Robots that dance and do kung fu: the New Year's Gala showcases China's progress in AI
Humanoids starred in China's most-watched TV show, bringing New Year's traditions into the digital world, thus showcasing the country’s technological advances. Billions-dollar investments and competition among digital giants are bringing the prospect of robots in factories and offices that much closer.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – China’s state television (CCTV) Spring Festival Gala, broadcast annually to mark the start of the Lunar New Year, has become a showcase for the progress in the robotics and artificial intelligence industries.
This year, the event included humanoid robots that dance, perform martial arts, and take part in comedy sketches with four robotics companies (Unitree, Magiclab, Galbot, Noetix) partnering with the Gala in deals valued at 100 million yuan (US$ 14 million).
In 2025, a traditional Yangge dance performed by Unitree robots went viral, bringing the industry to the attention of the general public. In 2026, several commentators have highlighted the incredible progress made from one year to the next.
This year, the first to appear were Noetix's Bumi robots, starring in a comedy sketch. The Unitree robots followed with martial arts tricks, brandishing poles and swords alongside young athletes and performing somersaults and trampoline acrobatics, while Magiclab's humanoids engaged in a dance routing to the tune of a song titled We are made in China.
Although entertainment remains the primary field of application visible to the public for now, Beijing's long-term goal is to employ robots as industrial workforce.
In China, humanoid robots have already been introduced in factories, hotels, and offices. Beijing aims to dominate the sector that merges artificial intelligence with hardware systems within the next five years.
According to Morgan Stanley, since the end of 2024, Beijing, Shenzhen, and other cities have established investment funds totalling more than US$ 26 billion to inject capital into the sector.
Research firm Omdia estimates that China produced 90 per cent of the approximately 13,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide last year, well ahead of its US rivals. Morgan Stanley predicts Chinese humanoid sales will double this year, to 28,000 units.
The Gala has also become a competitive arena for Chinese tech giants. ByteDance, the parent company of Douyin and TikTok, has secured an exclusive partnership as a cloud and AI service provider, taking over from last year's sponsor Alibaba Cloud, a move that reflects the growing rivalry among large Chinese companies providing these types of services.
ByteDance used the event to promote its AI capabilities, showcasing new video generation models. Through its Doubao app, it also launched a series of lotteries with technological prizes up for grabs, including drones, electric vehicles, robots, 3D printers, and digital red packets worth up to 8,888 yuan (US$ 1,286), a digital reimagining of traditional Lunar New Year gifts.
Tencent and Alibaba, for their part, responded with similar campaigns, distributing prizes and vouchers worth billions of yuan through their AI applications.
CCTV also boosted its digital distribution by partnering with platforms such as Bilibili, Kuaishou, and Douyin because, even though the Gala is the most-watched television show in the country, it is struggling to retain the attention of young people, who are less accustomed to long live television broadcasts.
Like the US Super Bowl, the show is now a national visibility platform for smart appliance companies, like Dreame Technology, and trading card producers, like Kayou, who use the event to launch themed products related to the New Year, which this year is the Year of Horse.
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17/02/2007
