The thing that frustrates me most about this whole situation is that the main reason why Meiling gets treated like this both in canon and fanon is because of her being Chinese. I know that China is a really bad place nowadays, but still. She got treated like utter shit all the way since the early 2000's, thanks to how much the Japanese were prejudiced against the Chinese at the time.
Also, think about it. During EoSD's development, ZUN could have made Meiling an actual dragon-humanoid (like he did with Yachie), making the "Hong Meiling is actually a dragon" fan theory true (Well, since dragons are considered the highest class of creatures in Gensokyo, that would make Meiling ridiculously OP), but of course, that didn't happen, and now we have to accept the current reality.