30-Second Overview: Furries are a fandom community that enjoys anthropomorphic animal characters. Academic research indicates that in the early 2000s, Taiwanese furries formed communities online; over two decades later, activities have expanded from online character creation to hotel conventions, library collaborations, and formal public events. The 2025 Infurnity event had 3,251 participants, with 689 in fursuit for the group photo, who raised NT$961,500 in charity funds.1
In autumn 2025, 689 fursuiter performers lined up for a group photo at the Infurnity venue. The front row featured a dragon, wolf, fox, rabbit, and bear. The people in the back were so densely packed that they had to lean against the stairs to fit every face into the camera frame. This is not a promotional photo from an anime exhibition, but a collective record from the annual Taiwanese furry gathering.2
Extended View: Infurnity 2025 Fursuit Group Photo
Infurnity 2025 Fursuit Group Photo. Image provided by the Infurnity official history page; this article uses an embedded hot link.
To understand this photo, one must not only focus on the furry appearance. Behind it is character design, craftsmanship, international travel, on-site volunteering, lectures, markets, and fundraising. It is also a process of a group that has long been reduced to single labels by outsiders slowly bringing their activities into the public sphere.
Finding Kin Online: Character Precedes Stage
The common language of furry culture is anthropomorphic animal characters. Researchers studying Taiwanese furry culture define the fandom as enthusiasts interested in anthropomorphic animals, noting that the Taiwanese community formed connections online in the early 2000s.1 Therefore, the starting point of Taiwanese furry culture resembles a gradually woven net: some draw characters, some write settings, some name characters, and others discover on the other side of the screen that what they like is not just a cute animal.
The importance of "fursonas" or character images lies in their ability to transform preferences into shareable self-narratives. A character can be a wolf, cat, bird, or dragon, and it can have its own personality, color scheme, and story. Some view it as an extension of the self, while others create an independent persona. Fursuiting is just one form of expression; not everyone needs to possess it as an entry ticket. A 2017 interview with Infurnity by the Taipei Times documented community members engaging in culture through character creation, illustration, and novels, while some only wore ears or tails or participated through drawing.3
📝 Curator's Note: The real threshold of a community is often not expensive equipment, but "Can I turn this character into my own story?" Fursuiting shows the community; character creation keeps one in the community.
This also explains why what outsiders most frequently photograph as fursuits may not be the core activity for insiders. A high-quality fursuit is expensive and time-consuming to make, making it unsuitable as a measure of participation. Lan mentioned in the same interview that a good quality suit can cost up to NT$300,000. However, his focus remained on the character, not how much money was spent.3
Characters do not remain confined to setting files. A special feature by The New Lens listed drawing, photography, fursuiting, and VTuber streaming as common creative media in the furry community. The same character can start from a commissioned illustration, extend into video personas, stage performances, photographic works, or become a recognizable name for creators and audiences.4
In 2024, the zither player Hei Lu Ji Xue provided a concrete human element to this creative path. The report documented how she was initially drawn to online anthropomorphic animal creations before finding like-minded peers. Her initial fursona was a wolf, which changed to a deer while in university, and she brought this character into guzheng performance, design, and hosting. This is not a story of "putting on a mask to become someone else," but rather one of slowly finding an expression that best fits oneself.5
📝 Curator's Note: The value of a fursona is not in inventing a cooler identity for others, but in allowing someone to draw their still-unclear self as a character with fur color, a name, and a story.
Why Are Characters Often Animals?
Not everyone likes anthropomorphic animals based on the same theory. Taiwanese furry fandom also lacks a single psychological formula that applies to every person. However, research from fields like generalized science—such as the pro-life hypothesis, infant schemas, and extraordinary stimuli—provides a framework for understanding: humans are naturally drawn to creatures and often feel affinity for certain animal images that possess juvenile characteristics, cuteness, or have been enhanced. These theories discuss general cognitive tendencies and cannot replace individual experience, nor can they be used to diagnose why any furry chooses a specific character.6
Therefore, the appearance of wolves, foxes, cats, deer, dragons, or birds in fursonas cannot simply be read as "which animal is cuter." The species' appearance, cultural associations, personal growth experiences, and the personality the creator wishes to embody may all intertwine. Character selection is not a multiple-choice test; it is often an image answer left after negotiating with the world.
689 People Standing Together: A Convention Grows in Scale
The annual numbers of Infurnity make the growth of the Taiwanese community visible. The official history page records that from 2022 to 2025, attendance increased from 1,588 people to 3,251 people. The number of fursuit participants for the group photo grew from 304 to 689.2 These numbers do not represent all Taiwanese furries, but they accurately illustrate one thing: there are enough people willing to bring their characters into the real world at the same time and in the same place to form a stable annual event.
| Year | Infurnity Attendance | Fursuit Group Photo | Official Charity Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1,588 | 304 | NT$140,200 |
| 2023 | 2,354 | 520 | NT$393,950 |
| 2024 | 2,712 | 575 | NT$950,800 |
| 2025 | 3,251 | 689 | NT$961,500 |
Table: Data from the Infurnity official history page. Data for 2022 to 2024 is in 7; data for 2025 is in 2.
The significance of these numbers is not just "getting bigger." The convention temporarily places creations that were previously scattered across screens, forums, or social platforms into a single space: some wear suits they commissioned or made; some set up stalls to sell art or trade badges; and some attend for stage performances or lectures. In 2017, the second Infurnity event was reported by English media as gathering nearly one hundred furries. Eight years later, the official group photo accommodated nearly seven hundred fursuits.32
This curve also reminds us that the expansion of furry culture rarely relies on a single work or celebrity. It depends on people who are willing to show up again each year, and on every event informing newcomers that a character can be just an image, but also clothing, a performance, or a shared life over a weekend.
When Furries Enter Libraries: Subculture Gains a Public Address
In April 2024, the Kaohsiung Municipal Library held the seventh "Tea and Fursuit Adventure Feast." On-site reporting by CNA captured specific scenes: over 300 fursuiter participants from 13 countries were photographed and drawing among bookshelves, and taking photos with readers and children. Mayor Chen Chi-mai of Kaohsiung attended the opening ceremony.8
Extended View: 2024 Tea and Fursuit Official Group Photo
2024 Tea and Fursuit Official Group Photo. Image provided by the official FurryTeaParty website; this article uses an embedded hot link.
The library did not become a furry-exclusive space because of one event. More interestingly, a venue originally centered on reading was willing to treat furry roleplay, visual creation, and social activities as cultural experiences that could be shared with city residents. After cooperation between the organizers and local institutions, fursuits were no longer just costumes "doing something unknown" in the eyes of strangers; they became presences that readers could interact with, ask questions about, and be photographed with.8
According to official FurryTeaParty materials, the event originated in 2017, having been held eight times in Kaohsiung, with over a thousand participants from dozens of countries annually. The organizers also stated that the Kaohsiung Municipal Library recorded over 25,000 visitors in 2024 and 2025. This is the organizer's statistical scope and differs from the number of fursuit participants reported by CNA; these two figures should not be added together.9
Placing these two sets of numbers side-by-side reveals two scales of public activity. The over 300 fursuiter participants describe those who walked into the camera and were in the venue. The 25,000 visitors describe those attracted by or passing through the same space due to this event. The former sees the community itself; the latter sees the ripple effect left when the community meets the city.89
📝 Curator's Note: A subculture entering the public sphere does not need to be universally understood first. What is more crucial is whether the city is willing to allow strangers to coexist with it, allowing curiosity before judgment.
The physical meetings of Taiwanese furries are not only one size or format. The Tea and Fursuit event in Kaohsiung during spring and Infurnity in autumn have provided different entry points for creators, fursuiter performers, and general participants through local public venues and hotel conventions.92 For the community, a gathering is not just a group photo; it is an opportunity to convert daily online interaction into mutual recognition, showcasing work, arranging travel, and collaborating on charity.
Organization Allows the Community to Grow
As the scale increased, the community needed more than just chat groups. The official page of Tea and Fursuit lists the Taiwan Furry Interaction Association as a co-organizer, operating the event under the association's name.9 This organizational structure does not speak for all furries, but it allows certain events to handle venues, collaborations, external communication, and charitable matters.
The organizers listed activities on the Tea and Fursuit website such as Furry Cafe, furry culture markets, fursuit photography contests, stage performances, lectures, and charity raffles. The Infurnity official history page continuously publishes annual fundraising figures.92 These arrangements do not reduce interest into polished PR language. Rather, they demonstrate that a community starting from characters and imagination still has to deal with very real matters: who rents the venue, who hosts distant guests, and how the raised funds are explained.
Extended View: Infurnity Official Themed Photography Page Works
Works from the Infurnity official themed photography page. This image shows the intersection of roleplay and photographic creation, not a record of a specific event; this article uses an embedded hot link.
Furry culture is therefore not just "wearing a fursuit." It is a creative network composed of illustrators, makers, photographers, event staff, and character creators. A 2021 Master's thesis from the National Taiwan University Library, A Preliminary Study on Designing Animal Characters in Taiwanese Furry Culture, at least indicates that "designing animal characters" has become an area of independent cultural practice.10
Before Being Seen, Do Not Rush to Define Them
When outsiders see fursuits, they often try to categorize them immediately: is it cosplay, adult entertainment, a specific gender community, or simply mascot performance? These shortcuts overlook the layers of character creation, socialization, and self-expression. Academic studies on Taiwanese furry fandom also remind us that reducing furry culture to a single gender identity or aesthetic preference ignores its inherent historical context and internal differences.1
This does not mean the furry community is without controversy, nor does it mean everyone's reason for participation is the same. Because the reasons are different, it requires people to tell their own stories. For some, characters are creation; for others, fursuiting is a comfortable way to interact in public settings; for yet others, an event is simply a day to finally chat face-to-face with like-minded peers.
The New Lens retained this difference during interviews: the report indicated that most furries treat furry culture as an interest outside of daily life. A minority bring it into their professional, family, and friendship networks. These two states are not mutually exclusive; they remind outsiders that a community identity can be very deep or merely a private space carefully preserved in one's life.5
Keeping the differences within the community does not make it lose its outline. On the contrary, acknowledging that characters, gender, creative media, and participation methods vary is what prevents "furry" from becoming a label slapped on by outsiders.1
Publicness also does not require everyone to appear in the same way. Some walk into the camera; some work behind the scenes, creating, recording, or coordinating. The ability to accommodate all these roles is evidence of the community's growth.
What truly enters the public sphere is never just a fursuit; it is a community methodology that allows people to participate with security and mutual care.
Perhaps what is most memorable about the group photo at the beginning of the article is not the number of different animals. Behind every suit in the frame, there is someone willing to spend time designing, making, traveling, and standing together in one place. From online communities in the early 2000s, to public events at the Kaohsiung Library, and to conventions attended by thousands, Taiwanese furry culture has transformed "imaginary characters" into a way of life that can meet, collaborate, and be seen by the city.
Further Reading
References
Image Sources
- Infurnity Official History Records — The official link source for the 2025 fursuit group photo.
- FurryTeaParty Official Website — The public source for the 2024 official group photo.
- Infurnity Official Themed Photography Page — The source of themed photographic works collected on the official page.
- <The Subjective Dilemma and Writing Authority of Taiwanese Furries: Reflections on Identity, Gender, and Writing Ethics in NTUGC Online Debates> — Academic research from 2022, using online ethnography to review the identity, gender, and writing ethics debates of the Taiwanese furry community, summarizing that the community formed online in the early 2000s.↩234
- Infurnity Official History Records — The official event page for Infurnity, which publishes dates, participant numbers, fursuit group photos, and charity fundraising figures for each year, linking to official photography and group photos.↩23456
- Deeply fursonal — Taipei Times — A 2017 feature in the Taipei Times interviewing organizers and participants of Infurnity, documenting early community experiences such as the scale of the second event, character creation, and fursuit costs.↩23
- <A Brief Discussion on Furry Culture 2: Loving Furry Anthropomorphic Animals! Illustrators, Fursuiters, Makers... Various Content Creators in the Furry Circle>— The New Lens — Public content from a 2024 special feature that outlines creative media in the furry circle, such as illustration, photography, fursuiting, and VTuber streaming; this article does not use details from subscription content.↩
- <A Brief Discussion on Furry Culture 4: Interview with VTubers and Mama Doctors Who Perform Guzheng While Fursuited—"I Am Proud of My Furri">— The New Lens — A 2024 personal interview that publicly records the entry into the fandom, changes in fursona, practical work, and varying degrees of furry culture integration into daily life for zither player Hei Lu Ji Xue.↩2
- <Why Do Some People "Not Control Fursuiting"? Exploring the Evolutionary Psychology of Furries>— Pansci — A 2021 popular science article that organizes research on the pro-life hypothesis, infant schemas, and human-animal relations, clearly stating that there is no single answer to the cause of anthropomorphic animal preference.↩
- Infurnity Official History Records — The same official history page lists participant numbers, fursuit group photos, and charity fundraising data from 2022 to 2024, which can be compared against the 2025 figures to trace its growth trajectory.↩
- <Over 300 Furries "Fur-Furs" at Kaohsiung Municipal Library; Mayor Chen Chi-mai Wants a Costume Change>— CNA — A field report by CNA in April 2024, documenting the Tea and Fursuit event at the Kaohsiung Municipal Library, with over 300 participants from 13 countries and cooperation with local institutions.↩23
- FurryTeaParty Official Website — The English event introduction page of the organizers, which describes Tea and Fursuit originating in 2017, having been held eight times in Kaohsiung, detailing the activities, and citing their statistics on annual participants and Kaohsiung Municipal Library visitors; this article treats it as the organizer's self-description.↩2345
- — National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations — The thesis page from the Department of Visual Arts at National Taipei University, recording the research title, author, university, department, and keywords, showing that Taiwanese furry character design has entered academic research.↩