Twenty-four humanoid robots, up from 16 a year earlier. That was Unitree Robotics’ headline number on China’s Lunar New Year gala this year, and the company’s G1 machines spent their stage time sparring with human performers in a martial arts routine.
They vaulted tables, threw backflips and spun into kicks. Between formations they ran, at up to four meters per second. Last year’s show relied on slower walking to reposition, and Unitree founder Wang Xingxing said that pace “didn’t look good on stage.”
Last year was dance
At the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, 16 Unitree robots performed the Yangge folk dance alongside dancers from the Xinjiang Art Institute. Zhang Yimou directed. The robots wore flowery padded jackets from northeast China and spun handkerchiefs, according to Chinese media outlets and Global Times. Wang Qixin, Unitree’s head of marketing, told state broadcaster CGTN beforehand that the robots would change positions on stage fully automatically and that their dance movements were all driven by AI.
This was the company’s third gala appearance. “We couldn’t just dance again this year because we danced last year,” Wang Xingxing told 36Kr, in an interview just before midnight on New Year’s eve after he returned from the live recording. Preparation started in November. Unitree worked with the gala’s directing team, reviewed martial arts techniques from around the world and picked dozens of moves.
What had to work
More robots meant harder coordination. Unitree built cluster control technology to manage group movement. Each robot reads its surroundings with onboard sensors, and when high-intensity moves push a robot out of position, the system returns it to formation without anyone stepping in.
One move had a robot take two steps up a wall before leaping. At first it managed one. The team kept working until it could step twice and jump higher. A robot that fell and stood back up was deliberate, Wang said: “It was part of the storyline.” Drunken boxing, he explained, has that feeling of almost falling.
The business side
Wang estimates Unitree’s 2026 shipments at 10,000 to 20,000 units. He said annual capacity for humanoids is at least in the tens of thousands, and the same for quadrupeds. The R1 humanoid starts at RMB 29,900 (USD 4,186) on JD.com and Taobao.
He was blunt about the limits. Humanoids have been promoted for production, assembly and material handling in automotive factories since 2024, but mass deployment has not happened. “In factories, it ultimately comes down to efficiency compared with humans,” Wang said, “and globally robots still cannot outperform people in many cases.” Homes are further off, since every household is different. In guided tours or fixed industrial settings he expects solid results this year or next.
Orders jumped last year and production strained in the first half, he said, so this time the company stocked more inventory ahead of time.
Sources
- Humanoid robots dance to folk tunes on China’s New Year Gala
- After this year’s gala spectacle, where is Unitree Robotics headed?
- Humanoid Robots Steal the Spotlight in China’s Lunar New Year Gala – QUE.com
