| This is a study on the gender roles and identities of Chaoxianzu transnational female migrants. Through their practice of motherhood and construction of 'home' away from home, an experience linking the macro- and micro- factors was shaped. Factors mediating the trans-border practice of female immigrants, such as the global market, state, society and individual autonomy were all taken into consider in this research.;Firstly, I used the term "stratified womanhood" to exemplify how motherhood constitutes the core of Chaoxianzu immigrant women's concept of gender roles in the family. I argue that their transnational motherhood was seen as better accomplished through "breadwinning", not by it, which actually challenged the public/domestic dichotomy by blurring and crossing the boundary between "breadwinning" and "homemaking". This journey was seen and taken by the women as a big step forward on the way of realizing their dreams of success in the name of their children, family and country.;Further, through a diachronic view, I examine the effects of transnational processes on Yanbian rural families. I noticed that a new type of family structure which I coined "transnational sans-mid-generation split household" has appeared, and the family structure has begun to lean towards a "uterine family" on the practice level. Yet the patriarchal ideology has not been impacted upon. Thus, with the resumption of the original patriarchal family structure in the second stage of migration, the transformation of gender and family structure was still an "unfinished revolution".;Lastly, this thesis challenges a static view of boundary. Seeing boundary as floating and constantly being constructed as resources are being re-distributed, I argue that through the macro- and micro- politics of boundary making, individuals actively reproduce inequality in the social structure. |
