My Hungry Ghosts: Essays and Incantations

In this collection of timely essays and incantations, award-winning author May-lee Chai explores the intersection of world history and her own—feeding herself and her ghosts in the process. Drawing upon the traditional Chinese Daoist and Buddhist concept of hungry ghosts, May-lee Chai writes about personal hauntings, the people, histories, ancestors, and family members who continue to touch her life. Hungry ghosts are spirits that are caught between realms forgotten by their descendants and separated from their ancestors. Yet the Chinese traditional celebration of the Hungry Ghost Festival in the 7th lunar month shows a path forward and a way to heal, when the living can still feed even the hungriest of the wandering spirits in this most egalitarian of holidays.