A war of words between swimming champions at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and ceremonial blunders over China's national flag have set off a wave of patriotic fervor among the country's 700 million internet users.
As China’s Olympic swimming team demanded an apology from Australian swimmer and gold medalist Mack Horton, who referred to his rival Sun Yang as a "drug cheat," netizens took to Horton's Instagram account to echo the government-backed body's complaints.
Using the hashtag "Don't cry, Sun Yang" in reference to the swimmer's earlier public tears, fans flooded Horton's account with comments.
On Horton's Instagram account, Chinese netizens demanded an apology for his "arrogance and unfounded slander," the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, reported.
"Some called him a racist," the paper said.
It cited positive tests in 2013 in six swimmers on the Australian team ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.
It quoted "experts" as saying that Chinese netizens' fury is not because Horton beat Sun in the 400-meter freestyle final in Rio on Saturday.
The paper also described Australia as "a country at the fringes of civilization" in an editorial, referring to its "early history as Britain’s offshore prison."
"This suggests that no one should be surprised at uncivilized acts emanating from the country," the paper said.
‘Malicious personal attack’
Meanwhile, Horton's Wikipedia page was briefly reedited to say that he had learned racism "at his mother's breasts," the Guardian newspaper reported.
Chinese swim team manager Xi Qi said Horton's comments, which followed a positive test for banned substances Sun said were for a heart condition, were a "malicious personal attack" that were "proof of a lack of good manners and upbringing."
The Chinese reaction, however, has been far from unanimous.
Social media user @94bukaopudetounao wrote, sarcastically: "I'd like to offer my apologies as a Chinese person for failing to come to the defense of the honor of the party and the government, for failing to scale the Great Firewall to assail the wrongdoers, and for thinking that this would be the wrong approach," the user wrote.
"I have let the party down, I have let the government down, and I have let the angry nationalist youth down, too," the person wrote.
Wang Sicong, director of property giant China Vanke, tweeted: "Hehe, grabbing someone by the throat and demanding an apology only works in China. Try it anywhere else, and people won't take it."
Exiled Chinese political cartoonist Wang Liming, known by his online nickname Biantai Lajiao (Perverted Chili Pepper) said he thought the problem lay with Sun's attitude.
"He really should still have a sense of shame, like he did before, if he used banned substances," Wang told RFA. "But now he seems to have a sense of self-righteousness instead."
The attitude seems to have permeated Sun's fan-base, he said.
"I have seen a lot of comments that seek to excuse him, it's funny," Wang said. "They feel the need to say that Sun Yang has a heart condition, or whatever. It's totally illogical."
Wang said that since online commenters pressured Taiwan singer Zhou Ziyu into apologizing for the use of the island's flag earlier this year, Chinese netizens have been far more willing to use circumvention software to get around the government blocks, filters and censorship known collectively as the Great Firewall.
"I think the fact that they're willing to scale the Great Firewall as soon as they hear the call, to harass people in the news, shows the extent to which they're influenced by the values preached by the Chinese Communist Party's education system," he said.
And Nanjing-based netizen Zhang Haoqi said he found the nationalistic response to the Sun-Horton spat embarrassing.
"I thought the whole thing was ridiculous," Zhang said. "The guy just made a comment, off the cuff, and actually, it was about something that actually did happen."
"Personally, I think these people are a disgrace," he said.
An imperfect flag
The war of words over Sun came soon after official media tweeted angrily that the Chinese national flag used in the opening ceremony was inaccurate.
The four smaller stars were shown imperfectly "circled" around the larger gold star in the red flag's corner, a symbolic faux pas, as the flag's geometry symbolizes the unity of social classes under the Communist Party's leadership.
Meanwhile, there is growing discontent with China in Hong Kong, which once welcomed Chinese Olympians as heroes.
"There was a time not too long ago when Hong Kong people felt mighty proud when China’s national anthem was played as the country’s flag was raised during the medal awarding ceremonies," political commentator S.C. Yeung wrote in an editorial in the city's Economic Journal newspaper.
Back in 2000, Chinese athletes who won gold medals at the Sydney Olympics were given a heroes' welcome in the city, the article said.
"But in the current Rio Olympics, Hong Kong people don’t seem to display that kind of national fervor anymore," Yeung wrote.
He said local people barely raised an eyebrow at the mistake over the Chinese flag in Rio.
"It’s probably because Hong Kong people did not allow patriotism to get the better of them," Yeung said, adding: "China’s performance in Rio won’t serve to remove the anti-mainland sentiment that has grown in the city."
Yeung said Beijing's blocking of fully democratic elections in Hong Kong in 2014, and its attempts to impose "patriotic education" in the former British colony's schools were partly to blame.
A Hong Kong resident surnamed Wong told RFA that there are "no pro-China feelings" in the city any more.
"There is only hatred," he said. "About eight years ago, I was pretty happy watching the diving and the volleyball, but it's totally different now."
"I just really hate the country ... and events that would have made me happy leave me cold now," he said.
Chung Kim-wah, an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that as China has developed closer ties with Hong Kong since the 1997 handover, more conflicts have arisen.
"In the old days, people might not have supported China [at the Olympics], but they wouldn't have gone so far as to applaud when they lost," he said.
"Now we have more contact, we have more conflict, more arguments ... There is some pretty ugly talk now ... and at the most extreme, there are some people who don't like anything Chinese at all," Chung said.
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Lam Kwok-lap for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.