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| “ | You're not allowed past this point! | „ |
| ~ Hong Meiling |
| “ | One must always improve one's self. | „ |
| ~ Hong Meiling, in Unnatural Unthinkable Law, when fighting against herself |
Hong Meiling is a heroine from the Touhou Project series who works and lives at the Scarlet Devil Mansion as its personal gatekeeper, guarding its entrance alongside her followers. She is a youkai, although it isn't currently known which category she belongs to. She is known for her mastery of martial arts, part of which can be seen from her movement which is performed with Shin-Kyaku (a move in Chinese martial arts).
In Touhou Hisoutensoku, Meiling spotted a wandering giant and imagined it to be the Chinese god of disasters, the Taisui Xingjun, going off to battle it and its henchmen despite not knowing the danger she was in.
Appearance[]
Meiling appears as a tall, busty girl with teal eyes and long, straight, scarlet hair with two braids tied in black ribbons. She wears an olive green cap with a bronze star with the Chinese character 龍 (Lóng, lit. Dragon) in the middle. She wears a decorated olive Chinese dress with a white blouse underneath, and has a black ribbon tied on the collar of her blouse.
Relationships[]
- Remilia Scarlet (Mistress): Remilia Scarlet is Meiling's mistress and employer and therefore Meiling is loyal to her. It is believed that Remilia employed her because she was very strong yet had no immediately obvious weaknesses when fighting against humans.
- Sakuya Izayoi (Fellow employee): Sakuya Izayoi is a fellow employee to Meiling. Sakuya is shown to care about her wellbeing, but also reprimands her for sometimes sleeping on the job.
- Patchouli Knowledge (Mistress' friend): Patchouli Knowledge is Remilia Scarlet's friend. It is revealed in Cheating Detective Satori that Patchouli was the one who caused Meiling to fall asleep, implying they are not on good terms.
- Flandre Scarlet (Mistress' little sister): Flandre Scarlet is Remilia Scarlet's little sister.
- Taisui Xingjun (Sworn Enemy): Taisui Xingjun is Meiling's sworn enemy and a god of Calamity (chaos). Taisui Xingjun told Meiling in her Dream World that he wanted to cause a natural disaster in Gensokyo, so she battled his servants, but soon after woke up from her sleep, as it was all a dream. It is unknown what happened after this.
- Giant Catfish (Adversary): The Giant Catfish is Taisui Xingjun's servant and one of the assassins sent after Meiling. It told Meiling that its goal was to drain her power so that it could move the Earth and return to this world once again.
- Koakuma (Colleague of Mistress' Friend): Koakuma is a colleague of Patchouli Knowledge, who is the mistress' friend.
Trivia[]
- Sadly, despite reaching some level of recognition by becoming a playable character in Immaterial and Missing Power (albeit through a downloaded patch), Meiling was the only character not to have a storyline. She is almost universally considered a bottom tier character in the game as well, despite the fact that she has some of the most impressive combos in the game. Whether this was by accident or if Twilight Frontier was making fun of her is unknown...
- Many of her lines in Touhou Hisoutensoku indicate that Meiling has boastful pride in China. "You're all not there yet! You're all children compared to 4000 years of history!" The script also reveals that she reads manga created by the tengu, compares Yuyuko to a Jiang Shi, and notes that Tenshi and the Celestial read Chinese works. (Many of Tenshi's win quotes in SWR come from Chinese classics.) This is how Chinese characters in Japanese manga and anime are almost always depicted: a pervasive stereotype of the alleged common traits and pride of Chinese people.
- If Meiling loses to Youmu in Touhou Hisoutensoku, the latter will ask if Meiling shouldn't just use a weapon, namely a green dragon blade. This can be a source of confusion, since many would imagine the legendary Green Dragon Crescent Blade wielded by the famous Chinese general Guan Yu, but women seldom use pole arms in Chinese martial arts. In Japan, the term has become a common misnomer for the liuyedao and other Chinese sabers. As Youmu admits she has only heard about them in stories, the use of her local, incorrect term is likely intentional.
- One of her Skill Cards in Hisoutensoku resembles Krizalid's Typhoon/Tuhon Rage from KOF '99, 2000, and 2002: Unlimited Match.
- Meiling is sometimes compared to Chun-Li from Street Fighter on notable traits.
- Meiling looks very similar to Orange.
- Despite her sometimes joke status in fanon, Meiling is often considered a difficult boss fight in EoSD on Lunatic if not Hard as well.
