Comparisons with the characters of a popular Chinese television drama called "In the Name of the People" -- which also happens to be the slogan of French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen -- have flooded China's Twitter-like Weibo.
The main villain of the ripped-from-the-headlines show, which follows the exploits of an anti-corruption squad tackling graft at the highest levels of government, is a dodgy official who marries a woman 10 years his senior in a bid for power.
Posts using a hashtag about the French politician's much-discussed marriage -- which translates into English as "Marrying his teacher 24 years his senior" -- have been viewed more than nine million times on the social media site.
Despite the seemingly unfavourable comparison to a corrupt official, social media commenters have been largely supportive of 39-year-old Macron's relationship with his 64-year-old wife Brigitte.
"Taking a high school teacher and mother as his wife, you can only call this French man a romantic," one web user said.
"Age isn't distance," said another. "Please don't make malicious assumptions about others."
Watch: Macron campaigns in northern France
