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The Badminton Korea Association (BAK) has filed an official complaint over a Chinese badminton player, after she was heard repeatedly swearing in a recent Olympic match against South Korean players, as per The Korea Times.

"Wocao"

The player in question, Chen Qingchen, made headlines for appearing to say the "F-word" ("wocao" and "cao" in Chinese) after winning each point in that match.

#Olympics July, 27 — Chinese competitor Chen Qingchen shouting F**k to “encourage herself” during women's doubles badminton game with Korea.
Just… What? pic.twitter.com/612CzvIGOO

— Eileen Chang 😷⛑🥽🌂🧤🇭🇰 (@EileenEChang) July 28, 2021

The word "wocao" is an everyday swear word used in China to express one's surprise or when insulting someone, and is considered rather impolite.

Chen's outburst was covered extensively by South Korean media, and has sparked widespread criticism from the country's netizens for what they say is an unsportsmanlike behaviour, reported CNN.

The complaint was directed to the Badminton World Federation (BWF), instead of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as the latter doesn't have rulings against swearing in games.

BWF regulations rule against the use of profanities that are loud enough to be heard by the umpire and spectators.

First used the word when they lost a point

The incident that started the controversy occurred at a badminton women's doubles match between China and South Korea on July 27.

After losing the first game to the Korean pair, Chen, who was playing alongside her teammate Jia Yifan, was heard saying "cao" loudly. 

According to Taiwanese sports commentator Max Shih, Chen had initially protested to the umpire that the sounds the South Korean players made during the match were too loud, but to no avail.

Chen then celebrated each winning point throughout the match by shouting different variations of "cao", and eventually won 2-1 against South Korea's Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong.

Chinese fans loved it

While Chen's actions have drawn flak from the South Koreans, the Chinese seemed to love it for they found it endearing to hear the word on state TV. As the word is usually censored in Chinese TV programmes, they likely wouldn't hear it if not for the live broadcast of the Olympics.

Clips of Chen’s swearing had been shared more than 100,000 times on popular microblogging site Weibo, and fans applauded her for her actions for they found it to be refreshing. 

Many of them agreed that "it's beautiful Chinese", and approved of it for it probably helped to dampen the spirit of the opposing team.

However, Chen clarified that it was a misunderstanding, blaming what she said on her "bad pronunciation".

She said she was merely yelling to encourage herself, and will work on her pronunciation.

However, she failed to mention what exactly she was trying to say during the match.

Fans pointed out that Chen used the "cao" word again four days later, when she faced the Korean duo once more in the semi-finals, according to sports blogger Archysport.

Renewed beef between China and South Korea

The incident comes in the wake of previous rows between China and South Korea over kimchi and hanbok.

Chinese and Korean netizens got into online squabbles after the Chinese reportedly claimed that Korean heritage symbols such as kimchi and hanbok belonged to the Chinese.

Meanwhile, Koreans have been adamant in protecting what they saw as their cultural symbols, hitting back with equally aggressive online remarks.

This recent incident added fuel to the fire, as Koreans felt disrespected by Chen's excessive use of profanities, while the Chinese enjoyed seeing the common swear word find its way into the Olympics.

Not the only Chinese swearing

Chen is not the only Chinese athlete to use the phrase in the Tokyo Olympics.

Gold-medal weightlifter Shi Zhiyong frequently uses the phrase in his training routines, as per CNN.

Chinese fans have even started to turn those outbursts into memes on Chinese social media.

Top image via Getty Images

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