Joss Paper: Symbol of Grief, Tradition, and Reclamation in Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

What Is Joss Paper?

Joss paper – also called ghost money or spirit paper – is a traditional Chinese offering burned during the Hungry Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Jie). The paper is crafted to resemble everyday objects: currency, clothes, luxury goods, even pets. Burning it releases these items to the spirits of the dead, providing comfort and appeasing hungry ghosts, especially those who died violently or were left unburied. In Kylie Lee Baker's novel, joss paper becomes a tangible link between the living and the dead, and a measure of Cora Zeng's spiritual and emotional journey.

Where Joss Paper Appears in the Novel

Joss paper first appears in Chapter Three, when Cora visits her Auntie Zeng for the start of Ghost Month. Auntie Zeng has a collection of special orders – a knockoff Gucci bag, an origami Pomeranian, bottles of vitamins – all made from paper. She explains that she found a man who can make anything in joss paper to burn for ancestors. The scene immediately establishes the material's purpose: to send goods to the afterlife for the dead to use. Auntie Zeng uses it for her deceased husband (uncle), whom she feeds to prevent his haunting.

Later, Auntie Zeng slips a package of joss paper into Cora's bag, urging her to burn something for her sister Delilah, who died violently. Cora throws it away, rejecting both the ritual and the grief. In Chapter Twenty-Three, Cora sees the joss paper packet and matches at Auntie’s again and takes only the matches – a small step toward participating in the offering. By the novel's climax in Chapter Twenty-Four, Cora uses those same matches to set fire to the mayor's residence, transforming the ritual from a private family offering into a public act of vengeance for the murdered Asian women.

How the Symbol’s Meaning Changes

Initially, joss paper represents an uncomfortable truth Cora refuses to face: that Delilah’s spirit may be suffering. Auntie Zeng explicitly warns that violent deaths leave hungry ghosts and that Cora should burn offerings so Delilah can move on. Cora’s rejection is a rejection of the spiritual worldview her aunt inhabits. Later, as Cora confronts the serial murders and her own trauma, she begins to see joss paper not as superstition but as a form of justice. The matches she salvages become the spark that lights a literal fire against systemic injustice. By the final chapter, Cora participates in the lantern-release ritual, offering fire and prayer to the dead in a sincere act of love and defiance.

Character Connections

• Auntie Zeng is the keeper of the tradition. She burns joss paper regularly, maintains altars, and interprets the needs of the dead. Her actions educate Cora and the reader about the ritual’s practical and spiritual functions. She embodies the continuity of Chinese spiritual practices in diaspora.

• Cora Zeng starts as a skeptic who actively discards joss paper. Her arc moves from avoidance to reluctant acceptance to active participation. By the end, she not only uses the ritual to honor Delilah but also to memorialize every murdered Asian woman whose ghost was never fed.

• Delilah Zeng never appears alive in the story but is the primary reason Cora must confront joss paper. Delilah’s violent death (decapitation on subway tracks) makes her a classic hungry ghost. Auntie Zeng’s insistence on burning paper is an attempt to help Delilah’s spirit, and Cora’s eventual offering (half an orange, not paper) shows that even imperfect rituals can carry meaning.

• Yuxi He and the other murdered women are implicitly connected to joss paper through Cora’s prayer: “No one knew to burn joss paper for her, leaving her ghost starving and suffering.” The absence of proper offerings for these victims underscores the broader neglect by society and institutions.

Themes Linked to Joss Paper

• Grief and Unresolved Trauma: Cora’s refusal to burn paper mirrors her refusal to process Delilah’s death. The ritual forces her to acknowledge loss.

• Hungry Ghosts and Chinese Spiritual Traditions: Joss paper is the mechanism through which hungry ghosts are fed. The novel uses this tradition to explore belief, doubt, and cultural inheritance.

• Systemic Injustice and Police Cover-Up: When institutions fail to bring justice, Cora turns to spiritual and violent measures. Joss paper becomes a symbol of the care that official channels refuse to provide.

• Anti-Asian Racism During the Pandemic: The racist violence that kills Delilah and other Asian women creates the need for joss paper offerings. The burning ritual is both a response to and a rejection of that hatred.

• Survival and Found Family: Auntie Zeng’s insistence on feeding ghosts is an act of care that eventually draws Cora into a community of the living and the dead.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Cora initially throw away the joss paper Auntie Zeng gives her?
Cora throws away the joss paper because she refuses to acknowledge Delilah’s violent death. She associates the ritual with painful truths about suicide, murder, and her own guilt. She also does not believe in hungry ghosts at that point and sees the paper as useless superstition. Her rejection is a defense mechanism against overwhelming grief.

2. How does joss paper function differently in Auntie Zeng’s hands compared to Cora’s?
Auntie Zeng uses joss paper as a routine, almost practical tool to manage the afterlife of her ancestors. She burns paper houses and food to prevent hauntings (e.g., feeding her husband’s ghost so he won’t bother her). Cora, by contrast, never actually burns joss paper herself. Instead, she repurposes the matches from a joss paper packet to start a fire that destroys the mayor’s house. For Auntie Zeng, joss paper is about maintaining peace; for Cora, fire becomes about waging war.

3. In what way does the absence of joss paper for the murdered Asian women become a political statement?
When Cora discovers that no one has burned joss paper for victims like Yuxi He, she recognizes that these women have been forgotten by society even in death. The lack of offerings symbolizes institutional neglect. By eventually burning the mayor’s residence, Cora substitutes a spectacular act of arson for the missing rituals, demanding that the dead be seen and honored.

4. The novel ends with Cora offering half an orange to a ghostly hand instead of burning joss paper. What does this substitution suggest?
The orange offering is a personal, improvised gesture that replaces the formal joss paper ritual. It shows Cora’s growth: she is finally willing to feed the dead, but on her own terms. The orange is also a callback to the first time she fed Delilah’s ghost (Chapter Ten), creating a symbolic continuity. The act reclaims agency over fear and grief – Cora is no longer paralyzed by trauma but can act, however imperfectly, to care for the spirits.

For deeper exploration, see the book home page and character guides for Cora Zeng and Auntie Zeng.