Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine ways in which the Chinese American roots tourists reshaped and redefine the concept of who they are and where they belong through visiting China. Based on the interviews with 40 interviewees who visited China, the study revealed that, although they visited China because their imagined tie to the ancestral land, such ties were often contested by an actual encounter with China. After the visitors returned from China, they acknowledged China as their ancestral homeland but also reaffirmed where they belong is the United States.
