People in Shandong worship ancestors and kowtow, which is a leftover of feudalism.

People in Fujian and Chaoshan also worship ancestors and kowtow, and they engage in divine worship, extravagantly wasting resources, with serious clan influence.
This is not about being feudal and backward, but about intangible cultural heritage and national pride.
It doesn't matter what exactly hometown is like; what matters is online marketing.
Southerners are indeed much better at marketing than Northerners, able to turn black into white.
In reality, women who marry into Shandong and women who marry into Chaoshan—who suffers more and feels worse—there's no need to say. But online, there are still more defamation and insults towards Shandong.
This demonstrates the importance of marketing hype.