“Chūgoku” or “Chuugoku” (中国), meaning “China”, was the derogatory nickname for the Touhou Project character, Hong Meiling. It used to be more prominent in the 2000s, but slowly died out as Meiling's character had became more fleshed-out as the series progressed.

In the past, Meiling was that 'Chinese Girl' (華人小娘(かじんこむすめ)) from Touhou Koumakyou, but she was once constantly disrespected for indoctrinated reasons, and one 2channel user had joked that their friend just called her 'Chūgoku' (中国) around April 3, 2003.¹⁾ At one point, ZUN approved of the nickname in January 2004,²⁾³⁾ but backtracked when asked at the public Meiji University event on October 31, 2004.⁴⁾⁵⁾

The joke of 'characters forgetting Meiling's name' was canonically used in the early games, but started being phased out after Meiling was getting character development, especially with Touhou Hisoutensoku in 2008 where she became a main character, borrowing Remilia's Tengu-authored manga, and acting surprised when she found out that heaven was aware of Chinese literature.

• Historically, there were some misconceptions or rumors about how the nickname came to be.
  • There was an urban legend that the name stems from a dispute over how the name should be read, despite the “omake.txt”,⁶⁾ and one user went “Why don't we call her China and call it a day?”
  • There's also a rumor that this nickname allegedly started as the trial version of Touhou Koumakyou didn't list their names, but this can be easily debunked with 'ver 0.08' gameplay footage.⁷⁾
• In the Touhou Soccer fan game, Meiling was 'Jack' (ジャック) in reference to Super Chinese.
• Another factor that might've contributed to the nickname's decline is that more Chinese characters were added, so it'd just be awkward if people kept using it despite the fact, like, which one?

• Pad Chief
• Touhou Character Names (ZH)