On a studio production stage in China's east, a young dancer named A-K is gyrating wildly yet skilfully for a popular online program called This is Street Dance.

But the editors cutting the slick production have to show their dexterity too.

As he jumps around the stage in the final program online, a pixelated blur follows him, appearing when his shirt collar drops down revealing his shoulder, or when his shirt comes up during handstands.

The blur is subtle but noticeable.

An attempt to disguise his tattoos that only makes the audience more aware of them.

This is Street Dance was recorded before a new regulation came in at the start of this year forbidding tattoos on entertainment programs.

A more recent similar program, Big Band, adopts an easier solution — rockers known for inked arms are at all times performing in long-sleeve shirts.

A subtle clamp on individual expression, but one that says a lot about where Communist China is after 70 years.

"Tattoos are a very powerful form of self-expression, but generally they are historically not accepted," said Beijing tattoo artist Zhang Chao.

Beijing tattoo designer Li Yang says "Chinese tradition tends to be modest". ( ABC News: Brant Cumming )

"I think people who ban tattoos and dislike them are not talking to people who actually have tattoos."

The regulations also banned earrings on men, elements of hip-hop culture — and went well beyond the realm of entertainment.

Chinese footballers known for inked skin were suddenly wearing flesh-coloured bandages on their arms during matches.

"Chinese tradition tends to be modest and young people with strong personal expression are not well received by broader society," said Li Yang, a tattoo designer in Beijing.

Members of the band Miserable Faith wore long sleeves to cover their tattoos on the Big Band television show. ( Supplied )

Regulators justified the bans in the name of "healthy cultural education", but the morality drive is just one aspect of a broader push by China's President Xi Jinping to culturally and politically transform this nation of 1.4 billion, promoting conformity and loyalty.

Aside from a broad campaign to restore the Communist Party's dominant role across all aspects of Chinese society, and a tightening of censorship and domestic security, he's also doubling down on nationalism in an effort to make patriotism the new religion in an atheist country.

Ahead of China's national day on October 1 — on which the country's largest-ever military parade will be held in Beijing — China's top leadership held a meeting to "underline the importance of patriotic education", according to the China Daily.

"Patriotic education in the new era should aim to make patriotism the faith, spiritual strength and conscious action of all Chinese people," the Government-owned newspaper reported.

The Government's news agency, Xinhua, also described recent actions by Hong Kong protestors to stamp on and burn China's national flag as "blasphemous" acts, and authorities have encouraged viral social media campaigns calling on ordinary people to "protect" the flag.

"The nationalism has always been there, and was particularly highlighted from the 1990s as they moved the ideology of Communism more and more into the background," said Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology, Sydney.

"But during the Xi Jinping years, nationalism has been upgraded to the highest level."

The upsurge in nationalism partly stems from the tangible achievements of the Chinese state in recent decades — rapid economic growth and stability that has propelled the country to become the world's second-largest economic and military state.

Zhang Chao says tattoos have historically not been accepted in China. ( ABC News: Brant Cumming )

Even though an economic slowdown under Mr Xi has affected confidence, there is still broad optimism in Chinese society about the direction in which the country is headed.

But it also has come at a time when the Chinese Government has swapped its previous low-profile approach to diplomacy to a hardline, assertive stance that involves an increasing number of "bottom lines" — where compromise and negotiation on international disputes aren't politically correct options for public discussion.

"The Party's leveraging of nationalism to bolster its legitimacy is something it's been doing for a long time, but now China is incredibly powerful and more prominent on the international stage" said Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University.

"This nationalism is now displayed in many ways that in the past were not possible, such as in China's foreign conduct, in its disputes with other countries and treatment of foreign companies."

About 70 years on from the poor, war-torn country that chairman Mao Zedong conquered, China is relatively rich and Communist rule more solidified than ever.

The restrictions on movement and overseas travel that cut China off from the outside world in the first three decades of Communist rule are a memory of the past for the vast majority of people (although still affect large numbers of ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang and Tibet).

But the morality drive, security apparatus and patriotic push show the party still struggles to define how much personal expression is desirable and tolerable — an insecurity that belies the show of strength in Beijing this week.

And while the middle-aged men who run China's Government can wipe inked skin from the nation's screens, a younger generation appears less willing these days to fall into line.

"I can see the number of people getting tattoos is rising each year, there are more and more tattoo artists," said Zhang Chao.

"It's becoming an industry."