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Touhou in China: the story of Jiangsu Touhou Community

Before I start the article, please allow me to ask the readers a few questions:

1. Do you know the local Touhou community?

2. Do you agree that a local Touhou community group should be established?

3. If you become the moderator of this group, what would you do to unite the community?

Let’s get back to the main text.



Jiangsu Province is China's second largest economic province with a population of about 85 million. Together with Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, it forms the "Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone" and is considered to be China's most developed region.

The highly developed economy has given rise to related cultural industries. In 2024, the cultural industry revenue of Jiangsu Province will reach 314 billion US dollars. All thirteen prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu have large-scale comic exhibitions.

1753419655704.webp
(Image Source:https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1dEsqeQErU/

The picture shows the statistics of the number of comic exhibitions in various places during China's National Day holiday in October 2024. This is in line with the principle that “the economic base determines the superstructure”

It can be seen that Jiangsu Province has a huge ACG("Animation, Comics, and Games") base. Naturally, the Touhou Project also has a place here.

As early as 2013, Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, held the first Touhou Only exhibition in Jiangsu Province —— 东方仲夏祭(https://thwiki.cc/东方仲夏祭

796px-东方仲夏祭插画.webp
(Promotional image for the first "东方仲夏祭". Due to unknown reasons, it was only held once.)

Unfortunately, due to the lack of information, we don’t know what happened at the exhibition. We only know where and when it was held, but this does not hinder its historical status in the Jiangsu Touhou community.

In the following years, as the Chinese Touhou community continued to expand, the venues for Touhou Only also spread from big cities like Shanghai and Beijing to other regions. Although Touhou's popularity was not as high as it was at its peak, the cohesion among fans was getting stronger and stronger.

The year 2018 is a milestone for the Jiangsu Touhou community. Here we would like to introduce the organizational form of China's Touhou community.

QQ is the main communication platform for Touhou fans in China, and it also shows strong regional characteristics, and according to different categories, Touhou's QQ groups are mainly divided into the following types:

1.Official event group. As the name suggests, they are responsible for organizing local Touhou Only exhibitions and are basically the most active Touhou group in a province.

2.Local Touhou groups. They mostly include the previous type, but also include provinces that have not held Touhou Only exhibitions (such as Tibet)

3.School Touhou group. This is the largest type, ranging from junior high school to university. Relying on the relationship of classmates, the relationship between members is very good.

4.Organization entity official group. The official group of the organization entity. That is, Doujin club, which is the main component of the Touhou Only exhibition, and the number of Doujin clubs in China ranks second in the world.

5.Network regional communities. Most of them are affiliated group chats of other platforms and are not the focus of this article.

You can check them on this website(https://touhou.group/), which indirectly proves the huge size of China's Touhou community.

In March and September 2018, Nanjing held two NCTHO(Nanjing College Touhou Only). This was another Touhou Only exhibition in Jiangsu after a lapse of five years.(https://thwiki.cc/NCTHO

NCTHO is similar to a tea party, mainly relying on local college students in Nanjing to interact and introduce themselves. In addition, there are a lot of game sessions.372px-NCTHO2.webp
(This is the promotional picture for the second NCTHO. Although it has not been held again since then, it has greatly promoted the development of the Jiangsu Touhou community)

NCTHO targets college students, who have plenty of time and money and are the main force driving the development of the community.

This is not uncommon in China's Touhou community. As early as 2016, Peking University held its own Touhou Only exhibition.(https://thwiki.cc/东方幻想指南

With the success of NCTHO, some universities in Nanjing have also started to organize their own Touhou Only exhibitions.

In November 2018, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics successfully held its own Touhou Only exhibition, becoming the first university in Nanjing to hold a Touhou Only exhibition.
253px-南航THONLY海报1.webp
(Its official name is "东方天响录" and it is still being held today, having been held for 13 years)

At the same time, Touhou Only exhibitions began to appear outside Nanjing.

Suzhou, the most developed city in Jiangsu Province, successfully held the city's Touhou Only exhibition in July——“东方苏酒宴”
https://thwiki.cc/东方苏酒宴
389px-东方苏酒宴插画1.webp
(It was held twice in total and was not very large in scale.)

Its appearance marked that the Touhou Only exhibition in Jiangsu was no longer limited to Nanjing, but began to spread to other surrounding cities, which also laid the foundation for an important subsequent institution.

A series of activities made people realize the huge potential of Jiangsu Touhou community. So on December 31, 2018, Nanjing THO was successfully held.

The successful holding of Nanjing THO marks that the Jiangsu Touhou community has been organized again since 2013, and it has caught up with the tide of the times.
366px-第一届南京THO宣传画.webp
(Poster for the first Nanjing THO, with 31 Doujin clubs participating. Seven more sessions have been held since then, making it the largest Touhou Only exhibition in Nanjing)

In the following years, some Touhou Only exhibitions appeared in Jiangsu:

“南京秘封茶会”(NSSS)It was held four times in a row from 2018 to 2019, and also came with accompanying Live performances
(https://thwiki.cc/南京秘封茶会)
323px-南京秘封茶会2-2.webp
(This is the poster for the fourth session and also the first hifuu-themed Touhou Only in Jiangsu)

Wuxi, the third largest city in Jiangsu Province in terms of economic output, officially held the Touhou Only exhibition in 2020 after hosting a small gathering in 2019
(https://thwiki.cc/东方吃喝睡)
398px-吃喝睡插画1.webp
("东方吃喝睡" was held twice. This is the poster for the first session. Wuxi also became the third city in Jiangsu to have Touhou Only)

From 2018 to 2020, everything seemed to be going well for the Jiangsu Touhou community, but a disaster that followed almost destroyed everything and completely changed the direction of the community's development.

In 2020, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government adopted a "dynamic zero-clearing" policy.

The lockdown made it impossible to hold any activities, which was a major blow to offline activities of the Chinese Touhou community.

What's more fatal is that some activities were planned as early as 2019, but the sudden outbreak caused everything to be scrapped, causing huge losses.

In particular, in 2019, the offline activities of China's Touhou community were reaching a historical high, and the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were not recovered until 2024.

There are no words to express the damage that the COVID-19 pandemic has done to China’s Touhou community. I may write a special article to introduce it in the future.

Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi continued to hold Touhou Only exhibitions during this period, and Xuzhou was added in 2021, allowing Touhou Only to develop in northern Jiangsu.

In the face of this critical moment, the fourth Nanjing THO--江苏东方project社群联合体(Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium) was officially established on December 26, 2021(https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1jL4y1M7zQ/

The establishment of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium marks the centralization of the Jiangsu Touhou community.

Of course, the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium is not the first such organization. Similar organizations exist in provinces such as Guangdong, Shanghai, and Liaoning, but they are more like "university alliances" rather than an alliance that fully controls the entire local community.

The purpose of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium is to provide funds and services, bear risks without distributing profits, and encourage local organizing committees in Jiangsu to hold small Touhou Only exhibitions. The Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium and the large-scale Touhou Only exhibitions complement each other and together bring rich and colorful activities to Touhou fans in Jiangsu and across the country.

Well, this looks pretty Doujin, right?

The staff of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium entered all Touhou QQ groups in 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu and launched the "Touhou offline Doujin exhibition support plan"

Through capital injection, Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium successively held Touhou Only exhibitions in Yangzhou, Huai'an, Taizhou, Changzhou, Yancheng, Zhenjiang,Lian Yungang and Suqian, making Jiangsu the province with the most Touhou Only exhibitions in China.
https://thwiki.cc/东方雾冰咖https://thwiki.cc/东方淮洪宴https://thwiki.cc/东方丹鹤行https://thwiki.cc/幻想海望宴https://thwiki.cc/东方云莲景https://thwiki.cc/东方梦笔谭

It was truly a miracle, in every sense of the word.
402px-宿迁THT1宣传图.webp422px-淮安THP2东方醉清阁宣传图.webp340px-盐城THP1宣传图.webp422px-扬州THP2宣传图.webp422px-镇江THP1宣传图.webp450px-常州THP1宣传图.webp750px-泰州THP1宣传图.webp
(It is an amazing achievement that the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium has single-handedly brought about a transformation in the Jiangsu Touhou community, which was on the verge of collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

On December 26, 2022, on its first anniversary, the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium released The 2022 Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Touhou Doujin activity report.(https://www.bilibili.com/opus/743928893250994177

In this report of several thousand words, the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium introduced its achievements in the past year, how it operates, and put forward future plans.

“Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium is willing to make more contributions to the development of Chinese Touhou Doujin culture. We hope that one day, we can work with the majority of Touhou enthusiasts to create more brilliant achievements and beautiful memories, and contribute to the realization and development of the Doujin cultural community of shared destiny.”——Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium

The Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium reached its peak in 2024.

The wheel of fortune turns, and Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium is bound to face decline.

There is no doubt that the members of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium have a passion for and belief in Touhou, but it is difficult for some leaders and organizational structures to have the trustworthy execution capabilities.

The Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium has sufficient funds to support the development of the entire Jiangsu community, but this is precisely the problem. Internal members control the funds, which is equivalent to strangling the necks of communities in other regions to carry out offline activities.

Internal members formed their own circle that outsiders could not enter, and no one knew what decisions they were making, which led to a crisis of trust among people.

What's more, Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium not only provides funding, it is also responsible for planning the location and specific content of the event, almost completely bypassing the original Touhou Only organizing committees in other cities. Once problems arise, the credibility of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium will be severely hit.

And not all cities' Touhou Only organizing committees are subject to the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium, such as Suzhou THO. The Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium nominally manages the entire Jiangsu Touhou community, but only on the surface.
To sum up, the decline of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium is inevitable.

The turning point is the 7th Nanjing THO on December 8, 2024.(https://thwiki.cc/金陵幻梦行

As the core Touhou only exhibition of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium, Nanjing THO should have done its best in all aspects, but it showed its worst side in all aspects. Liu Yalong, the general organizer of Nanjing THO, should bear great responsibility for this:

1.In addition to the Touhou character, there is also a non-Touhou character in the poster, and that character is Liu Yalong’s original character. And this is not the first time, the original character already appeared in the poster of the 6th Nanjing THO.1753444648541.webp
Having original characters appear on posters together with Touhou characters is something that the Chinese Touhou community cannot tolerate. It is like confusing Cookie and Touhou.

2.The venue area is only 500 square meters, which is acceptable in ordinary cities, but this is Nanjing. In addition, there is no ventilation equipment in the venue, which makes the room very stuffy, and there are also problems of overcrowding and abnormal queues.

3.The layout and planning of the venue was a mess. All the Doujin club booths were divided into a huge U-shaped shape, and the tourists could only enter and exit through the openings on all sides. However, the official booth of the event was located in the most spacious place in the venue.93d597af2edda3cc56557b0647e93901203f9243.webp
The tourists originally thought that there would be a show in the middle of the venue, but in fact there was nothing.

3.The organizers did not properly debug and test the computers used for live broadcast, resulting in some programs being forced to be interrupted (such as the TH12.3 game), and the assistance of the on-site audience was required.

4.Liu Yalong stood on the stage and denounced netizens who shared their dissatisfaction with the event on Baidu Tieba (China's equivalent of Reddit), and began to promote his original characters. Even more incredible is that he called his mother in front of everyone at the venue to express his success in his career.

5.There is no sign wall (a canvas for tourists to draw and promote QQ groups) and Fumo altar (Fumo for tourists to place), which are the things that THO should have in the stereotype. Nanjing THO seems to want to break the rules, but it has the opposite effect.

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it——Xunzi

The 7th Nanjing THO was an unmitigated disaster, not to mention the high ticket price of 75 RMB (equivalent to 10 USD), and people began to denounce Nanjing THO and the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium on Baidu Tieba(https://tieba.baidu.com/f?kw=隔壁东方&fr=index)1753447389895.webp
("隔壁东方吧" is a subreddit that mainly discusses negative news about China's Touhou community. Once an incident related to the community occurs, people will discuss it here, and it is jokingly called a "garbage dump.")

Long-standing conflicts erupted, and the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium fell into chaos. Liu Yalong announced that he would no longer serve as the organizer of Nanjing THO, but it did not calm the public's anger.

On December 12, Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium issued an announcement, saying that it would reflect on Nanjing THO. This is also the only response of Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium to the incident(https://www.bilibili.com/opus/1009862139782889472)

Ultimately, the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium was effectively disbanded, having only existed for three years.

The matter could no longer be resolved, and although the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium did not issue any announcement, it was in fact no longer operating. The nominal highest authority of the Jiangsu Touhou community, which had existed for three years, disappeared(https://space.bilibili.com/31922826)

The power vacuum caused by the dissolution of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium was huge. Suddenly, three organizing committees emerged in Nanjing, each announcing that it would host the real Nanjing THO. The regional Touhou Only organizing committees that were under the control of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium also came to a standstill, and the entire Jiangsu Touhou community seemed to be in turmoil.

The year 2025 is full of a strange atmosphere for the Jiangsu Touhou community. The dissolution of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium has a huge impact, but people don’t dwell on it too much. On the contrary, people want to see what results the three new Nanjing THO organizing committees will produce.

But an invisible big hand seemed to have noticed this land.

In May, a Touhou Doujin store in Nanjing was reported and all Doujin products were confiscated by Nanjing police.(https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9717421454?pid=152104325494&cid=0#152104325494
09a0964bd11373f0f9b5418fe20f4bfbfaed047f.webp
In May, the first Nanjing THO was reported and forced to be cancelled.
b380cd246b600c33bec153d85c4c510fd8f9a14e.webp
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9747730190

July was a month of events.

July 6 Yangzhou THO was reported and forced to postpone.
e264d250352ac65cfb844e61bdf2b21192138a07.webp
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9822100017?pid=152289847210&cid=0#152289847210

On July 6, Shuishan Nanjing THO was successfully held

July 9 Gusu THO (the ancient name of Suzhou, distinguished from Suzhou THO) and Fumo Only were reported.
2b3d8f8f8c5494ee85f3fd0b6bf5e0fe98257e37.webp
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9857869796?pid=152350116082&cid=0#152350116082

On July 24, Jinling THO (an ancient city in Nanjing, to be distinguished from Nanjing THO) was reported.68b2c3198618367ac0ebd1ce68738bd4b21ce5a3.webp
A series of reports caused the Jiangsu Touhou community to fall into chaos for a while. No one knew who the whistleblower was behind the scenes, and people fell into mutual distrust.

As I write this article, people are arguing that the organizers of Shuishan Nanjing THO are the whistleblowers, and in ”隔壁东方吧“, mutual suspicion and quarrels continue.(https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9898548133?pn=1

No one knows what the future of Jiangsu Touhou community lies.

As China's second largest economic province, Jiangsu has unique conditions that other provinces do not have, but its Touhou community has not reached the expected scale.

The birth of the Jiangsu Touhou Project Community Consortium once created a bubble-like prosperity for the Jiangsu Touhou community, but it quickly fell, which is regrettable.

Today, the Jiangsu Touhou community is in danger of being reported, and the Touhou Only exhibitions in other cities are also lifeless, without any trace of their former glory.

Back to the three questions at the beginning, Jiangsu Touhou community has actually given the answers, but I don’t know whether people can learn lessons from them and make Jiangsu Touhou community great again.
 
That was quite an interesting read. I really loved it.
It is sad that not much information about 东方仲夏祭 left. I wonder if there are old forums or web pages which could have information about it? Quick search only showed me this page: https://web.archive.org/web/20130603082749/http://doujin.bgm.tv/event/740

Quote
Having original characters appear on posters together with Touhou characters is something that the Chinese Touhou community cannot tolerate. It is like confusing Cookie and Touhou.

It is quite interesting. There are cases when non-Touhou characters appear on posters of Japanese Touhou only (in most cases if they are cohosted with other events). There were several events with Beerko on poster. But I don't remember cases when OC appeared on posters (maybe Mitori could appear, but I don't remember if there were such cases).


The centralization of the events sounds interesting. There are several such Japanese groups which exist for more than a decade already. The incident shows the negative side of such groups and that their members should be chosen more carefully, and maybe their activities should be more open.

This series of cancelled events is weird. How can a report cause much trouble if the organizers don't break the law? And if a single report can do such things it means that any event may be cancelled easily. I only remember cases when events were cancelled because of death threats before. I think it is a good idea to develop countermeasures against such cases and not just hope that such things won't happen again. Are there any measures? ("yes" or "no" would be enough, I don't think such measures are not something that should be discussed openly, just in case)


About the questions at the beginnig of the post:
1. Yes, I know about some Touhou fans from my area.
2. Yes, I think, but something similar already exists anyway.
3. Do fan activities online and offline, I don't have a well-developed plan for now.
 
It is sad that not much information about 东方仲夏祭 left. I wonder if there are old forums or web pages which could have information about it? Quick search only showed me this page: https://web.archive.org/web/20130603082749/http://doujin.bgm.tv/event/740
The organizing committee of the "Oriental Midsummer Festival" has a Weibo account, but now it has been invalidated. You can try to find it through the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, I have no more information to provide besides that. There is little information about the China Touhou Only exhibition before 2017.

This series of cancelled events is weird. How can a report cause much trouble if the organizers don't break the law? And if a single report can do such things it means that any event may be cancelled easily. I only remember cases when events were cancelled because of death threats before. I think it is a good idea to develop countermeasures against such cases and not just hope that such things won't happen again. Are there any measures? ("yes" or "no" would be enough, I don't think such measures are not something that should be discussed openly, just in case)
Chinese law stipulates that offline gatherings of more than 100 people require the approval of relevant departments (mainly public security organs and cultural and tourism departments). But this is not the main reason. These exhibitions have been approved. The main problem is that Doujin club's products, especially printed doujinshi, have no edition numbers and will be recognized as illegal prints, which is illegal.

But everyone has always been well aware of this behavior. But now some people have seized this point to report it. Obviously, it is premeditated, and they know a lot about the Chinese Touhou community, which is also one of the reasons why everyone in the Jiangsu Touhou community is in danger today.
About the questions at the beginnig of the post:
1. Yes, I know about some Touhou fans from my area.
2. Yes, I think, but something similar already exists anyway.
3. Do fan activities online and offline, I don't have a well-developed plan for now.
Thank you for your reply. I never know whether you are from the United States or Europe. As far as I know, the Touhou communities in Europe and the United States are relatively scattered.
 
The organizing committee of the "Oriental Midsummer Festival" has a Weibo account, but now it has been invalidated. You can try to find it through the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, I have no more information to provide besides that. There is little information about the China Touhou Only exhibition before 2017.
I see. I wonder if there are good search engines for Weibo or other Chinese social networks? For example there is Nitter for Twitter which helps a lot when I try to find something really old.
The main problem is that Doujin club's products, especially printed doujinshi, have no edition numbers and will be recognized as illegal prints, which is illegal.
I think that may be a serious problem for nearly all Doujin events in China. The bigger the exent the higher chance that there is a hater who will try to cancel this event. And as I know there are some big doujin events in China with more than 1000 circles. But I haven't heard that these events have such problems (or I am wrong?). MAybe they have some countermeasures.
I never know whether you are from the United States or Europe. As far as I know, the Touhou communities in Europe and the United States are relatively scattered.
Yes, they are scattered, but I know that there are some Touhou fans in my city, but most activities are online.
 
I see. I wonder if there are good search engines for Weibo or other Chinese social networks? For example there is Nitter for Twitter which helps a lot when I try to find something really old.
I don't use Weibo much, so I don't have any suggestions for it.
I think that may be a serious problem for nearly all Doujin events in China.
Yes, this is a quite serious problem. In January this year, the Doujin Club "竹屋通贩" created by China's Touhou community leader "囧仙" was reported and fined 70,000 yuan (about 10,000 US dollars). This was the first case reported by China's Touhou Doujin Club.
And as I know there are some big doujin events in China with more than 1000 circles. But I haven't heard that these events have such problems (or I am wrong?). MAybe they have some countermeasures.
This is interesting. The reported area is limited to the Touhou community in Jiangsu and Shanghai. People once suspected that it provoked the local “Comic exhibition
gang" (an organization that obtains protection fees through reporting), but now it is considered to be competition within the Touhou community.

By the way, in the early morning of this morning, another Nanjing THO announced its dissolution due to cyber violence, which reflects the escalation of the internal struggle in the Touhou community in Jiangsu.
 
Yes, this is a quite serious problem. In January this year, the Doujin Club "竹屋通贩" created by China's Touhou community leader "囧仙" was reported and fined 70,000 yuan (about 10,000 US dollars). This was the first case reported by China's Touhou Doujin Club.
This is really weird. (and that quite a lot of money). It is bad that such thing happened.
This is interesting. The reported area is limited to the Touhou community in Jiangsu and Shanghai. People once suspected that it provoked the local “Comic exhibition
gang" (an organization that obtains protection fees through reporting), but now it is considered to be competition within the Touhou community.
I see, but do these non-Touhou events have any countermeasures? If they have them, it would be a good idea to learn from them.
By the way, in the early morning of this morning, another Nanjing THO announced its dissolution due to cyber violence, which reflects the escalation of the internal struggle in the Touhou community in Jiangsu.
It is sad. Cyber violence? I think it might be illegal.
For me it is sad that these events are not prepared for case like this as there are incidents for several months already. I hope they won't give up and they will come up with an idea how to deal with it.
 
I see, but do these non-Touhou events have any countermeasures? If they have them, it would be a good idea to learn from them.
The problem is that we have not seen the non-Touhou comic exhibition being reported, and the whistleblower only targets the Touhou Only exhibition.

By the way, for historical reasons, the Nanjing government does not like comic exhibitions very much, because it has a strong Japanese style.
It is sad. Cyber violence? I think it might be illegal.
For me it is sad that these events are not prepared for case like this as there are incidents for several months already. I hope they won't give up and they will come up with an idea how to deal with it.
I'm very sad. Nanjing should have had four Nanjing THO this year, but because of the whistleblowing and internal struggle, only one was successfully held.

The Chinese Touhou community has the characteristics of "community politics". People quarrel like politicians, trying to find the right path for the Chinese Touhou community.
 
The problem is that we have not seen the non-Touhou comic exhibition being reported, and the whistleblower only targets the Touhou Only exhibition.
I see. So nobody is prepared for situations like this?
the Nanjing government does not like comic exhibitions very much, because it has a strong Japanese style
I see. But I think it is possible to adapt it to look more Chinese
The Chinese Touhou community has the characteristics of "community politics". People quarrel like politicians, trying to find the right path for the Chinese Touhou community.
It is sad. I think it would be a better idea to care more about defense in this situation than having these quarrels.
 
I see. So nobody is prepared for situations like this?
1. Set up a company and hold the Touhou Only exhibition in the name of the company, not an individual. However, such a cost is too expensive. At present, only Shanghai THO in China has adopted this method.

2. Reduce publicity, so that THO's news only circulates within the Touhou community, and do not give outsiders the opportunity to report. At present, most THOs do this, which is why Touhou Market is popular.

3. Let the organizing committee prohibit Doujin Club from selling products without version numbers, but this is too extreme and not conducive to the interests of Doujin Club and the development of China's Doujin business.
It is sad. I think it would be a better idea to care more about defense in this situation than having these quarrels.
This also reflects the huge Touhou community in China, doesn't it? I don't know if there is a similar situation in the Touhou community in Japan.

Due to cultural differences and the characteristics of the Chinese and Western Touhou communities, I don't know how to express some comments in English. I hope you can understand.
 
Reduce publicity, so that THO's news only circulates within the Touhou community, and do not give outsiders the opportunity to report.
The problem is that people from Chinese Touhou community can make a report.
Let the organizing committee prohibit Doujin Club from selling products without version numbers, but this is too extreme and not conducive to the interests of Doujin Club and the development of China's Doujin business.
Well, if there would be no other ideas than it looks like that is the only way to solve this.
This also reflects the huge Touhou community in China, doesn't it? I don't know if there is a similar situation in the Touhou community in Japan.
Well, there are not many conflicts in Japanese Touhou Doujin. Events try to help each other, make joint events, it is pretty common to bring event fliers to other events. There was some tension between some events before but they were solved. There is some contention between big and medium sized events but no serious rivalry. For example Reitaisai stuff sent gifts to Kouroumu stuff several times, had a joint stand on Houraisai 4. Also Reitaisai, Kouroumu and Kyoto Joint Festival cooperate with each other. If I remember correctly Meikaisai also cooperate with them. Different character-only (or work-only) events try to cooperate with each other.
There is a good scheme of relations of Hifuu-only events in one of Circle Goka's book from 2014 (of course many things changes since then, but this is just an example):
1753536468811.webp

So I think it would be better if Chinese Touhou-only events cooperated more with each other (well, at least helped each other)


Due to cultural differences and the characteristics of the Chinese and Western Touhou communities, I don't know how to express some comments in English. I hope you can understand.
It is okay. I understand.
 
Aw geez, all of this, while the Russia has seemingly just managed to get their "flagship" event in Moscow, seemingly since early 2025. I'm trying to ask the people there to see if there were ever any Russian events before this, since Korea has been plagued by inconsistent Touhou events by bunch of different parties until Houraisai became the default. Hopefully, the Russia Thfest manages to stay consistent and become the default, since most Touhou conventions outside of JP CH KO always seem to have been one-off events in mid 2010s and never happened again. TouhouTech in Mexico was the anomaly as it happened a whopping 8 times since 2014, but has stopped in 2019.
I remember some facebook(?) posts about someone South East Asia community meeting up with Reitaisai staff, and trying to set up a permanent Touhou convention
 
Aw geez, all of this, while the Russia has seemingly just managed to get their "flagship" event in Moscow, seemingly since early 2025.
According to what I know, the Touhou offline event in Moscow took place on July 19. The participants created a Google profile to record it.
(https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11MHlV7aKQWscV6HYSs98QA7ooMVcB4cn

I'm trying to ask the people there to see if there were ever any Russian events before this
A Chinese Touhou community researcher wrote an article introducing the Touhou community in Russia and Ukraine. I hope it can help you.
(https://b23.tv/QpPH7Yb)


since Korea has been plagued by inconsistent Touhou events by bunch of different parties until Houraisai became the default.
Are you interested in sharing the development history of the Touhou community in Korea?
since most Touhou conventions outside of JP CH KO always seem to have been one-off events in mid 2010s and never happened again. TouhouTech in Mexico was the anomaly as it happened a whopping 8 times since 2014, but has stopped in 2019.
Yes, this phenomenon is very common in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
I remember some facebook(?) posts about someone South East Asia community meeting up with Reitaisai staff, and trying to set up a permanent Touhou convention
It sounds interesting, which reminds me of the Touhou community in Vietnam. Their offline activities developed rapidly in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic ruined it.

With the rapid economic development of Southeast Asia, their Touhou community has great potential.
 
I'm trying to ask the people there to see if there were ever any Russian events before this
Yes, it would be interesting if there were other events like that before.
since Korea has been plagued by inconsistent Touhou events by bunch of different parties until Houraisai became the default
At least for now, as there are some incidents :Sanae:
But it looks like this year 맛코리 고리 연회제 and Atelier de 幻想鄕 were successful

Hopefully, the Russia Thfest manages to stay consistent and become the default, since most Touhou conventions outside of JP CH KO always seem to have been one-off events in mid 2010s and never happened again.
Yes, I hope too.
By the way Hakurei Shrine Festival is back: https://x.com/HakureiFestival
And there was Touhou Concert in London: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/scharlachrotkammermusik1/1620287
There was a meeting of German Touhou fans: https://gensoukyou.de/dokomi-2025-rueckblick
Also Touhou European Assembly planned to do something: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/1eeef5j/an_survey_for_an_touhou_themed_anime_con_in_europe/
Touhou-Bohu and Touhou-Online also had some events this year.

I remember some facebook(?) posts about someone South East Asia community meeting up with Reitaisai staff, and trying to set up a permanent Touhou convention
It reminds me about MTB's online meeting with ZUN and Hojo.



According to what I know, the Touhou offline event in Moscow took place on July 19.
Yes. These are their socials:
The participants created a Google profile to record it.
(https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11MHlV7aKQWscV6HYSs98QA7ooMVcB4cn
They also posted this one: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eRBt06vUsVM-f7lzTq11kmzKQ4HzpTzf
With the rapid economic development of Southeast Asia, their Touhou community has great potential.
Meh, I recommend you to read this:
https://www.facebook.com/MalaysianT...DxHW3Yns8DtNv6UihtqaXU6iMmdHQs6CBx59CCsCw7Gkl
https://facebook.com/MalaysianTouho...UnupBAH89wsRVRVFl?comment_id=2369780036388036
 
Alright, I asked the person, and she said there's seemingly never been a Touhou convention in Russia, making this the first one ever, and had around 180 visitors (so not much).
And about the Korean Touhou scene, sorry, I haven't visite the conventions much, and I'd have to talk to this and this guy (who are seemingly the "highest authority" of 주망지재상단, and therefore Houraisai) when I go to Houraisai next time to learn more about the scene in Korea. All I know is that doujin events in Korea are almost always dominated by women in both visitors and booths, with only Touhou (and probably Blue Archive) events being the exceptions. Where, the influence still shows with most of the artist booths in Korean Touhou conventions run by women (where I can confirm as I visited Houraisai in february).

But more importantly
A Chinese Touhou community researcher wrote an article introducing the Touhou community in Russia and Ukraine. I hope it can help you.
(https://b23.tv/QpPH7Yb)

I earnestly hope you convey to the Chinese community that people like me and Vanyk (even if we're a small grand of sand in the Touhou fandom ocean) are interested in all these fandom infos, and urge them to translate as much chinese/other region fandom reports in english, where the only people who do so currently are you and this guy. The way how Chinese fandom are able to keep track of every corner of Touhou fandom, even outside the Chinese sphere is incredible, far surpassing the Japanese fandom.

By the way Hakurei Shrine Festival is back
Yes, seemingly "surviving" by attaching themselves to Otakuthon, the same practice by Houraisai which had to attach itself to 일러스타 this year, and will likely be the case for the forseeable future. To be honest, most, if not all Touhou conventions outside of Japan and China should honestly thrive under a larger anime convention, since that really helps conserve budget and brings veteran help, allowing consistent yearly hosting. As attested by Touhoufest this year, which has been plagued by underbudgeting and misbudgeting due to seemingly financied mostly, if not solely by Mikotan (who seems to want to become the "joessr" of Touhou USA community).
 
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Alright, I asked the person, and she said there's seemingly never been a Touhou convention in Russia, making this the first one ever, and had around 180 visitors (so not much).
Interesting. In my opinion, 180 is a lot for such Touhou-only event. It looks like it is more like fans meeting (something similar to Chinese THP, I think) than convention (TouhouFest in USA) or market (Japanese Touhou-only events).
And about the Korean Touhou scene, sorry, I haven't visite the conventions much
I see. But there are other events, not only Houraisai, so I think researching them too is a good idea.
I earnestly hope you convey to the Chinese community that people like me and Vanyk (even if we're a small grand of sand in the Touhou fandom ocean) are interested in all these fandom infos, and urge them to translate as much chinese/other region fandom reports in english, where the only people who do so currently are you and this guy.
For me the main problem is to find such things, not to translate them. For Japan it is easy, most Touhou researchers gather on Touhou critical-only events and sometimes reading clubs. In Korea, I haven't seen much material from the Touhou critical-only event this year, but at least I found some participants; also Namu wiki can help sometimes. With China, it is a little bit harder, but there are several Bilibili channels who do such things and sometimes such things can be found on Tieba. But I agree it would be a good thing if such things were translated.
The way how Chinese fandom are able to keep track of every corner of Touhou fandom, even outside the Chinese sphere is incredible, far surpassing the Japanese fandom.
In some way yes, but about Japanese events it is better to refer to Japanese research papers.
Yes, seemingly "surviving" by attaching themselves to Otakuthon
Well, they did that from beginning.
the same practice by Houraisai which had to attach itself to 일러스타 this year, and will likely be the case for the forseeable future. To be honest, most, if not all Touhou conventions outside of Japan and China should honestly thrive under a larger anime convention, since that really helps conserve budget and brings veteran help, allowing consistent yearly hosting.
It is quite funny to read this after the incidents which happened this year (there is a lot of information about this on Namu wiki and Korean forums). And from what I read it is an example why such dependency is not a good idea. I think that Touhou-only events may cooperate with other events, but they shouldn't be very depended on other events and try to grow. From the experience of Japanese Touhou-only events, the Touhou events which are cohosted with non-Touhou events gather less attention than other kinds of events, so being independent can also help to gather attention of Touhou fans.
By the way, I think it is quite interesting to see how Touhou-only events develop in Russia. I really hope that their activities would expand and maybe they would cooperate with Chinese or Japanese and Korean fans. I really hope that EU Touhou fans would study the experience of American and Russian fans in organizing Touhou-only events (I think their conditions are somewhat close to EU, but it would perfect if they would study the experience of Japanese, Chinese and Korean fans too; and reading works related to Doujin Economics may be a good idea too) and we would see Touhou-only events in different European countries.
 
My understanding of the Touhou community in Southeast Asia stops in 2021. I only know that the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to miss a good opportunity for development.

I was very happy to see the name Kairyu, he is a well-known figure in the Touhou community in Malaysia, and he just got married half a year ago.

In 2024, the Touhou community in Malaysia launched a local Touhou research journal, Touhou in Malaysia. Although I did not get the book, Pak长 got it and said he would share it later(https://www.bilibili.com/opus/1030445701847318550?spm_id_from=333.1387.0.0)
And about the Korean Touhou scene, sorry, I haven't visite the conventions much
I see. By the way, do you know 심유경? He seems to be a veteran of the Korean Touhou community.

In 2023, 寒松社 conducted an interview with the organizer of Houraisai, and I hope it helps you.(https://www.bilibili.com/opus/818563033689227352?spm_id_from=333.1387.0.0)
who seems to want to become the "joessr" of Touhou USA community
Speaking of joessr, his focus is no longer on Touhou. Instead, he has opened a company in Shanghai, responsible for assisting others in organizing comic exhibitions and collecting consulting fees from them.

I don't want people like joessr to appear in Touhou communities around the world. Although joessr has made contributions, his behavior in recent years has ruined his reputation.
we would see Touhou-only events in different European countries.
I saw a survey on Twitter last year about the European Touhou Exhibition, I don't know how it is going now.
 
My understanding of the Touhou community in Southeast Asia stops in 2021. I only know that the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to miss a good opportunity for development.
Well, my understanding is not very good too, but from what I see the opportunity for development was not very big. Malaysian TOUHOU FESTIVAL in 2013 (cohosted with AniManGaki) had only 3 circles, and as I can see there was not a serious development from this side. But MTB is still quite active, so maybe they will be able to do something big in future.
In 2024, the Touhou community in Malaysia launched a local Touhou research journal, Touhou in Malaysia. Although I did not get the book, Pak长 got it and said he would share it later
It would be great if they share it.
I saw a survey on Twitter last year about the European Touhou Exhibition, I don't know how it is going now.
I haven't seen any updates since then, so I don't know.

By the way it looks like Australia has same interesting perspectives. There are already several Touhou groups there: UNSW Touhou Society, South Australian Touhou Appreciation Society, Adelaide Touhou Project Appreciation Society, Touhou Sydney, FUMO Society. Also it looks like there are some activities in Melbourne and there was a Touhou club in University of South Australia. So I think they may do something interesting in future.

I remember some facebook(?) posts about someone South East Asia community meeting up with Reitaisai staff, and trying to set up a permanent Touhou convention
I think I found it
 
Well, it looks like the truth has been revealed.

On July 6, Shuishan Nanjing THO was successfully held
Based on the evidence currently available, the organizers of Shuishan Nanjing THO are the masterminds behind the incident.
(https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9900493118?pn=1)

I will try to summarize it as best as possible and translate it into English.

"梅莉莲子露" is the organizer of Shuishan Nanjing THO and Hifuu Only, and one of the members of Doujin club "秘封步梦华".

For the sake of convenience, I will use "it" instead of "梅莉莲子露"

In May, a Touhou Doujin store in Nanjing was reported and all Doujin products were confiscated by Nanjing police.(https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9717421454?pid=152104325494&cid=0#152104325494
This store was founded by it, but it turned out that it did not obtain a publishing business license, so it was natural that it was investigated and dealt with by the relevant departments.

And as things developed further, people found that it did not suffer much loss, and a considerable part of the loss was borne by "D", so it was not the biggest victim.
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/9900991791?pn=1

It portrayed itself as a victim and claimed that there was a team in Nanjing "specializing in reporting comic exhibitions."

In the following months, other Nanjing THO were reported, but the Shuishan Nanjing THO it organized remained safe and sound.

And what’s interesting is that every time these Nanjing THOs are reported, it will quickly organize another venue for Nanjing Touhou fans to play.

Therefore, the organizer of the Nanjing THO on June 1, "半价", believed that this was done intentionally in an attempt to gain both fame and fortune.

It claimed that it knew the whistleblower's information and therefore asked it to provide it at 半价, but it refused to provide it.

Someone contacted the venue of Shuishan Nanjing THO, and the venue said that it had not received any reports, which contradicts its previous statements and shows that it was a self-directed and self-acted event.

Then, as the scandal surrounding Hifuu Only broke out, it disbanded all Touhou-related groups and announced its withdrawal from the Touhou community, acknowledging that it was the whistleblower.

Well, I don't know what to say, this is all so ridiculous.

I have always believed that the growth of the Chinese Touhou community is inseparable from the unity among every fan.

But when fame and fortune affect people's brains, Touhou seems to have become a tool for some people to fight for fame and fortune.

In any case, the biggest obstacle facing the Jiangsu Touhou community at this stage has been removed, and I hope this will put everything back on track.
 
Well, it looks like the truth has been revealed.
It is good to hear that the people who did it were found. But if they went that far they can try to avenge and do more bad things. I think it would be a good idea to keep this in mind.
And there is still a problem that anyone else can try to do it again.

I have always believed that the growth of the Chinese Touhou community is inseparable from the unity among every fan.

But when fame and fortune affect people's brains, Touhou seems to have become a tool for some people to fight for fame and fortune.
Such things may happen in many communities. In some cases people just want to get fame, money or something like that. In other cases such people are just want to harm other people. The bigger the community the more weird people it may have. When fans only begin to find out about each other they don't know a lot about each other and they are just happy to see other fans. Only after having some time together inside the community the bad sides of some fans start to be noticeable. Sadly, such things happen in different communities. It is a good idea to be prepared for this.
 
I see. By the way, do you know 심유경
yes, I follow the dude, but I'm not interested in him that much, since the dude posts a lot of korean political stuff and doesn't seem to really have a role in the korean fandom.
It also looks like houraisai is hosting 4.5 later this month to "rectify their previous wrongdoing", where it looks like the issues with the one this year were so severe (not just the vip ticket stuff) that it makes all the Touhoufest issues look like nothing, with some touhou Korean fans even calling it a "scam convention". (Although it doesn't seem like the korean fans have an easy singular scapegoat like mikotan)

But outside Houraisai, it's crazy how so many Touhou conventions seemingly popped up out of nowhere in here Korea 2025. We've got GensoArt, 맛코리, 최애전, and there's a hifuu only event to coming soon in 2026. At this rate, I'll probably be looking at 6 different Touhou conventions in Korea 2026.
 
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