Young people wearing "furry suits" enjoy faceless socializing.

A Faceless Gathering

This is a gathering where people try their best to remain faceless. Most of the attendees hide themselves under furry fursuits. It's a unique form of full - body disguise.

The second large - scale furry convention in Beijing was held at a five - star hotel in Dongba. At the end of July, right in the heat of summer, the convention hall was filled with "furries" swaying back and forth, each holding a cooling fan. Even in the well - air - conditioned hotel, one can imagine how those people under the 20 - 30 - pound full fursuits, hidden beneath the furry heads, were sweating profusely.

However, they still tried their best to maintain their "personas." The furry heads all wore a slightly smiling expression. Or rather, the furry faces were originally expressionless, but with the occasional small movements of the people inside, you always felt that they were looking at you friendly and carefully observing whether the people around them liked them.

The name of the furry convention is "Wanwanji," which reflects the character of the Beijing furry convention. It has completely become the main battlefield for post - 00s and even post - 10s. The active participants here are mainly middle school students, and there are even fewer college students. At Wanwanji, many post - 10s furries were led by their parents in their 40s and 50s to visit the convention.

Random group photos of furries, taken by the author

Originally, the furry fandom (also known as the furry circle, a homophone of the English word "furry") was just an imported niche sub - culture that emerged around 2010 in the United States, Japan and other places. In the earliest days, the furry fandom on the Internet was associated with soft - porn labels. Under the cover of fursuits, the people inside could extremely show off their body allure.

But now, the furry culture has been gradually "whitewashed" by young people into a safe social tool. Young people are indulged in this experience: putting on a fursuit and transforming into an anthropomorphic animal character, they can enjoy a faceless gathering at a safe social distance.

Since offline activities resumed after the end of the pandemic in 2023, the furry fandom has been increasingly prominent in youth culture.

Junjun, a fursuit maker studying in Australia, is an old - timer in the furry fandom. She came into contact with different styles of furries online in 2014. Generally, the artistic styles in the furry fandom can be roughly divided into three types: American, Japanese, and realistic. American - style furries have strong and tough images, closer to the skull proportions of real animals, with thick brushstrokes and heavy muscle lines, giving an impression of bravery and handsomeness. Japanese - style furries have round and short skulls, a cute "pigeon - toed" standing posture, and faces more like Q - version human babies, with strong affinity. The realistic style is the rarest one, completely replicating real animals, which requires the highest level of artistic skills and is the most difficult to create.

From left to right are references for American, Japanese, and realistic styles, generated by AI

What has become popular among post - 00s is the cute Japanese - style furry, which is also the most mainstream style in the domestic furry fandom at present.

"This thing seemed to suddenly become extremely popular." Junjun remembered that when she went to a comic convention in China during Christmas in 2022, she didn't see a single person wearing a fursuit. But when she returned to China in April 2023, she could see 5 or 6 furries at a single comic convention.

The year 2023 can be regarded as the first year of the explosion of furry conventions. Before that, only the Shanghai Extreme Furry Gathering in the furry fandom could be regarded as a large - scale exhibition, and small and medium - sized furry conventions often died out after only a few attempts. But in the past two years, many new furry convention brands have emerged rapidly. According to the furry gathering summary website, there were 13 furry gatherings in July and 14 in August 2025, and 13 of them were new exhibitors in 2025.

The trend of furry conventions has spread northward, from Guangzhou, Foshan, and Chengdu, to Shanghai, Changsha, and then to Tianjin, Harbin and other places... In Beijing, in August 2024, Chenxiang, the organizer of Wanwanji, successfully held the first "Wanwanji" convention. It was a huge success that he didn't even expect. Not only the children but also the parents had a very high demand. Before the large - scale convention with a thousand - person attendance in 2025, he also organized 9 small - scale "furry gatherings" of 100 - 200 people in major shopping malls.

The ball pit at Wanwanji, where furries are playing, taken by the author

Although furry conventions in other regions are mostly attended by young and middle - aged people in their 20s and 30s, the furry fandom in Beijing has become a parent - child social activity.

At Wanwanji, I overheard a conversation between two parents. "Is it fun? Isn't it quite lively?" "I brought her out to make some friends and take pictures together." The youngest child here is 4 years old. Her mother was originally in the cosplay circle and made a fursuit for her daughter by herself.

While visiting the convention, a petite fox emerged from the crowd and gave me a Haidian District middle - school biology test paper with "Please add me as a friend" written on it. This was her self - made friendship invitation. She was also holding a stack of extra test papers. After adding her on QQ, I carefully returned the paper to her, but she waved her hand, indicating that I didn't need to return it, and then ran away like a gust of wind.

Official photo, provided by the official

In the eyes of Beijing parents, the furry fandom has become a safe cross - dressing social event for young people. The children participated in random dance shows to their heart's content, posed handsomely or cutely in front of the photographers, and applauded the performances of other furry babies.

"We have gained the recognition of these 'fursuit investors' because the children need their parents' permission to buy furry characters and fursuits and participate in such activities," Chenxiang said. He thought this was the most successful aspect of holding a convention in Beijing. Once the parents give their consent, the most important financial problem in the fandom is solved. He can foresee that the furry fandom will attract more and more new - generation children.

The "Luxury Goods" of Custom - Made, with a Lowering Threshold

Until around 2023, the furry fandom had been lingering in the niche area of sub - culture, for a simple reason: in many people's minds, it was synonymous with burning money. Without some money, how dare one play in the furry fandom?

"The core of the furry fandom is that each person projects themselves onto a furry character setting. This fandom is against industrialization and commercialization. It emphasizes uniqueness and handmade customization," Junjun said.

This nature of "custom - made" service directly raised the economic threshold for entry and blocked most of the onlookers.

The UP master @Miaozi Ruishou posted a series of popular science videos about entering the furry fandom on Bilibili. Simply put, to become a member of the furry fandom, one first needs a character setting of their own, which is called a "furry character design." "For example, if you want to create a character, first imagine and describe it in words, what species it is, what color it has, and what patterns are on its body. Then, give these settings to an artist to present them as a set of double/three - view design drafts."

Screenshot, sourced from the video of UP master @Miaozi Ruishou

The cost of custom - creating a furry character design from an artist can range from a few hundred to a few thousand yuan. Drawing is the foundation of character design in the furry fandom, so artists have always had a high status in the circle. If they are well - known "big shots in the art circle," they follow the working mode of artists, with a queue for commissioned works and delivery. Even if you have money, you may not be able to get in the queue.

Of course, there is also a shortcut. Artists in the circle occasionally design some ready - made characters, and players can directly buy out the character design. The artist cannot sell it to others anymore. This way is called "adoption." These character design studios will release them irregularly, and sometimes auctions are also required. The cheapest set of designs may only cost 200 yuan, while the expensive ones can be much more.

Some randomly available furry character designs may be brought by exhibitors at the furry convention, taken at Wanwanji

Next comes the fursuit. The process of turning an existing furry character design into a finished fursuit is called the "materialization" of the virtual character. Not every furry fandom member will go through the materialization process. Compared with the furry character design, it seems less "necessary." "The fursuit is like a relatively marginal luxury item. It is rarely used in general occasions. Only at fandom gatherings or when creating some photos and videos, if it is not particularly needed, it is completely okay not to have one," Ruishou said.

Is having a fursuit a must to be a member of the furry fandom? There has always been some controversy in the circle. In the early days of 2023, some people posted some extreme remarks, believing that a complete fursuit was the minimum threshold for entering the circle, saying "only those with a fursuit are the top people."

The hierarchy in the furry fandom has a long history. In the early years, domestic fursuit studios were not yet mature, and the handmade prices were high. The fursuit quotes from first - tier top studios started at 30,000 yuan. Amanojaku (also known as A - studio), a top - notch fursuit - making company in the fursuit world, is a mature Japanese fursuit - making company. At its most expensive time, a full - set fursuit quote could even reach 100,000 yuan. In the circle, people wearing fursuits from A - studio were called "A - fursuit big shots." It is not uncommon in any circle to classify people by their financial ability. In the early days of furry conventions, some exhibitors even deliberately arranged guests wearing fursuits of the same price range on the same floor or in special lounges. Of course, this was severely criticized, and now no exhibitor dares to do so.

Now, there are more and more individual fursuit makers and small and medium - sized fursuit studios, and the fursuit prices have dropped a lot. Junjun learned to do 3D modeling, source raw materials, and make fursuits by hand during her time in Australia, and her quote could be reduced to about 5,000 yuan. Moreover, not everyone in the fursuit community adheres to "full - suit attendance" anymore. Some people only make half - suits (without the torso, only the furry head and tail), and some only make a single furry head, which can cost more than 1,000 yuan to enter the fandom.

The first fursuit Junjun made for herself

In the past two years, the furry style has gone mainstream in all aspects, making the "old rules" of the furry fandom less clear. The entry threshold for this fandom has been lowered.

The definition of the furry fandom is expanding. It is not just about the furry fandom and the process of furry character design. Sub - cultural works with furry characters, such as anime IPs like "The Legend of Luo Xiaohei" and "Beast Friends," games like "Three - Phase Odd Tales" and "Animal Mystery City," furry IP peripherals, paintings, and models, can all be branches of the furry fandom. Ordinary people who simply like anthropomorphic furry animal characters may also call themselves "furry fans."

Fan Ming, a junior student born after 2000, is the main organizer of an original peripheral brand. His original brand, Ciyuan Ronghe, specializes in selling standees, badges, keychains, phone cases, colored papers and other goods of original furry fandom characters.

The content trend in this fandom is constantly changing. He remembered that when he was in junior high school in 2016, he saw furry - related content on Bilibili. At that time, the relevant content was mainly hand - drawn (dynamic comic videos). A few years later, fursuits became popular, and many dance videos of furry characters emerged. Now, the fandom shows