China's Humanoid Robots Steal Spring Festival Gala with Kung Fu, Parkour, and World-First Stunts

Humanoid Robots on the World's Biggest Stage

The 2026 Chinese Spring Festival Gala — the world's most-watched television broadcast — featured humanoid robots from four startups: Unitree, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab. Performing alongside human martial arts actors, the robots demonstrated a remarkable leap in capability compared to last year's shaky folk dance performance.

World-First Feats

Unitree's G1 and H2 robots, supported by AI algorithms and 3D LiDAR, achieved several world firsts:

• Aerial flips reaching a maximum height exceeding 3 meters
• Continuous parkour-style table vaulting sequences
• Single-leg aerial flips followed by a two-step wall-run into a backflip
• Airflare rotation at 7.5 revolutions
• Clustered rapid repositioning at up to 4 meters per second

A Year of Dramatic Progress

The 2025 gala featured the same companies' robots performing wobbly handkerchief folk dances. The contrast underscores how rapidly China's humanoid robotics sector has advanced in just 12 months, drawing comparisons to the country's hyper-compressed development cycles in other tech sectors.

Commercial Momentum

Just before the show, Unitree's CEO told local media the company targets 10,000–20,000 unit shipments in 2026. Noetix demonstrated multiple humanoid models performing side flips and backflips within a 12-square-meter stage area, showcasing precision motion planning at scale.

Source: TechNode, PRNewswire