Emily Mead's Lit Seminar

I did my lit. seminar on "Waiting Between the Trees", Ying-Ying St. Clair. My passage was on page 286, line 17. I thought that overall my lit. seminar went very well. The class was split into two groups, so everyone got to participate a lot more.

My first question was: Why does Ying-Ying feel that she needs to "cut her daughter's spirit loose"? And why does Ying-Ying want to give her daughter her own spirit?
The group answered that Ying-Ying felt that her daughter was too americanized, and that she was going down the wrong path, and by "cutting her spirit loose" she will "save her" and her Chinese culture. Ying-Ying wants Lena to understand her Chinese culture better. Also, Ying-Ying is passing invisible strength on to Lena, through her tiger spirit.

My second question was: Why does Ying-Ying consider herself a "ghost"? In China, what does it mean to be a "ghost", and how does this tie into other stories in the book?
In China, ghosts are looked down upon, and not respected. Ying-Ying considers herself a ghost because she is not really 'there' anymore, she is only a shadow. She is not heard by her daughter, she feels that she is invisible. She cannot speak up for herself. Other stories that tie into the idea of being a ghost are "The Moon Lady", where Ying-Ying had to be 'invisible' to be seen and heard by the Moon Lady. Also, in the story with An-Mei and her mother, An-Mei's aunt calls her mother a ghost, because she left her family and is no longer respected.