Wed, Jan 25, 2017 page13

• Deeply fursonal

  Furry fandom — or a fascination with anthropomorphic animals — is an emerging local subculture as people don ‘fursuits’ and adopt ‘fursonas’

  • By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
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  Zilven Chang doesn’t need a full moon to transform into a silver-maned wolf-man. Once he puts on his “fursuit,” he loses the ability to speak but assumes a newfound cool-and-collected demeanor.

  “When I’m a wolf, I’m still myself,” he says. “It’s just a part that I don’t normally display. But I don’t have to act. It comes naturally once the suit is on.”

  Chang is one of about 1,000 “furries” (獸迷) in Taiwan who are fascinated with anthropomorphic animals. Many of them don fursuits and adopt a “fursona,” while others are only interested in creative endeavors such as designing their own characters. Chang does both, as he and fellow furry J.C. Lan run Beast Fantasia (奇獸幻響), a studio that makes a variety of furry products — including an illustrated novel titled The Starry Wolves.

  

  About 100 furries attended the Infurnity convention in Taipei last month.

  Photo courtesy of Infurnity

  This “furry fandom” subculture has only emerged in Taiwan in the past few years. Last month, almost 100 wolves, lions, bears, rabbits and mythical animals attended the second annual “Infurnity” convention organized by Chang, Lan and Gary Pai. The country’s first furry trade show, Furrymosa, is scheduled for May.

  BECOMING A FURRY

  Even though the phenomenon is relatively new, Lan says he’s had an affinity for anthropomorphic animals since he was a child.

  

  Zilven Chang’s fursona is a taciturn wolf.

  Photo courtesy of Zilven Chang

  “I’ve always been a furry,” he says. “I watched animal programs and cartoons. I thought they were so cool. I liked their style. It’s just like how some people like cars and watching sports. It’s a natural instinct — I can’t really explain it.”

  Lan was described as cat-like in school, and from this trait he developed his fursona as a majestic yellow feline.

  Pai’s fascination began with the mascots he saw when he visited Disneyland as a child.

  

  Some fursuits are more cartoonish than others.

  Photo courtesy of J.C. Lan

  “I thought they were adorable and approachable, and I liked how they brought people joy,” he says.

  As a result, his fursuits lean toward the cartoonish, cutesy type and he adjusts his personality as such. Like Chang, he believes that he’s not acting.

  “It’s just how I would act if I became an adorable animal,” he says. “I don’t even think about it.”

  

  J.C. Lan in his feline fursuit, which veers toward the realistic.

  Photo courtesy of infurnity

  You can have as many fursonas as you want, but the fursuits are expensive — a decent one can cost up to NT$300,000 Lan says.

  There are no set rules, and unlike cosplay, there are no existing characters to model after. Some have the ability to talk, while others only communicate through gestures. Lan says his fursona was originally mute, but as an organizer he found it necessary to start speaking.

  Some see their fursonas as extensions or alternate versions of themselves, while others create a separate entity with its own name and backstory. Sometimes people show up at gatherings with just a tail or ears, and that’s okay too.

  IN THE REAL WORLD

  Chang and Lan exclusively interact with the furry community as their fursonas, and reveal their human identities to only a select few (hence the omission of their Chinese names). Some clues to their furry identity can be found while in human form, as both like to wear shirts with wolves printed on them and have furry accessories on their bags.

  Outside of furry gatherings, they only wear their fursuits in public during photo shoots, often scaring the children around them because of how realistic they look.

  “I heard one mother say, ‘Don’t be afraid, there’s a person inside,’” Lan says. “That actually upset me because I wanted to be a cat at that moment.”

  The ones with cartoonish suits are often received warmly, and some enjoy walking around and taking photos with people. But as furry fandom is still obscure in Taiwan, most people don’t know the true connotation behind the suits.

  “People just see our exterior and assume that we’re advertising something as a mascot or shooting a film,” Lan says. “But this is something that goes to the core of who we are.”
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