The East Asian Emotional Economy Model (EAEEM)

The East Asian Emotional Economy Model (EAEEM) provides a framework for understanding how emotions are organised as moral and relational exchanges within East Asian cultural contexts. Rather than treating emotional life as spontaneous or freely expressed, the model conceptualises it as shaped by structured systems of obligation, repayment, filiality, and shame. Drawing on Confucian-Buddhist scripts, EAEEM examines how En (obligation) and Ai (affection) are organised as regulated moral exchanges rather than spontaneous emotional expressions. At the family level, this logic is further developed through two analytical tools: the Emotional Ledger Theory (ELT), which models care, sacrifice, and filiality as forms of emotional accounting, and the Emotional ROI Model, which examines how emotional and material investments are evaluated through expected relational returns. Version 7 introduces Emotional Taxation as an explicit mechanism to explain how emotional burden is not only distributed unevenly but coercively extracted within hierarchical relationships. This extension clarifies the asymmetrical power dynamics through which emotional labour, loyalty, and expectation management are transferred downward and normalised as moral duty. —————————— Overview of the Research Programme This programme develops a connected account of how emotional burden is distributed, internalised, and reproduced across individuals, relationships, and generations. Rather than treating distress as an individual outcome, the work conceptualises it as emerging from structured patterns of obligation and responsibility. The components below form a connected mechanism rather than a set of independent papers. EAEEM – East Asian Emotional Economy Model (open)The core framework. It conceptualises emotional life in East Asian contexts as a moral economy structured by obligation, affection, filiality, shame, and implicit emotional accounting. Version 7 extends the model by introducing Emotional Taxation as an explicit mechanism, clarifying how emotional burden is not only distributed but coercively extracted within hierarchical relationships. TEFS – Triangular Emotional Fiscal System (open)Builds on EAEEM by showing how these patterns are maintained across family, school, and workplace contexts. It formalises the cross-context flows, obligations, and constraints that allow emotional fiscal scripts to migrate and stabilise beyond the family. GEFR – Gendered Emotional Fiscal Regime (restricted)Extends TEFS by treating gender as a constitutive parameter rather than a background variable. It specifies how emotional taxation rates, default responsibilities, Ming-Li (gain) currency effectiveness, and enforceability diverge systematically across positions within the system, particularly along the female line. IEFD – Intergenerational Emotional Fiscal Dynamics (restricted)Builds on the intergenerational circulation of emotional deficit first addressed in GEFR and develops it into a three-generation breakdown model. It examines how emotional deficits accumulate, converge, and become visible in later generations under the combined pressures of emotional taxation, sustained devaluation, and contract failure. IARS – Internalised Affective Responsibility Scale (open)The empirical component. Positioned downstream of this theoretical chain, IARS is designed to identify individuals who carry high levels of internalised burden without presenting overt risk symptoms. It functions as a detection interface for hidden vulnerability and delayed visibility under these structural conditions. Pilot Study (in progress)An initial investigation using IARS to test whether hidden burden is associated with under-recognised psychological risk, particularly in adolescents who remain outwardly functional. GEFR and IEFD are currently restricted pending further development. Their descriptions are included here to reflect the full scope of the programme.