1. EMOTION CULTURE: FROM NEGATIVE TO A WAY OF LIFE

Socio-legal studies have long ignored emotion as a fundamental feature affecting the practices of law. Although some have addressed how negative emotions, such as anger or guilt, can influence the decision to mobilize one’s legal rights,Footnote ¹ only recently have others begun to explore how other more positive emotions, such as the sense of belonging, may affect the role of law in personal and social conflicts.Footnote ² Chua’s new book has initiated a rather thorough exploration of this by uncovering the emotion culture underlying human rights practice in Myanmar and describing the constant construction and reconstruction of the sense of self, social bonds, and political demands.

Chua’s writing reminds us that, in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) movement, emotions and social ties are not static, but rather reshaped and cultivated, while simultaneously serving as an emotional driver of the development of human agency. In Chapters 2 and 3, she describes the social process that helps to make human rights relevant within the context of Myanmar; to help LGBT individuals overcome fears and anxiety about discrimination, human rights discourse has acted as a catalyst for the adoption of culturally embedded and faith-based empathy and responsibility for one another. This has the power to transform feelings into a positive sense of belonging that ignites a driving force capable of moving the focus from the individual to the collective (pp. 73–80), thereby creating a new emotion culture that is distinctive from older queer communities (pp. 84–6). Chua refers to this positive meaning of emotion culture “as a way of life” that demonstrates a collective pursuit in community building that is separate from the mere demands of individual interests.

2. RESTRUCTURING SOCIAL BELONGING FOR INCLUSION

In Chua’s analysis, human rights discourse can substantialize as well as challenge the existing power relationship that exists within social groups. For Burmese LGBT activists, this has brought about a sense of social belonging not only outside of the majority, but also as a form of resistance from the unreasonable discrimination that is expected from most people in society. In pursuing respect and acceptance, Burmese LGBT activists are driven by this discourse to either connect or disconnect with the existing social role or personal image as prescribed by the existing power, while restructuring their sense of social belonging through personal interactions, highlighting a legal consciousness that is more than likely relationally driven.Footnote ³

In “Justice, Emotion, and Belonging: Legal Consciousness in a Taiwanese Family Conflict,”Footnote ⁴ I described how one’s way of life with respect to zìjîrén (i.e. the local emotion culture) and their position in the lives of others (i.e. social belonging) may alter one’s legal consciousness while the boundaries of affinity are constructed and restructured. In this story about the exclusion of the second of two sons from personal family interactions, a mother’s narrative and a first son’s symbolic power remove any entitlement that the younger son may have had to the family’s only property. Despite his adoption of rights thinking, no legal action was taken to invoke the local inheritance law in reaction to this exclusion. Instead, to find some sense of justice, the second son eventually redefined his sense of social belonging and developed his own way of life or emotion culture (zìjîrén). Justice is thereby a social process in which individuals search for their identity by developing their meaning of life through the law in their actions and relationships.

3. TRANSFORMING PERSONHOOD

Law-and-society researchers are not unfamiliar with the concept of “transformation,” defining it in terms of the development of grievance, in the different stages of the disputing process, while focusing on the emotive power of law. In The Politics of Love, Chua shows how the transformation in personhood for Burmese LGBT activists not only entails a changed perception of and attitude toward discrimination, but also includes a fresh worldview about how LGBT people can survive, belong to a community, and work for change.

This surfaces a question, however, about whether this process has indeed changed their way of feeling and thinking as well as their way of dealing with interpersonal relationships: Does this change constitute a fundamental one or is it merely a different approach toward the same situation? Engel and EngelFootnote ⁵ have touched upon this question in their exploration of tort cases in Thailand after human rights discourse was introduced. Rather than observing an increase in legal consciousness, they observed that Thai people actually went to court less often to settle disputes; the authors attribute this to a more fundamental change caused by the effect of the globalization of human rights. While also transforming their identities and their sense of the self–other relationship, the Thai people’s sense of responsibility for the community diminished while their sense of Karma deepened.

In parallel, when Burmese activists adapt the local translation of human rights to focus on responsibility rather than rights claims, the meaning of being part of a group transforms into something new departing from the traditional approach. The movement may have changed the power arrangement in place through the use of legal discourse, although a more fundamental transformation of self would most likely entail a shift in their identity to one that is more individualistic, separated from the group, self-interested, and oriented towards a new connection with others. The result could be a new personhood that merges with elements of traditional culture in relation to the way people perceive, think, and take actions.

4. EMOTION PLURALITIES: EARNING DIGNITY UNDER THE POLITICS OF LOVE

In the chapter “Faults, Fault Lines, and the Complexities of Agency,” Chua recognizes the variance of emotional self-transformation that activists have toward each other in their despair, jealousy, anger, and disappointment, and she refers to the different approaches taken when confronting or relating to internal as well as external power. In the pursuit of dignity, Burmese LGBT people may take action before, with, or against the normality of discrimination, and this has the potential to influence the power relationships in the group when they agree or disagree with each other or feel as if they do or do not share affinity with others. Due to the fluidity of their multiple identities and belongings based on their gender, class, and social position, LGBT activists may develop an inconsistent self in order to cope with the condition that they are situated in.

Chua’s discussion of the activists’ affection toward the movement and each other also highlights the plural political struggles had by individuals and demonstrates how a movement such as this may benefit from these pluralities and overcome challenges in gaining dignity inside and outside the movement. Despite the multiplicity of identities with enduring norms, and the cultural schemas and resources that may have divided the activists, the practice of human rights may still offer a counter-discourse for the marginalized in their commitment to new modes of feeling, interacting, and knowing. This may encompass the development of emotion culture as well as the reactive approach that Burmese LGBT activists have towards the various types of interactions they encounter with their multiple identities. It follows, then, that the continued investigation into the emotional politics of human rights may indeed reveal more about the effect that our sense of community or belonging has on a social movement.