Welcome to another infojournal of BTG! Last journal I discussed the terminology of Kemono and its differences/similarities to Western Style Furries and I promised the next journal would be centered around Chinese and Korean Furries!

First off, the extremely elusive terminology for what they call themselves. I found it amusing there were pages and pages of confused English speakers who did not know the Chinese term for Furries and no one ever found out before the threads died. Well today is your lucky day because I will reveal it to you! XD

For Korea it is: 수인 (Su-iin)

For China it’s a different story and a lot more complicated, you see the Chinese Language can sometimes be a hindrance even unto itself even for the Chinese! There are many ways to say “Furry” when looking for the Chinese furry fandom, but the most official one is 獸人 (Shuoren).

Here’s the catch, when English speakers type 獸人 into a translator they get “Orc.” 獸人 means “Beast/beastial Man” and Orcs are considered “Beast/beastial men” to the Chinese. So when you search 獸人 you will get both orc and furry art.
It’s very important to use the traditional character 獸 instead of its simplified character 兽 for 兽人because they are used differently and will bring up different results. This is because獸 doesn’t just mean “Beast/beastial” so the Furries just use the traditional character to differentiate it from the otherwise different results that have nothing to do with Furry.

But when I look up獸人 , besides all the Orcs, all I get is Western Furry Art!
-No you don’t. That’s Chinese. Yep, the majority of Chinese who draw Anthro Animalia draw Anthro Animalia Furry furry, this terminology was explained in the journal before: [https://www.weasyl.com/journal/61869/btg-furry-and-kemono-its-terminology-and-difference]
-There IS quite a portion who draw in Kemono style, but even then most who do are Anthro Animalia Kemono furry.
Culturally China and America, when it comes to drawing Anthro Animalia, are amazingly similar.
When it comes to Kemono they also kind of have the same fascination and mindset. They draw Furry furry, but are super interested in the Kemono Genus and are only setback due to language and culture. You will see a lot of獸人 draw Furry furry, but buy all sorts of Kemono kemono/furry artbooks or R18 doujins from Japan just as Western Furries do.

How many Chinese Furries are there and why were they so hard to find?
-There is actually quite a large portion of Chinese Furries, I'd say even larger than that of the American Furry population. But that could just be relative to the sheer amount of people actually living in China. Statistically, the Furry population of Americans and Chinese are about the same.
-Why they were so hard to find is because China has so many social networking sites and a lot of them are popular, or died, so finding a large portion of Chinese Furries in one place is really hard. I have yet to know of a site entirely centered a round Furries for Chinese people that was actually popular or that didn’t die due to getting beaten out by another better social networking site. So they are all there on the web, just very spread out.

Now what about Korean Furries. How many are there and why are they so hard to find?
-First off, they aren’t hard to find at all. Just look up Korean Furry Alliance and you’ve got a good site where they accumulate. Why you don’t find them much else? We’re only able to see South Korea’s Furry population and South Korea isn’t that big so you can do the math there. There just are not a lot of Korean Furries and there might never be as Furrydom just isn’t as prevalent in their culture in general.

How do the Koreans draw Furries?
-Actually, because of the small population. Korean Furries draw in a wide and balanced variety. Furry furry, Kemono furry, Kemono kemono, Furry kemono. It’s all there, though I have found that art itself is hard to find. Koreans tend to see themselves as Furry, as in they have a fursona for themselves, they just can’t draw it out due to lack of skill or just for keeping it personal. Or they just love Furry Art and consider themselves Furry because of that.
-It is quite fascinating just how large the Korean Furry population are in fact, not artists, but Artist appreciators.

I hope that was very helpful for all of you! This should help you in search engines when finding Furries in general around the web, next journal will be more about art sites that will make it easier for you to find Furry artists around the world (particularly Eastern Furries). After that comes culture and how to get around the language barrier! Yay