I've had time to kill over the past couple months, so I decided to look into the various things that lead to this theory in more detail.
Several people in the fandom, for various reasons, honestly believe Hong Meiling is a dragon, if not The Dragon God Him/Herself:
- Her BOSS theme,
Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17, combines the creating "Team" of the series (Shanghai Alice) and the year the Hakurei Barrier was created (Meiji 17, or 1884). Sounds like a theme name a Creator would have, not some ordinary gatekeeper. Seemed like just a simple coincidence at the time, and the theme itself is generally overshadowed by her stage theme
Shanghai Teahouse ~ Chinease Tea. But then things started to unfold over the years...
- I'm sure most of us recognise that the highest God (the aforementioned Creator) is
The Dragon, and that the word "Dragon" shows up every now and then in Meiling's Spell Cards in
Hisoutensoku. Seems like harmless God references at first, but she shouldn't have much reason to mention it
5 times though her cards when almost everyone else does it no more than once or twice in the entire series. Qi Sign "Heaven and Earth Dragon Kick" says it twice
in the same card! The only other person who does these things is Iku, who outdoes everyone else combined in using "Dragon" in spellcards thus far (
16 to
11) and can get away with it because she's the messanger of the Dragon Palace. In contrast, both MCs have only used it once each (Divine Arts "Omnidirectional Dragon Slaying Circle" and Star Sign "Dragon Meteor" [in Katakana] respectively). I can take one or two sayings of the word as coincidences, but once you get to 3, 4, and 5 times it begins to look more like a pattern.
- The Dragon also correlates with the rainbows that trail Him/Her, which happen to be Meiling's main motif. It's also the main motif of
the Chinese Rainbow-Dragon also named Hong (but with a different character). In
CoLA 18: Dragon's Camera we learn that, according to Rinnosuke, "since dragons are made from the three perfect elements of the world, they leave in their way the seven colors of the rainbow, which can create everything in existence." In Double Spoiler Aya mentions that "A rainbow is apparently a type of dragon god," albeit on
Kogasa's Rainbow Sign "Over The Rainbow." This makes Meiling's rainbow motif go from simply colorful to symbolic and almost telling if Rinnosuke is correct.
- She also has some card names with Color in them, but several of them are also associated with weather, a common Eastern Dragon motif. Colorful Signs "Colorful Rain," "Extreme Color Typhoon," and later "Vivid Color Downpour," and Colorful Flip "Fluttering Petals and Falling Leaves" all do so in some way.
This started early too, but was easily overlooked by most.
- Meiling seems to use rainbows and martial arts to simulate her ability to control Qi, which was generally considered the flow of energy that sustains the living in Chinese and Japanese mythology. Being the Fantasy Kitchen Sink that Gensokyo is, this is most likely true there. If that's the case, then you can almost call Meiling's ability "Control of
Life Energy." (
WARNING: TV Tropes Will RUIN YOUR LIFE!)
Considering that the only Dragon Gensokyo knows about is The Highest God of Illusion, it would only be natural that she doesn't want others to know about her race. They'd probably assume her to
BE the aforementioned Dragon God. Right or wrong, that would strike a major blow to the balance of Gensokyo.
It's a little easier when claiming she's simply
A dragon, but what if one believes she's
THE Dragon? Why would He/She hide in plain sight like this? A short explanation would be that The Dragon would have a divine monopoly, and that would make it difficult, if not impossible for other deities to take residence in His/Her domain while He/She can still watch over it to an extent. Believe what you want to believe, but anytime I see someone say that Meiling is "a normal person who just guards" the next thing to come to my mind is
"DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!"