Touhou in China: the story of Jiangsu Touhou Community

[Bhrjr]

Alright, I've found another tweet by one of the few who got ripped off by the vip system, and apparently...
미래세기로의 초대장, the korean hifuu only event for next year was supposed to take place on Daejeon in February, but the Houraisai staff kept pestering them and they "had to" change it to a small-scale hifuu event in Seoul, leading to a lot of bad blood. And this guy also paid for the vip system back in 3rd, where the combined fee with the 4th vip one was around $2k. He didn't seemed to be treated that well in the 3rd, having had to wait for 2 hours in the waiting room. But more importantly, the guy still hasn't been refunded, and doesn't believe they will be. According to him, the total amount of money they took from vips were around $30k.

I think the main problem they have now is money problem (after having to return money from their pocket).

Yes, seeing that they still haven't managed to refund them, the reason must be that they've spend a significant portion of that funding the event, and are keeping mum about it as they haven't found a way to "conjure it up from nowhere".

Touhou-only events in Mexico

Alright, after another look at their facebook page, the sole reason they haven't continued past 2019 was due to covid, as they've said in 2022. But right now, I can't think of any reason they haven't brought it back, given how they were so dedicated in holding it 8 times.

Touhou-only event in different areas (something like Chinese THP) which would require much less money from organizers.

Well, China happens to be in a unique place due to how pervasive the acgn culture is, allowing Touhou to thrive in almost every parts of its country, where almost everywhere else has nowhere the same level of privilege. But you do have a point, where what's probably going to happen is that other countries will hold a singular THO/THP hybrid, which is what Russia is seemingly doing right now. In which, their country's signature (and only) Touhou convention is held in the capital or a major city like THO to get attention from as many people in the country, but with very little to no booths/circles and low budget in general like THP to save costs. (organizing THP in local areas in the west would barely gain any following in my opinion, and would just end up as an extreme-low-key cafe/bar meetup with like 3-4 people)

That reminds me, I heard somewhere that touhou fans in Europe should be organizing a THO in central europe like Germany to make it easier for all european fans to concentrate in one place, but there's no guarantee that European fans are planning that as it's simply a suggestion.

This picture shows Touhou, Genshin Impact and Blue Archive, and the Chinese communities of these three are hostile to each other.

Alright, I know this could sound petty...but what are some arguments BA fans have against Touhou and vice versa? (Maybe BA fans in china like to say Touhou is past its expiration date and BA has achieved "commercial" status in ways Touhou haven't, as you've mentioned in my Fate question?) I just want to know some unique opinions and perspectives.

 

[vanyk]

미래세기로의 초대장, the korean hifuu only event for next year was supposed to take place on Daejeon in February, but the Houraisai staff kept pestering them and they "had to" change it to a small-scale hifuu event in Seoul, leading to a lot of bad blood.

I am confused here.
At first they wanted to hold 환상 엑스포 2026 in Daejeon and WaDaMatt made a survey and they planned to hold it independently, not on Houraisai. Later Doujin Company had private meetings with them. Later they said that they had problems with planning and they had a "plan B", and later it looks like they had to follow the "plan B" and hold this Hifuu-only event. I know that WaDaMatt is organizer of both events, and that KuDoT is the organizer of this Hifuu-only event (his Paypal was mentioned in Japanese apply form + he used his booth on Japanese Touhou-only events (if I remember correctly he was at least on Meikasai) to advertise this event).
Now KuDoT says that they planned to hold an event (which one?) in Daejeon in February and that Houraisai planned to hold an event around this time, so they had to move their event to January and to Doujin Company moved to to Seoul (this sounds like 미래세기로의 초대장).
(I think I don't fully understand "When you changed the location to Seoul, you reduced it to a non-Bongrae Festival because you were afraid it would clash with the Bongrae Festival, right?")

But it sounds like KuDoT is describing what happened to 환상 엑스포 2026 which was turned later into 미래세기로의 초대장.
Am I right, or am I wrong?

Yes, seeing that they still haven't managed to refund them, the reason must be that they've spend a significant portion of that funding the event, and are keeping mum about it as they haven't found a way to "conjure it up from nowhere".

If I remember correctly those investigations from Korean forums, then DNA, repayment (and that Doujin Company should cover it) and maybe even the idea of that bonus in VIP tickets were ideas of Starlike Inc./IlluFes (after Doujin Company became a subsidiary of Starlike Inc.)

But right now, I can't think of any reason they haven't brought it back, given how they were so dedicated in holding it 8 times.

I don't know too. But seeing that Canadian Hakurei Shrine Festival returned, I hope that TouhouTech will return too.

Well, China happens to be in a unique place due to how pervasive the acgn culture is

I think that Anime/Otaku culture in general is much more developed in East Asia than in the West.

which is what Russia is seemingly doing right now

Yes, and it looks like it is a good decision in this situation. That is why I think their experience may be very useful.
And as Russia is a big country, theoretically, they may have different events in different regions, so it would be interesting to see what would happen in situation like this.

That reminds me, I heard somewhere that touhou fans in Europe should be organizing a THO in central europe like Germany to make it easier for all european fans to concentrate in one place, but there's no guarantee that European fans are planning that as it's simply a suggestion.

There are some plans by Touhou European Assembly and there some local meetings by German, French and Switzerland fans, but sadly nothing more. (But there was a Touhou Concert in London). I think that many big European countries could have their THP-like event.

 

[不人气的大狸子]

(something like Chinese THP) which would require much less money from organizers.

Well, I once hosted a THP, but I ended up losing about $300.

However, almost no THO/THP in China is profitable. Only THO held in large cities like Shanghai and Wuhan have the feasibility of being profitable.

But organizers often do not care about the loss and will still hold the next one.

They claim that caring about profitability violates the "Doujin spirit" and is a manifestation of "commercialization."

"Commercialization" is a word that cannot be mentioned in the Chinese Touhou community. If someone makes remarks like "Touhou commercialization", they will be attacked by everyone.

And if you hold a THO/THP locally, you are basically regarded as the representative of the local Touhou community. If you suddenly stop holding THO/THP, it may cause criticism from the local community.

I think that Doujin communities shouldn't be hostile to each other.

Well, this is actually a historical issue.

When the war between Kancolle and Touhou spread to China, Joessr, as the leader of the Chinese Touhou community, not only did not stop the meaningless quarrel, but instead used it as a tool to stabilize his own Touhou community status.

The ancient Chinese Touhou community (Before 2017) was filled with its own characters, which is hard to describe in English, but in short, they were a group of criminals who were keen on doxxing others.

This has led to widespread hostility in the Chinese Touhou community.

Since then, many gacha games have claimed to be "China's Touhou", including Arknights, Genshin Impact, and Blue Archive.

However, the Chinese Touhou community believed that these gacha games were "extremely commercialized" and unworthy of calling themselves "China's Touhou", so a war broke out.

Alright, I know this could sound petty...but what are some arguments BA fans have against Touhou and vice versa? (Maybe BA fans in china like to say Touhou is past its expiration date and BA has achieved "commercial" status in ways Touhou haven't, as you've mentioned in my Fate question?) I just want to know some unique opinions and perspectives.

It is no exaggeration to say that Blue Archive is currently the most popular gacha game in China. Although its popularity is not as high as that of Genshin Impact back then, it has still formed a huge community.

In China, people who like to play Blue Archive are jokingly called "pedophiles." (A large enough community, anyone can get involved)

From to Genshin Impact, Blue Archive has become the third rival of the Chinese Touhou community.

And as Russia is a big country, theoretically, they may have different events in different regions, so it would be interesting to see what would happen in situation like this.

From what I understand, the Russian Touhou community already has a considerable size (at least I think it is the largest in Eastern Europe). Before the outbreak of the war, the Russian and Ukrainian Touhou communities were almost completely integrated.

I heard that Bologna also held a Touhou exhibition this year.

Whenever I talk to others about the Touhou community in Europe, most people believe that right-wing forces are currently dominant in Europe, which is not conducive to the development of ACG culture.

 

[vanyk]

However, almost no THO/THP in China is profitable. Only THO held in large cities like Shanghai and Wuhan have the feasibility of being profitable.

Well, Doujin activities in most cases are not profitable, so I am not surprised. Agree that only big event can give profit.

"Commercialization" is a word that cannot be mentioned in the Chinese Touhou community. If someone makes remarks like "Touhou commercialization", they will be attacked by everyone.

Commercialization is really questionable topic. Several decades ago selling doujin goods digitally online was considered as very commercial act. Touhou does questionable things from this side since 00s. Commercialization of Touhou is interesting topic.
I understand why many Chinese Touhou fans don't like commercialization. But nowaday most of somewhat big doujin circles may be considered commercialized. Sadly, this is how it works.

And if you hold a THO/THP locally, you are basically regarded as the representative of the local Touhou community.

Interesting. I think this is one of the reasons there couldn't be several THO or THP in the same region.

Well, this is actually a historical issue.

I see.

the Russian Touhou community already has a considerable size

Yes, it looks like this.

I heard that Bologna also held a Touhou exhibition this year.

That was just a meeting of Touhou fans at Nerd Show Bologna:

Whenever I talk to others about the Touhou community in Europe, most people believe that right-wing forces are currently dominant in Europe, which is not conducive to the development of ACG culture.

Well, comparing to China I think most of Europe is right-wing. But in general it looks like Europe is becoming more right-wing than before. But why do you think that most of right-wing forces are against otaku culture? From what I see, a lot of them use anime memes and like Japan as natinal state. I think that if this culture is useful for them, they will use it (it also looks like this cultural industry is quite profitable).

 

[不人气的大狸子]

I understand why many Chinese Touhou fans don't like commercialization. But nowaday most of somewhat big doujin circles may be considered commercialized. Sadly, this is how it works.

That's true, but it's very difficult to change the traditional ideas of the Chinese Touhou community.

That was just a meeting of Touhou fans at Nerd Show Bologna:

Well, reddit doesn't allow me to use a VPN, but I'm glad to see that Italian Touhou fans are having a great day.

Interesting. I think this is one of the reasons there couldn't be several THO or THP in the same region.

Yes. Just like Tianjin once had 5 THOs, which seriously led to the division of the Tianjin Touhou community. Tianjin is a very special city for Chinese Touhou. It is Joessr's hometown. It wasn't until last year that the organizing committees of the various THOs in Tianjin were reorganized, ultimately retaining two, and the Tianjin Touhou community was finally unified.

 

[vanyk]

Just like Tianjin once had 5 THOs, which seriously led to the division of the Tianjin Touhou community.

It is so sad that these THOs didn't work together. The community could be much more strong and united if they worked together.

 

[Bhrjr]

Only THO held in large cities like Shanghai and Wuhan have the feasibility of being profitable.

Alright, it's been a while, but do you know how Joessr or other bigwigs in major cities monetize their thos to be profitable?

these THOs

And I was also wondering, how profitable are the major thos in Japan, like Reitaisai, Kouroumu, Meikaisai, and Dai9 for the organizers? It does seem like Reitaisai staffs monetize the event moreso than other places, with the base ticket being 2k yen (almost double that of comiket), not to mention the Cirno fastpass. I remember there being talks about how Reitaisai was in significant red due to the cost of renting Big Sight, but that seems to be in the long past. I read their interviews in Garakuta, and the fact that they're bringing bunch of festival activities (which probably aren't monetized) seems like they have somewhat a surplus of money.

 

[vanyk]

Alright, it's been a while, but do you know how Joessr or other bigwigs in major cities monetize their thos to be profitable?

And I was also wondering, how profitable are the major thos in Japan, like Reitaisai, Kouroumu, Meikaisai, and Dai9 for the organizers? It does seem like Reitaisai staffs monetize the event moreso than other places, with the base ticket being 2k yen (almost double that of comiket), not to mention the Cirno fastpass. I remember there being talks about how Reitaisai was in significant red due to the cost of renting Big Sight, but that seems to be in the long past. I read their interviews in Garakuta, and the fact that they're bringing bunch of festival activities (which probably aren't monetized) seems like they have somewhat a surplus of money.

I won't say a lot about Reitaisai for now, but I can say that they actually have money and they have relations with HSWA + obviously commercial booths which also bring additional money. (+ some other money sources)
Kouroumu are not very open about themselves, but they get support from Reitaisai staff, so I think they also have money.
Meikaisai's scale is quite satable. It has Meikaisai X booths which can give additional money and it also cohosts with some other genre-only events. I think they have enough money.
Dai9 staff fully merged with Godosai staff in 2025 (well, actually nothing changed), they organize a lot of events and they even have money to donate to charity. So I think they also have money.

 

[不人气的大狸子]

Alright, it's been a while, but do you know how Joessr or other bigwigs in major cities monetize their thos to be profitable?

Take Shanghai THO as an example:

Ticket revenue: Shanghai THO's tickets are divided into three tiers, which are priced at $12, $18 and $33 respectively. The number of tourists at Shanghai THO is about 3,000.

Booth Fees:There are about 200 Doujin Clubs in Shanghai THO. The fees here include table fees, stall owner certificate fees, etc., which are about $100. Of course, I don't know the exact cost.

This is the main source of income for large THO.

Shanghai THO has also cooperated with McDonald's and Mixue Bingcheng, and I think they can also generate income from it.

 

[vanyk]

Of course, I don't know the exact cost.

It is strange. I thought there are QQ chats for applying circles or any other places there this information can be found. On Japanese and Korean Touhou-only events it is not a problem to find information about fees for circle booth (and even fees for additional chairs and other things). Why is this information not public?

 

[不人气的大狸子]

It is strange. I thought there are QQ chats for applying circles or any other places there this information can be found. On Japanese and Korean Touhou-only events it is not a problem to find information about fees for circle booth (and even fees for additional chairs and other things). Why is this information not public?

You are right, they do have a QQ group. However, only those who are interested in setting up a stall at THO can join. You must join the group to find out the specific prices.

If you participate in THO as a tourist, you can only join the tourist group and you can only learn about the ticket price.

By the way, the organizers will also recruit staff from tourists. The cost per day is about US$14, and lunch is provided.

 

[vanyk]

You are right, they do have a QQ group. However, only those who are interested in setting up a stall at THO can join. You must join the group to find out the specific prices.

Hmm, I think they wouldn't be against if a researcher of Touhou Doujin joined them to gather statistical data. It looks like they don't publish it in other places, because they don't think that may be useful for other people? Sites of Japanese events have information about circle participation fees. Korean events mostly have such information in Google forms, so it is possible to get it.

It is interesting that Chinese events recruit staff members too.

 

[vanyk]

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）

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.

Some update about this. Yes, there is not much information about this event, but actually there are enough photos to restore how the venue looked like. So I (with 不人气的大狸子's help) tried to restore it:

Spoiler

In addition we found that tickets were for 25¥.

At this rate, I'll probably be looking at 6 different Touhou conventions in Korea 2026.

You are somewhat right, there are 6 Korean Touhou-only sales events this year (if only there wouldn't be another one announced for the end of this year). So we can expect to see many Korean Touhou only events next year.

 

[Bhrjr]

In addition we found that tickets were for 25¥.

All right, I've been wondering for a while, but...
how much does it cost to run all these cons? I've tried to find how much budget comiket needs every year to no avail, but you probably have more idea about that, alongside Reitaisai and other 2hu conventions (there's very little info about how anime events are funded, only how much budget should you bring to one) I could figure out the yearly budget for Touhoufest, and how "rich" Mikotan must be to be able to run it.

Well, I once hosted a THP, but I ended up losing about $300.

Judging from that, I assume that event wasn't that expensive to run; maybe in the range about $4,000 to run total? Do you have estimates as to how much it costs to run Shanghai THO per year?

 

[vanyk]

how much does it cost to run all these cons? I've tried to find how much budget comiket needs every year to no avail, but you probably have more idea about that, alongside Reitaisai and other 2hu conventions (there's very little info about how anime events are funded, only how much budget should you bring to one) I could figure out the yearly budget for Touhoufest, and how "rich" Mikotan must be to be able to run it.

For different events the amount would be very different. I don't know exact numbers, but I can say that Comiket spends millions of dollars. Official budget of Reitaisai is around 10000$ (but it is obvious that they need much more). Well, I don't know much about TouhouFest's budget (and I don't know much about how much you have to pay for all of this in USA).
Let's think what expenses organizers have:
1. Venue renting; (well, sometimes it is easy to find it, sometimes it is difficult)
2. Tables and chairs for stalls; (estimate amount: number_of_booths * (average_price_of_1_table + average_price_of_1_chair * 2))
3. Other expenses related to venue preparation; (banners, drawing board and other things); (it is not easy to calculate it)
4. Transportation of all of these; (yes, it is not free)
5. Payments to stuff members; (it is hard to calculate it)
6. Printing catalogs; (well if we know estimate number of general participants it is possible to calculate it)
7. Making deals with Doujin stores and other places to sell catalogs; (I don't know how to calculate this)
8. Advertisement; (again, it is hard to calculate it)
9. Maybe invitation of famous people; (sometimes it may be free, sometimes it is not free; I don't think these expenses are really big)
10. Taxes; (don't forget about them)
11. Some other expenses I could forget about.

Using this information you can get the estimate amount of money each event spends.

 

[Bhrjr]

1. Venue renting; (well, sometimes it is easy to find it, sometimes it is difficult)

Apparently, East hall 8 of Big Sight costs 356,400 pound (less than half the size of the rest!), which would be more than 70 million yen. And Reitaisai at the current uses at least 4 of the East halls, so let's say 70 million times 8, that's 560 million yen, or 3.8 million dollars to rent half of East hall. So we can conclude...

Comiket spends millions of dollars

Reitaisai is definetely also be at least spending millions of dollars too, just from the sheer cost of renting TBS.

2. Tables and chairs for stalls; (estimate amount: number_of_booths * (average_price_of_1_table + average_price_of_1_chair * 2))

In Ameria, a cheap chair seemingly costs $1.50 to rent and $10.00 for rectangular tables. Let's assume Japan is cheaper and 100 yen for chair and 1000 yen for table. Since 2025 Reitaisai had 2009 circles, that's apparently 2,410,800 yen, which would be a low, low estimate. (Since Reitaisai does a bunch, bunch, of different stuffs besides just doujinshi booths in ways that go beyond almost all Japanese anime events)

4. Transportation of all of these; (yes, it is not free)

Let's pretend that we're carrying from 山王スペース&レンタル㈱ 日本 in ginza 3 to TBS, which would be more than 5 mile. And a flatbed freight truck, which can carry up to 20 tons costs up to 4 dollars per mile. 1 plastic holding chair is 10 ib (4.5 kg), while a rectangular folding table is 13kg. So they amount to 44,198kg for 2009 circles, almost 50 tons. So you'd need like 3 flatbeds traveling 5 miles, which comes to $60 or 9000 yen. (granted, that doesn't factor in the wage fee for loading/unloading all of them, but maybe that's halved as Reitaisai staff handles the unloading)

5. Payments to stuff members; (it is hard to calculate it)

Comiket had almost 2.5k voluneteers in around 2008, but none of them are paid, and it's impossible to see any more data.
So let me find some example in US:
Anime expo apparently has 30 management-level staff (probably more) who are paid a little more than 20 dollars per hour. The event takes 4 days, from 9 am to 6pm. So, 20 times 30 times 4 times 10 is $24,000, but they probably spend more than a double, since the ones at the top must be making more, possibly almost $100k when it comes to paying all their employees.
Given how Reitaisai is only bit more than tenth of comiket's scale, seeing how Japanese employees are paid far less than Ameircans, and the lack of transparency makes me assume they won't spend more than 2 million yen per Reitaisai in paying their top staffs, where even the ones at the very top like 北條, 篠原, and 関 probs make more than 10 times less than the Anime Expo bigwigs.
I'll just go with $24,000, or 3,549,491.98 yen for now.

6. Printing catalogs; (well if we know estimate number of general participants it is possible to calculate it)

The Reitaisai catalogs is thick, so let's say it has 300 pages at least. This site tells that it costs 4-8 dollars to print one copy of 400 page book, but seeing that the catalog is made from recycled papers like mangas, let's say 100 yen. So when bulk printed for 30,000 visitors (explained below), only about 3 million yen.

Making deals with Doujin stores and other places to sell catalogs

I think unless you're something like Reitaisai/Comiket level, that's practically impossible (especially the physical kind), and almost everyone would just run their own website (which is what I did to buy Illustarfes/Houraisai ticket) (this would cost seemingly more than 100$ for a "medium sized entity" that Reitaisai is, so they'd need to spend probs more than 1.5k per year if they did this) or use online service like Livepocket, which is what Reitaisai did.

(Since they almost had 20k visitors in 2023, let's assume they had 30k visitors by now in 2025 or is about to. Livepocket takes 5% cut of all ticket sales, not to mention 500yen from every ticket sold. Reitaisai average ticket is 2kyen, so that's at least plus 15 million yen [500yen deduction] plus 3 million yen (5 percent deduction), which is around 18 million, which is then 36 million ($243k) with Autumn Reitaisai included. Again, I'm not counting the cirno fastpass ones. This then makes me wonder why Reitaisai staff doesn't just make their own website to sell tickets, given that I seriously doubt they'd need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to run that) (tell me if I got anything wrong)

Advertisement; (again, it is hard to calculate it)

Most non-Comiket/Reitaisai events probably only rely on self-promoting on twitter/facebooks to spread their word, although I have no idea what Reitaisai/Comiket does? Maybe Reitaisai does some advertisements on Akihabara streets and signs?

10. Taxes; (don't forget about them)

If I pretend Japan's 23.2% corporate tax applies here, that's 1,392,000 yen from 60,000,000 total sales on tickets.

Using this information you can get the estimate amount of money each event spends.

So 560 million plus 2,410,800 plus 9,000 plus 3,549,491.98 plus 3 million plus 36 million plus 1,392,000 is 606,361,291.98 yen, or 4 million dollar. When removing the Big Sight rental fees, the rest only amount to 46 million yen or 7.6 percent.
Even if I got perfectly accurate datas and factored in the ad and vip fees, it probably doesn't change the fact that Reitaisai staff would need to pay over 3 million dollars to rent half of east hall, still making up 9/10 of the budget.

And while we're on the topic,

(while slowly more and more complains related to Comiket appear).

What are some of the complaints regarding comiket? Is it about how husbando/otome/yaoi stuffs are less represented, leading many to migrate to Comic City?

 

[vanyk]

Apparently, East hall 8 of Big Sight costs 356,400 pound (less than half the size of the rest!), which would be more than 70 million yen.

Emm, how did you get this value? Official site of Tokyo Big Sight says that East Hall 8 costs 1287000 yen (with taxes) for 1 day. That is around 8700 dollars.

And Reitaisai at the current uses at least 4 of the East halls

The last Reitaisai used East Halls 3, 4, 5, 6. It would cost 14344000 yen (with taxes) for 1 day. That is around 97000 dollars, even less than 100000.

In Ameria, a cheap chair seemingly costs $1.50 to rent and $10.00 for rectangular tables. Let's assume Japan is cheaper and 100 yen for chair and 1000 yen for table.

In Japan renting such chair costs around 275-350 yen. Prices for renting a table are from around 880 yen (around 6 dollars).
The problem is that they are organizing these events for a long time, they have the office and I think they may have a storage which may have all these chairs to not rent them each time.

The Reitaisai catalogs is thick, so let's say it has 300 pages at least. This site tells that it costs 4-8 dollars to print one copy of 400 page book, but seeing that the catalog is made from recycled papers like mangas, let's say 100 yen.

The problem is that it is price for one book. When you print a big a big amount of books the average price of one book reduces. Let's take this doujin printing company as example. The price to print 50 comic-like books (A5, offset) with 68 pages costs 52000 yen, with 180 pages (around 3 times more) - 93500 yen (less than 2 times more). And printing 5000 (100 times more) comic-like books with 180 pages - 1591100 yen (only 17 times more). In this case one book would cost around 320 yen. That is around 2 dollars. So, it is hard to say the average price of 30000 books with 300 pages (maybe even 1 dollar or less per copy). For smaller events as you can see it is simpler to calculate it.

I think unless you're something like Reitaisai/Comiket level, that's practically impossible

No, that is not that difficult. You can just visit the site of the first Reitaisai to see that. Catalogs or fliers of events may be distributed in doujin stores, but still they are mostly distributed on doujin events or on-site (or also LivePocket). If you are making a genre-only event related to a popular series (for instance Touhou) then you can easily distribute catalogs on doujin stores which sell a lot of stuff related to the series and put flier in places related to this series (Korean Touhou fans do this too).
Reitaisai mostly sells catalogs in doujin stores, so I don't think they need to create a site to sell them.

I have no idea what Reitaisai/Comiket does? Maybe Reitaisai does some advertisements on Akihabara streets and signs?

Reitaisai also put their advertisement on public transport. But mostly they distribute fliers in many different places.

I think after these the result may be much smaller.

 

[Pak长(PakZhang)]

Are you interested in sharing the development history of the Touhou community in Korea?

I wrote an article about the Korean community before, but due to server issues on Nyasama (喵玉殿), all the images in the post were gone. The Tieba (贴吧) version also had quite a few of my follow-up posts removed by Baidu’s content review, so it’s now pretty incomplete. I still have the original draft and the image assets—it’s just too much work to republish everything.

미래세기로의 초대장, the korean hifuu only event for next year was supposed to take place on Daejeon in February, but the Houraisai staff kept pestering them and they "had to" change it to a small-scale hifuu event in Seoul, leading to a lot of bad blood. And this guy also paid for the vip system back in 3rd, where the combined fee with the 4th vip one was around $2k. He didn't seemed to be treated that well in the 3rd, having had to wait for 2 hours in the waiting room. But more importantly, the guy still hasn't been refunded, and doesn't believe they will be. According to him, the total amount of money they took from vips were around $30k.

This reminds me of the first time I saw ZUN in person in China: it was at an event where Peking University invited him to visit and give a talk. Since I wasn’t a PKU student, I had to submit a Touhou-related academic paper within 26 days for a chance to compete for one of 20 tickets. Luckily, I caught the tail end of the deadline, submitted a communication-studies paper on Touhou and memetics, and it was accepted—so I was able to attend.
What I’m getting at is that meeting ZUN up close is indeed a scarce resource for foreigners, which means it tends to be expensive. I’m sure ZUN himself is also very uncomfortable with becoming a kind of “commodity”, after all, doing doujin has a natural resistance to being purely commercial, so relying solely on selling meet-and-greet tickets as the way to get close to ZUN can lead to a lot of uncertainty. I’m not against charging visitors for a meet-and-greet, but I don’t think it should be the only way to participate. If possible, a certain proportion should be offered as “rewards” through other avenues; I think that would draw far less criticism.

For example, writing that Touhou-related paper was genuinely painful, but even today some people still read it for reference and learning—and that was the value I contributed to the community when I went to see ZUN.

I think it has something to do with it: 寒松社

It describes itself as a "society dedicated to promoting exchanges between Chinese and Korean Touhou enthusiasts and Touhou Doujin creation."
I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the organizing committee of Houraisai, but it posted a lot of pictures and videos promoting Houraisai on Bilibili:https://space.bilibili.com/3494353943137181/dynamic

To be honest, I know the organizer of 寒松社, and he is studying in Shenyang, so it is entirely possible that he could have come into contact with 주망지재상단 in Dalian THO.

In fact, after I finished my article about Korea, I invited them to visit Touhou-only events in China, and they did come—including Dalian THO, Shanghai THO, and several other THOs (the organizers on our side also gave me a lot of support). They used the opportunity to learn many of the highlights and core strengths of Chinese THOs, and it also became one of the reasons Houraisai was later held.

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)

Due to work and personal-life reasons, I wasn’t able to keep myself in a good enough mindset to balance the related research and writing last year, so this will have to wait a bit longer.

That reminds me, I heard somewhere that touhou fans in Europe should be organizing a THO in central europe like Germany to make it easier for all european fans to concentrate in one place, but there's no guarantee that European fans are planning that as it's simply a suggestion.

I hope they take a real, concrete first step instead of getting stuck in idealistic “what-if” exploration. Even if only a handful of people show up, then run it in a way that fits a handful of attendees. That’s also the point of this post: to offer some China-side event experience as a reference, and to show that Touhou events aren’t limited to sales conventions, people here have already experimented with many different event formats. To anyone who wants to organize one, what matters most is simply taking that first step and then building from there.

 

[不人气的大狸子]

Due to work and personal-life reasons, I wasn’t able to keep myself in a good enough mindset to balance the related research and writing last year, so this will have to wait a bit longer.

It’s really great to see you here. Since the private messaging function on Tieba is basically useless, I have to reach you through Bilibili instead. I hope everything is going well for you in real life.

 

[Pak长(PakZhang)]

It looks like my previous follow-up post got locked because of an edit, so I’m reposting it again.
帖子编辑了两遍就被锁了，估计这边管理员也没看到，我就再发一遍。

Are you interested in sharing the development history of the Touhou community in Korea?

I wrote an article about the Korean community before, but due to server issues on Nyasama (喵玉殿), all the images in the post were gone. The Tieba (贴吧) version also had quite a few of my follow-up posts removed by Baidu’s content review, so it’s now pretty incomplete. I still have the original draft and the image assets—it’s just too much work to republish everything.

I think it has something to do with it: 寒松社

It describes itself as a "society dedicated to promoting exchanges between Chinese and Korean Touhou enthusiasts and Touhou Doujin creation."
I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the organizing committee of Houraisai, but it posted a lot of pictures and videos promoting Houraisai on Bilibili:https://space.bilibili.com/3494353943137181/dynamic

To be honest, I know the organizer of 寒松社, and he is studying in Shenyang, so it is entirely possible that he could have come into contact with 주망지재상단 in Dalian THO.

In fact, after I finished my article about Korea, I invited them to visit Touhou-only events in China, and they did come—including Dalian THO, Shanghai THO, and several other THOs (the organizers on our side also gave me a lot of support). They used the opportunity to learn many of the highlights and core strengths of Chinese THOs, and it also became one of the reasons Houraisai was later held.

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)

Due to work and personal-life reasons, I wasn’t able to keep myself in a good enough mindset to balance the related research and writing last year, so this will have to wait a bit longer.

Alright, I've found another tweet by one of the few who got ripped off by the vip system, and apparently...
미래세기로의 초대장, the korean hifuu only event for next year was supposed to take place on Daejeon in February, but the Houraisai staff kept pestering them and they "had to" change it to a small-scale hifuu event in Seoul, leading to a lot of bad blood. And this guy also paid for the vip system back in 3rd, where the combined fee with the 4th vip one was around $2k. He didn't seemed to be treated that well in the 3rd, having had to wait for 2 hours in the waiting room. But more importantly, the guy still hasn't been refunded, and doesn't believe they will be. According to him, the total amount of money they took from vips were around $30k.

This reminds me of the first time I saw ZUN in person in China: it was at an event where Peking University invited him to visit and give a talk. Since I wasn’t a PKU student, I had to submit a Touhou-related academic paper within 26 days for a chance to compete for one of 20 tickets. Luckily, I caught the tail end of the deadline, submitted a communication-studies paper on Touhou and memetics, and it was accepted—so I was able to attend.
What I’m getting at is that meeting ZUN up close is indeed a scarce resource for foreigners, which means it tends to be expensive. I’m sure ZUN himself is also very uncomfortable with becoming a kind of “commodity”, after all, doing doujin has a natural resistance to being purely commercial, so relying solely on selling meet-and-greet tickets as the way to get close to ZUN can lead to a lot of uncertainty. I’m not against charging visitors for a meet-and-greet, but I don’t think it should be the only way to participate. If possible, a certain proportion should be offered as “rewards” through other avenues; I think that would draw far less criticism.
For example, writing that Touhou-related paper was genuinely painful, but even today some people still read it for reference and learning—and that was the value I contributed to the community when I went to see ZUN.

That reminds me, I heard somewhere that touhou fans in Europe should be organizing a THO in central europe like Germany to make it easier for all european fans to concentrate in one place, but there's no guarantee that European fans are planning that as it's simply a suggestion.

I hope they take a real, concrete first step instead of getting stuck in idealistic “what-if” exploration. Even if only a handful of people show up, then run it in a way that fits a handful of attendees. That’s also the point of this post: to offer some China-side event experience as a reference, and to show that Touhou events aren’t limited to sales conventions, people here have already experimented with many different event formats. To anyone who wants to organize one, what matters most is simply taking that first step and then building from there.