How does the superstition of the mothers affect the daughters?

Mothers see it necessary to teach their daughters superstition, because they think their daughters are naturally blind to the spiritual world. Lena sees ghosts and Rose believes Old Man Chou in her dreams. Rose and Lena both see themselves as having the ability to change their fate by superstition, by chunwang chihan. But superstition also makes them feel helpless; Rose has the premonition that Bing will die but cannot do anything to stop it. In the same way, Lena sees her marriage falling apart but feels helpless to prevent it. In the end, the daughters' connection to their mothers comes through the ghosts of their ancestors. When she meets her sisters, Jing-mei realizes that she has been connected to her Chinese heritage all along in spirit, even if not in her actions. When Jing-mei and her sisters look at the Polaroid, they see themselves appear like ghosts out of the mist to become the striking image of Suyuan. By the end of the book Jing-mei, like the other daughters, realizes that she is just as much a part of her mother's spirit as she is of her flesh. Furthermore, she is the only one who can save her mother from becoming a ghost, by learning from her strength and keeping her heritage alive.