Mongorujin ga egaita higashi Ajia ky�d�tai / The East Asian Community in the imagination of the Mongols

This paper examines why the Mongol attitude changed from non‐interest to interest in the broader concept of East Asia, it examines how they understood and imagined Pan‐Asianism and the East Asian community. The idea of Pan‐Asianism emphasised the common origin and culture of Asian peoples and the common aim of protecting this shared culture from violation by the West. Many peoples in Asia felt resonance with and aspiration to this idea. The Mongols, however, were ambivalent. Their main contact was with Russia, which was both a potential threat and a potential counterpart against the Chinese. In the eyes of many Mongols, the main threat was Chinese colonization and they were ready to collaborate with anybody including the West if they could win their independence from the Chinese. To the extent that Pan‐Asianism upheld the values of Mongol culture against disruptive modernizing forces, it had some appeal amongst the Mongols. To the extent, however, that it isolated them from possible external allies and dismissed the cultural differences between Asian societies, it was much less attractive. From the 1930s, however, the Mongol attitude began to show some change. They nonetheless never used the term Pan‐Asianism or Asianism, instead indirectly using many terms such as ‘the peace of East Asia’, ‘harmony of East Asia’, 'Asian rehabilitation or revival' (Koa), ‘East Asian Order’ and ‘the co‐prosperity spheres of East Asia’ to show their interest in the broader Asian community of states. The core of the Mongols' understanding of Pan‐Asianism or a broader political perspective of East Asia was firstly the revival of Mongol statehood and then consideration of contributing to the broader East Asian region.