Abstract: The mother-daughter relationship constitutes a central theme in Amy Tan’s novels. In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, what links three generations of Chinese American women is not only family history or cultural identity, but also their shared fear of ghosts. Constrained by traditional ethics and patriarchal family hierarchy, Precious Auntie interprets her traumatic experiences as a curse of fate. LuLing internalizes her mother’s superstitions and fatalistic worldview, unconsciously passing her emotional burdens on to her daughter. Ruth, although rationally rejects the existence of ghosts, suppresses her own desires for years, eventually developing intermittent aphasia. Drawing on spectral criticism and the historical context of Asian American literature, this article examines how family fear is formed, transmitted and ultimately dissolved through three generations in this novel, arguing that ghosts cease to function merely as threatening figures and instead become repositories of family memory when lived experiences are fully voiced, heard and written down. This process of healing demonstrates that storytelling and narrative play a crucial role in alleviating intergenerational fear and reconstructing emotional bonds.

Key words: Asian American literature, spectral criticism, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, fear, ghost