Furry Event China (referred to henceforth as FEC) is a number of firsts for me with regards to attending a furry convention:

1. The convention itself was held inside of an event space of a public mall rather than the usual convention center
2. It was my first furry convention experience not of a Western demographic
3. It was the first convention I attended outside of North America.
4. Actually, it was my first furry convention at an event that wasn't called VancouFur

Given this, and an assortment of other differences we will be going over, it was definitely an experience that I will never forget.

When perusing written news articles about furries written outside the fandom you’ll usually run into the typical faire. Some articles will talk about furries and try and introduce their unknowing audience to what the fandom is. Others will talk about the local convention in town and why the denizens will be seeing all these costumes about. Heck, some will not even be about the fandom at all and will just be using the term to talk about pets or the band Super Furry Animals.

However, 2017 has started off on a very interesting foot as two articles showed up on the feed which don’t take the tired and treaded routes. Both looked at pieces of the fandom and their relationship to the recently inaugurated president, Donald Trump and what he stands for in society in general.

One article from Slate covered a Kyell Gold book and discussed how the virtues with in could counter Trump. The other, from Motherboard, describes another piece of fandom and their alt-right tendencies and pondering if crass anonymity can lead to crass actors acquiring power.

So let’s go over these two articles and what they have to say about furry fandom.

Michigan furry convention Furry Connection North, has announced its closure due to the retirement of key senior staff members.

In a statement, chairman Gir Tygrin detailed the group's struggle to deal with the growth of the organization, and their ultimate decision that the amount of work needed to allow FCN to continue to exist and "not change its core mission":

[…] would be unrealistic and would potentially compromise the integrity of the event.

The organization's supplies and funds are to be donated to other events and charities; the latter have already received $21,299.67 from this year's charity fundraising efforts.

FCN was first held in 2008 with 372 attendees, and attracted 1,259 this year. It had banned minors from registering in 2013 over the "serious burden" of ensuring parental consent.

Full statement follows . . . See also: Photos from FCN 2008, 2010 and 2013 (fursuit group shot)

The Anthropomorphic Research Project has released a new survey – the first in a series intended to cover the same people every February, June, and October over three years.

Participants (who must be 18 or older) may enter a drawing to win a $50 Amazon.com certificate for each survey completed.

Questions will vary between each survey, but will generally pertain to different aspects of furry culture, sexual orientation, personality, well-being, recreational/fantasy activities, and attitudes/beliefs about topical issues (e.g. religion, politics).

The ARP has previously used surveys to distinguish furries from therians and otherkin, identify personality differences between non-furs, furries and their fursonas, and characterise the relationship between furries and bronies.