There was an excitable crowd at the Dong'an Lake Sports Park Stadium on July 28 but cheers from the audience suddenly became quieter when the Japanese delegation appeared.

It was not dissimilar to the reception the country received at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China's capital city.

ABC Chinese has reported that users of the site, commonly known as Weibo, found certain posts removed the day after the Opening Ceremony.

University of Melbourne's school of cultural communication studies lecturer Dr Wilfred Yang Wang says the reaction from the audience was not surprising to him.

"After all, it is a sports event, so the competition between countries is magnified," he told ABC Chinese.

Dr Yang Wang believes that nationalism "can carry a boat or overturn it" and claims that is why the social media platform censored the trending topic of Japan.

"The Chinese Government has actually been carefully managing this patriotism," he said.

"The government actually wants to encourage [patriotic sentiment], but it won't let it explode completely, because it would threaten the Chinese Government's own interests." 

Weibo is not officially controlled by the Chinese Government, but in January of this year it suspended more than 1,000 accounts of critics to the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chengdu 2021 Opening Ceremony showcased the host city's cultural features and combined technology with art.

The Opening Ceremony was directed by Chen Weiya and began with fireworks from the Golden Sun Bird the logo of the host city.

That was followed by the Parade of Nations, featuring athletes from 113 countries, before China's President Xi Jinping declared the FISU World University Games open.