“The Core of Humanoid Robots Is Serving Humanity”
A humanoid robot manufacturer that has appeared for two consecutive years on China’s largest holiday TV special for the Spring Festival presented a spectacular gala show.
On the 17th, Chinese media outlets including Beijing Ribao reported that the humanoid robots that performed a joint martial arts show with children in the Spring Festival Gala program “Chunwan,” which China Central Television (CCTV) released on the afternoon of the 16th, were products of Unitree (Yushu Technology). Commentators say that, through this broadcast that Chinese people watch with their families during the holiday, the development of Chinese humanoid robots has been imprinted on the general public.
Unitree's humanoid robot that appeared at China's Spring Festival Gala in 2025 and 2026. Screenshot from X (formerly Twitter)
Unitree, a leading Chinese robotics company, drew attention in last year’s Chunwan as well, when it staged a performance featuring 16 of its robots together with 16 human dancers. The Unitree “H1” that took part in the group dance sold out as soon as pre-orders opened on the Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com.
The Unitree robot gala show, returning after a year, displayed much more natural movements and showcased high-difficulty techniques, fully demonstrating technological progress. Whereas in last year’s group performance the robots walked slowly while adjusting their formation, in this year’s show they ran into new formations and executed complex martial arts moves.
Unitree stated that it had “publicly unveiled for the first time in the world its swarm control technology, which enables highly coordinated collaboration amid rapid movement transitions.”
Unitree's humanoid robot showcased Zui Quan (Drunken Fist) at the Chinese Spring Festival Gala. CCTV footage
On stage with the child martial artists, the robots demonstrated famous martial arts styles such as aerial somersaults, drunken boxing, and nunchaku techniques. In the drunken boxing scene in particular, the humanoid robot lay sprawled flat on the floor as if drunk, then quickly sprang back to its feet as the children approached.
The robots also used gymnastics vaulting platforms to jump as high as 2 to 3 meters and land stably. Unitree explained that “to successfully perform the vault jumps, we carried out hundreds of millions of training iterations on a simulation platform, then applied the results to the actual robots and made fine adjustments.”
Unitree CEO Wang Xingsing said, “Through the Chunwan stage, I hoped that humanoid robots would push themselves to the limit,” adding, “If you see them up close, you will notice they can jump high enough to almost reach the ceiling.” He went on, “The vault jump requires an extremely high level of balance control, dynamic response, and landing stability from the robot, and this is something that has been achieved for the first time in the world.”
CEO Wang also stated, “The core of humanoid robots is not about showing off technology, but about serving human beings,” and emphasized, “Our shared goal is to enable robots to truly drive progress in human productivity.”
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