MANDALAY, Myanmar—Entertainer Linn Linn sings about love, the environment and freedom. But his fans keep asking for a different song—the one about Chinese immigrants taking over his hometown.

"Who are they in this city? / Neighbors that arrive from northeast," he sings over a gentle folk-rock melody on an acoustic guitar. "I close both my ears in utter shame / Messed up with strangers / The death of our dear Mandalay."

Over the past decade, Mr. Linn Linn says, he has seen a wave of Chinese traders pouring into Mandalay, buying up businesses and pushing residents out of town. His song "The Death of Mandalay" attracted tens of thousands of views after a fan filmed a performance and posted it online.

"Whenever I play anywhere…they request that I play the song," the pony-tailed singer said as he sipped coffee one recent afternoon. He said he respects Chinese culture and many of its hardworking citizens, but he complained that the Chinese "give less than they take."

His tough words and his song's following are among signs of growing resentment in Myanmar and a number of Asian countries over their giant neighbor's rising economic, military and political power. Concerns range from the commercial, such as natural-resource extraction and Chinese merchants selling cheap imports, to the geopolitical, seen in Beijing's offshore territorial claims and the unveiling of its first aircraft carrier.