Orientalism and the Transitional Justice Imaginary in Asia

Abstract

This chapter explores the key concepts of Orientalism and the transitional justice imaginary in Asia. It considers the notion that transitional justice has been informed by Orientalist assumptions and structural power ranging from histories of colonialism to geopolitics. Moreover, the transitional justice imaginary is variably invoked depending on the person, time, and context while having a loose structure focused on its core assumption of a teleological transformation from authoritarianism to liberal democracy and a set of secondary assumptions. The chapter explains that Asia, where transitional justice doppelgängers are widespread, sits uneasily in these genealogies. One way to avoid the pitfalls of Orientalist transitional justice, the chapter concludes, is to take a more dynamic phenomenological approach that takes into account lived experience and the complex cultural landscapes in which transitional justice is enacted.