Kung Fu Robot at the 2026 Spring Festival Gala
This year’s Spring Festival Gala robot performance went viral on X.
In the performance WuBOT（武 BOT）, robots developed by Unitree Robotics appeared alongside students from Henan Tagou Martial Arts School. With agile movements and seamless human–robot sparring, the show won thunderous applause. The robots demonstrated parkour, consecutive single-leg backflips, high-difficulty jumps, rapid formation changes, and even engaged in stick fighting and “drunken boxing” routines with the young performers.
Although it mainly showcased significant advances in hardware and balance control, it once again made the world take notice of Unitree’s technological progress and China’s growing strength in robotics.
Enjoy the whole show below:
The Spring Festival Gala was a breakout moment, and capital suddenly realized that a robot’s primary business might actually be performing. Trade shows, stages, competitions, celebrity concerts — these seem far more effective at attracting the next round of funding and generating buzz than putting robots to work in factories or real-world service roles.
Meanwhile, the large-scale deployment and commercialization of humanoid robots still face several formidable hurdles: reliability, production capacity, stability, and cost. As one industry observer put it, the Spring Festival Gala may be the perfect “comfort zone” for embodied intelligence. Factories, homes, retail spaces, workshops, and farmland all involve complex terrain and structure. Outdoor environments add uncontrollable variables such as lighting, humidity, temperature, and wind speed. Most importantly, robots must respond flexibly to unpredictable situations the way humans do — and technically, there are still many gaps to bridge.
Even a powerhouse like Tesla’s Optimus has faced credibility issues. In one widely circulated incident, a robot with no visible eye-mounted device suddenly raised its right hand and performed a precise, fluid “headset removal” motion. Market speculation suggested that a remote operator may have been controlling it, and the movement resembled the standard gesture of removing a VR headset. It was speculated that a device malfunction or overheating forced the operator to remove the headset in a rush without disconnecting, fueling public skepticism about whether embodied AI is truly intelligent — or merely a marionette. The episode also intensified doubts about whether some demonstrations are more about hype and fast fundraising than real capability.
Robots may struggle in real-world environments, but on stage they hold all the advantages. The Spring Festival Gala stage offers perfectly flat, high-friction flooring; stable indoor humidity and airflow; no exposure to weather; bright, preconfigured lighting; and even millisecond-level synchronization with background music. With pre-programmed routines — and possibly remote control — robots do not need to “think” or adapt. They simply execute a predetermined trajectory.
Last August in Beijing, I attended the World Robot Conference. And just last weekend, Beijing hosted the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG). My big takeaway was: hardware has clearly improved—motors, control systems, battery management are all much better. From the exhibition, you can see robots have made some real progress in autonomy. Some of the top ones can now carry out tasks completely on their own — spotting specific objects, making decisions, and manipulating them with high precision. Some robots really stood out in motor control and battery management.
But the “brains” haven’t kept up, which is the major shortcoming. Large models for embodied intelligence are still very inadequate, which makes robots look more like fancy toys than real labor replacements. Unitree’s CEO Wang Xingxing raised this issue in a keynote speech.
I also read reports from Goldman Sachs about the conference. I generally agree with their take: there’s still a lot of hype here, nowhere near mature enough for serious investment.
That said, there are some uniquely Chinese aspects worth noting:
1) The term “embodied intelligence”(具身智能) is now completely folded under the AI umbrella. At WAIC, nearly the entire second floor was taken over by robots—robot dogs and humanoids running around everywhere.
2) Chinese robot companies really shine in cost control thanks to local supply chains. For example, UBTECH explained that most of their core robot parts can be sourced one-stop in the Pearl River Delta, allowing them to price robots at about half the cost of SoftBank’s Pepper. One US tech observer even remarked that US robot prices may now average 30% higher than Chinese ones.
3) Robots are visibly entering public life. At both WAIC and WRC, I saw lots of kids—families and even tour groups—with children as young as 5 or 6 interacting with robots: playing soccer, boxing, etc. I’m not sure the same is happening in the US, but it gave me a strange sense of optimism about the future of robotics in China.
Once hardware issues — the body, joints, and locomotion — and balance control (the “brainstem” layer) are reasonably well solved, the real challenge becomes true embodied intelligence — the robot’s “cortex and cerebellum.” And that challenge is fundamentally tied to data scale.
The robotics field is nowhere near a “data wall.” On the contrary, it is in a state of severe data scarcity. Real-world robot data does not suffer from the sim-to-real gap, but it is extremely expensive and not scalable, and will inevitably hit a ceiling. Generalization is not inherently better because data is real; it depends on whether the data has sufficient coverage. If a model has never seen a particular scenario, it cannot generalize to it. The key question, therefore, is not real versus synthetic, but whether we can build a scalable data generation system.
After the Spring Festival Gala show, Wang Xingxing, CEO of Unitree, accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV News, and explained how the robots achieved this, and what globally first-of-its-kind technologies were unveiled.
Wang Xingxing told CCTV News, “We wanted the robots to push their limits on the Gala stage.” The robots performed three consecutive single-leg backflips with fluid continuity, drawing particular attention. Wang explained that the team had the robots leap from a custom-built launching platform, similar to how humans use assistive devices to accomplish extreme maneuvers. With the launcher, the robots could “jump” two to three meters high, complete front and side flips in midair, and land steadily. “Up close, it can almost jump as high as the ceiling.”
To realize this move, Wang and his team conducted hundreds of millions of training iterations in simulation before fine-tuning on physical robots. “This maneuver places extremely high demands on balance control, dynamic response, and landing stability. It’s a global first.”
Another breathtaking moment in WuBOT was the high-speed formation switching of more than twenty robots on stage. In last year’s YangBOT performance, robots changed formations by “walking slowly.” This year, they were able to execute rapid running transitions while weaving through formations and performing martial arts moves. This high-dynamic, high-coordination swarm control technology also made its global debut. “It’s a highly practical capability, laying the groundwork for future multi-robot coordination and single-robot dispatching in other real-world scenarios.”
Unitree team member Lian Yingying explained that to synchronize the movements of over twenty robots perfectly with the music, the martial arts performers, and the ever-changing stage terrain, the team meticulously fine-tuned each movement—sometimes refining timing to the tenth of a second.
From single-leg backflips to adapting to different surfaces, Wang said the goal was never simply to have robots perform a routine on flat ground. By pushing technological boundaries on the Gala stage, the team hopes to drive broader progress across the robotics industry. Director Chi Yuhan added that the program was conceived around the idea of a “future martial arts academy.”
The performance also included playful details. During the sparring segments, the robots were equipped with dexterous hands, allowing them not only to securely catch sticks but also to execute stylish stick-spinning techniques.
For the students of Henan Tagou Martial Arts School, it was their first time performing on stage with robots. Eleven-year-old Fu said sparring with robots felt novel and exhilarating. “It’s like training with senior disciples—it really boosts your fighting spirit.”
One of the most entertaining moments came in the latter half of the show: during a mock duel, a robot suddenly “collapsed drunkenly” to the ground, then sprang back up in a swift “carp flip.” Chi revealed that these moments were carefully scripted. During rehearsals, footage of a robot falling inspired the team to incorporate a playful “drunken boxing” flourish into the choreography.
Wang believes that showcasing cutting-edge robotics technology on the Spring Festival Gala stage to carry forward Chinese culture—especially kung fu—holds special meaning and marks a memorable moment globally. “Through the most advanced AI technology embodied in humanoid robots, Chinese kung fu can reach the world more effectively. In the coming years, robots combined with Chinese martial arts will surely captivate global audiences.”
“When cutting-edge AI is integrated into humanoid robots, they could one day become ‘fellow disciples’ training alongside children in a future martial arts academy,” Chi said. “We hope WuBOT plants a seed of technology in young minds.”
Why have robots perform? What can they do beyond the stage? In Wang’s view, the core of intelligent robotics is not flashy demonstrations, but ensuring that technology serves people. “Performing, running, martial arts—at their core, these activities improve stability, enabling robots to perform tasks that truly benefit everyday life.” Athletic capability is a prerequisite for intelligent robots: they must stand steadily and move reliably before they can work effectively. “If robots can execute martial arts routines amid complex formation shifts and rapid movement, it means they will be even more stable in future applications, giving people greater confidence.”
Wang also revealed that in 2026, several new products are in development, including more practically oriented service robots as well as exploratory models pushing technological frontiers.
“Enabling robots to genuinely advance human productivity—that is our shared goal, and it is what we are committed to pursuing this year.”