難不只和美國境內的種族政治有關也和亞洲國家裡的民族主義與現代性相關聯。回歸迫使亞美主體去面對這兩種政治的同構性，也使得我們必須採取一種跨國主義式的閱讀策略來理解「亞裔美國」的意義。

第一章介紹回歸敘事的定義、形式、興起的背景以及它和傳統的亞美文學作品的異同之處。本文不從旅行文學的框架檢視回歸經驗，因為在亞美的回歸經驗中，亞洲不只是被再現的對象，而是挑戰敘事者主體性的主角。在此章，筆者試圖呈現回歸敘事對亞美文學的重要性。

第二章藉由分析David Mura’s Turning Japanese來說明亞洲對於亞美主體的矛盾意義。對日裔美國社群而言，二戰切割了日本史與日裔美國史。在二戰的影響下，日本成為Mura認同的他者，但此他者同時又與他關係親密。筆者指出亞洲不是認同的原鄉與原點，而是離散與跨國歷史的糾纏之處。此章突顯了歷史的重要以及對認同的影響。

第三章分析Andrew Pham’s Catfish and Mandala並指出Pham的故事如何突顯了越戰記憶的政治性。Pham在美國文化被視為好難民，因為他成功地融入美國。但是在越南，Pham被視為成功的跨國人士，是越南失去的手足同胞。這樣的觀點挑戰並重塑了Pham身為好難民的主體性。筆者指出Pham的回歸經驗讓我們看到美-越政治關係和戰爭歷史如何形塑矛盾的越美主體性。

第四章分析Jane Jeong Trenka’s The Language of Blood and Fugitive Visions。此章指出Trenka身份歸屬的困難不僅突顯了美國境內的種族政治問題也述說著韓-美之間的(新)殖民歷史、性別移動，以及亞洲對於現代性的想像。筆者試圖說明亞美身份認同乃是亞裔移民、美國殖民主義、以及亞洲民族主義交織的產物。

第五章總結前四章的分析。筆者提出回歸敘事打破我們對於亞裔美國作為美國境內少數民族的想像，並再次強調以跨國主義式的閱讀策略來掌握「亞裔美國」的意義。

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