This was supposed to be a breakout year for Chinese actress Nashi, with major roles in two blockbuster films and a highly anticipated TV drama.

But then in June, the 35-year-old's star crashed as a furore over her exam scores from more than a decade ago sparked a backlash online – and eventually an official investigation into her academic record.

The fallout was immediate. Her name was scrubbed from the credits of the drama, Lychees in Chang'an, and brands began cutting ties.

She joins a growing list of people facing intense scrutiny in China over their privilege, with authorities launching investigations to appease public anger.

In recent months, these viral scandals have hit two actresses, a Harvard graduate, and a doctor from a top Beijing hospital: all young women. They were accused of leveraging family connections to gain unfair advantage.

"There's privilege every year, but this year there's more than ever," says one user on Weibo. Another wrote: "I would love to see more scandals like this. They are truly eye-opening."

Frustrated with rising unemployment and a slowing economy, more and more young Chinese people feel that connections, or guanxi, pay off more than hard work, research shows.

Nashi, for instance, was accused of using her actress mother's connections to enrol in a prestigious drama school.

The programme, which her mother attended in the 1980s, was for ethnic Mongolian students like them. But then old interview clips resurfaced, in which she had said she didn't fulfil a key obligation - she went to study in Norway after graduating, instead of returning to work in Inner Mongolia as required by the programme.

Speculation grew in early June, just as millions of high school seniors sat for the gruelling university entrance exam called Gaokao – the same exam that earned Nashi a spot at the drama school in 2008.

Internet sleuths dug up the lowest scores for that year and suspected they were hers. Did she only go to the drama school because of her mum, they asked. It was a serious enough allegation that officials eventually stepped in to clarify that she had a much higher score.

But it was not enough.

Internet scandals are hardly unique to China but they have become a much-needed outlet – for anger, questions........

© BBC