many people here are overly superstitious they think ghosts are real even in movies they think the ghosts in the movies are real

Their fear of the "G" word, is like my fear of Candy Man or Beetlejuice... but I at least have a two word buffer. Theirs are more of a say it once and they will come.

Dunno, I often people often jokingly call each other ghost. It can be as simple a meaning as calling someone a weirdo. Not always a super bad connotation.

I don't even notice that there is a problem with it. I've heard Chinese people calling little kids 小鬼 as in 'little ghost', kinda simillar to little tyke, etc

"Ghost" can be used as an angry slur against the Japanese. "Ocean Ghost" an angry slur against whites, and "Black ghost" an angry slur against blacks. It's usually proceeded by "该死的". Ghost, used with a diminutive suffix, is the strongest racial slur in the Mandarin language. The equivalent to "jap", "Cracker" and "Nigger," respectively.

Google "该死的洋鬼子" to see what I mean.