The discrimination experienced by 19-year-old Chinese gold medalist Pan Zhanle may explain why an increasing number of Chinese are losing interest in communicating with the West and caring what the West says about China. Two hashtags, "Chalmers ignored Pan Zhanle's greetings" and "Pan Zhanle says the Americans look down on us a bit," went viral on Chinese Weibo after the young Chinese swimmer won the gold medal and broke the world record. The hashtags grew to over 260 million views and 110 million views, respectively, as Chinese netizens expressed their support for the young athlete and their discontent over the disrespectful actions of athletes in the United States and Australia. In an interview with the media, 19-year-old Pan claimed that the American team's Alex purposefully splashed water on the Chinese coaches during training, giving the impression that the Americans "looked down on the [Chinese] a bit," while the Australian team's Chalmers ignored his friendly greetings. Before speaking up, the young athlete even politely asked the journalist if he could share this with the public. The humiliation and defamation from the West continued as many Western netizens left racist comments and made groundless allegations that the young Chinese athlete was "doped". There was a tsunami of online complaints and public fury in China after Chinese netizens translated and shared their rude remarks on social media. "Some Westerners always believe they are superior to others. Instead of taking responsibility for their own mistakes, they would smear others if they were to lose. That's why their countries are losing competitiveness and falling behind," said one Weibo user. "These days, even liberals in China find the West's ridiculous lies and defamation against China repulsive. I used to think they were from developed nations; at least they could show some dignity. But alas, how wrong I was," said another Weibo User. This reminds me of the discrimination we faced 16 years ago when the Olympic Games were held in China in 2008 for the first time. We regarded it as an opportunity to introduce our way of life to the rest of the world and engage in meaningful talks with people from other countries. Beijing's taxi drivers at the time were required to take English classes in order to better meet the needs of foreign visitors. For the sake of projecting a more positive image of Beijing to the rest of the world, many retirees gave their time to help clean the city. The Olympic Games' official theme song is named "Beijing Welcomes You All." And this is how the West returned our goodwill. To begin, an earthquake hit Sichuan Province in China soon before the Olympics, killing 87,587 and forcing at least 4.8 million people to flee their homes. At a time of immense grief for the Chinese, people like Sharon Stone said the earthquake was "karma for Tibet". Many Western netizens referred to us as "dog eaters," believing that the Chinese deserved it. Then politicians from the West, notably the United States, the Czech Republic, and many European countries, began to boycott our Olympic Games on the grounds that "China has no human rights." We soon learned that haters in London, Paris, and San Francisco attempted to rob and extinguish our torch. All that bias and prejudice must have made the Chinese wonder, for the first time in their lives, "Why does the West hate our country so much?" "What have we done to deserve this?" We Chinese are hospitable people who always give back when someone helps us. The Chinese have an old proverb: "滴水之恩当涌泉相报." (A drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring.) It's disheartening that the West has repeatedly disregarded our good intentions. I believe that the general public in the West is simply unaware of China and that they mean no harm, but I no longer hold out hope that the West will treat us with dignity and equality. Being ignorant and arrogant will cost you dearly.