Repertoires of digital nationalism: Symbolic conflict and affective responses in Cambodian-Thai online encounters

Symbolic repertoires shape how political actors make meaning, legitimise claims, and construct collective identities, and in polarised digital contexts these repertoires acquire heightened affective force as visual and textual interactions circulate rapidly across communities. This article examines how Cambodian and Thai netizens engage in increasingly antagonistic cross-border exchanges, drawing on culturally charged repertoires rooted in heritage, history, everyday cultural practices, and national narratives. Rather than treating digital nationalism as a purely discursive phenomenon, the article foregrounds how symbols operate as affective and mobilising devices in daily digital encounters, in a form of conflict that now reaches directly into the private spaces of anyone connected to a device. Based on a participatory study with youth co-researchers in both countries who went offline to understand the drivers and effects of cross-border online conflict, the analysis explores how contested symbols such as Angkor Wat, the Preah Vihear Temple, the kickboxing traditions of Kun Khmer and Muay Thai, and broader representations of cultural ownership in clothing, food, and artistic forms function as repertoires of symbolic conflict combining multivocal meaning with strong emotional resonance. Slurs, memes, and viral phrases such as ‘Claimbodia’ or ‘Don’t Thai to me’ similarly operate as symbolic shorthand for broader grievances, while narratives of development and modernity express deeper hierarchies that structure how each group interprets the other. Participant testimonies show that online interactions are shaped by recurring flashpoints that activate affective responses connected to pride, humiliation, symbolic survival, and perceived national hierarchy, thereby reproducing long-standing historical tensions. The study identifies two contrasting affective repertoires that underpin public engagement with symbolic conflict: Cambodian participants commonly displayed ‘digital hyper-engagement’, an emotionally charged mode of participation characterised by defensive assertion and the desire to protect cultural legitimacy, while Thai participants frequently exhibited ‘digital apathy’, defined by irritation, detachment, and selective disengagement. Importantly, these contrasting affective registers do not suggest that one group is inherently more nationalistic than the other; rather, they reflect different emotional investments and stakes in the conflict, shaped by broader historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. Platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and X (Twitter) amplify visibility and provide arenas for public confrontation, enabling rapid circulation of repertoires that evoke pride, humiliation, superiority, or frustration and illustrating how symbolic conflict is reproduced and transformed online. The analysis shows that digital environments are not neutral conduits of information but constitute part of the symbolic architecture through which repertoires are enacted, contested, and interpreted, functioning as ‘trenches’ in which national narratives are weaponised within a hostile digital landscape. Methodologically, the study employs Facilitative Listening Design (FLD), a participatory and dialogic approach that captures how individuals make sense of symbolic repertoires within their lived experience, offering an interpretive, qualitative, and comparative contribution to the study of symbolic politics in digital environments.