China makes robots dance at the New Year celebrations and the world is amazed

Debora Pape

18/2/2026

Translation: machine translated

The startup Unitree demonstrated the rapid progress of humanoid robots at the Chinese New Year gala show with fluid kung fu moves and autonomous backflips.

The Year of the Horse has officially begun in China. The CMG Spring Festival Gala takes place every year as the cultural centrepiece of the New Year celebrations. As the most-watched TV event in the world, the show traditionally also serves as a demonstration of the People's Republic's own technological progress. At the start of the new year, however, it was not horses that leapt across the stage but dancing humanoid robots. As the «modern horse» of Chinese industry, they symbolise power and speed.

The coordinated performance of several Unitree robots caused a worldwide sensation. You can see the speedy show here from around minute four:

Remarkable progress within one year

The New Year's Gala 2026 presents the G1 robot model from start-up Unitree Robotics together with dancing children in a flowing martial arts choreography. The robots, which are only 130 centimetres tall, interact with the humans in a way that almost makes you forget that they are artificial actors. They turn cartwheels, perform backflips and twirl with swords and nunchucks with a precision that is hardly inferior to that of human masters.

The acrobatic feats and safe handling of the show weapons require a high degree of coordination and balance. The humanoid machines performed complex kung fu routines, including the highly technical «Drunken Fist» style. The highlight of the performance was the much larger Unitree H2 model with a sword.

Unitree robots also performed a traditional Yangge dance in last year's gala show. You can see the 2025 performance here. The progress the robots have made in just one year is breathtaking. In 2025, the robots moved in careful triple steps and waved their arms in synchronisation. It was more like a programmed ballet than real choreography.

2026, on the other hand, was characterised by «Embodied AI» (verkörperte KI). The robots acted largely autonomously. With lidar rangefinders and real-time force feedback, they can correct their balance independently during jumps and parkour manoeuvres. What's more, these are not prototypes, but market-ready products that are available from 13,500 US dollars https://shop.unitree.com/en-de/products/unitree-g1.

About a year ago, a wheel-slapping robot from US company Boston Dynamics caused quite a stir. The speed of the Unitree robots and their hand coordination have now raised the bar for humanoid robots even higher.

Appearances in sketches and as accompaniment in shows

In addition to the martial show acts, humanoid robots from Chinese companies MagicLab, Galbot and Noetix also took part in the celebrations. They performed acrobatic showpieces such as the breakdance figure «Thomas 360» spin, served as backing dancers and showed off their ability to make human facial expressions in a comedy sketch.

In January, the US company Realbotix presented its modular mimic robots to a wide audience. It's hard to imagine what may be in store for us when moving models including human-like faces soon conquer the world.

Debora Pape

Editor

Debora.Pape@galaxus.de

Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.

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