Book review: The Mirror of Love, by Joachim Chu Chee-kong

"What has gone wrong with marriage?"

Hong Kong businessman turned author Joachim Chu Chee-kong was inspired to explore the subject after witnessing marital failures and broken families among his friends.

Today's societal turmoil, as he sees it, stands in stark contrast to the better days of his 1950s childhood when contraception was seen as "unnatural", divorce "exceptional", and abortion an "indescribable act".

Forming the fundamental essence of The Mirror of Love, Chu insists, are the opposing forces between the struggle of "self love" and "love for others".

He claims to be able to offer "the truth" about human love and human sexuality, both within the context of marriage as per the subtitle: A Rediscovery of True Love & Human Sexuality Within a Happy Marriage & Family.

This truth, however, is more rooted in Catholic doctrine than scholarly study despite Chu's claims that the text is a result of two decades of research (he states John Paul II as an inspiration).

Self-importance is rampant: in one story Chu tells of meeting some Americans on a cruise who were "awed" that he and his wife "were so well informed about things".

Chu makes startling claims with no evidence to back them up. He writes that abortion is an act of "extreme physical violence" that leads to a lack of peace in a woman's mind. This, in turn, propagates "violence widespread in society" such as "crimes" and "wars and killing in the battle fields between disagreeing nations or cultures".

It is only a short jump, he states blithely, from abortion to world war.

Other of his comments grate even more. In the same sentence Chu groups together "homosexuals and transsexuals who crave for their rights to marriage and family" and "human trafficking and sex trades". Both, he suggests, are equally pests in society.

The Mirror of Love, Chu insists, is not intended to "contradict anyone, or his or her action or lifestyle". That is, as long as you fall on the right side of the tracks.