China ushered in the Year of the Horse with its iconic Spring Festival Gala (Chunwan) on Lunar New Year’s Eve, Monday, February 16, 2026, delivering a spectacle filled with technological firsts that captivated millions of viewers nationwide and went viral globally.
Broadcast live by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), the annual gala—China’s most-watched television event and a cultural cornerstone of the Lunar New Year holiday—featured groundbreaking performances by humanoid robots, marking a significant leap from previous years’ more rudimentary robotic appearances.
In one of the most talked-about segments, robots from four leading Chinese firms—Unitree, Magiclab, Galbot, and Noetix—executed a series of world-first feats in continuous freestyle table-vaulting parkour. The sequence included:
- The world’s first continuous freestyle table-vaulting parkour routine.
- The first aerial flip by a humanoid robot.
- Continuous single-leg flips.
- A two-step wall-assisted backflip.
- The first 7.5-rotation Airflare grand spin.
The performance represented a dramatic evolution from last year’s gala, where robots performed simpler tasks such as twirling handkerchiefs and basic movements. This year’s showcase highlighted China’s accelerating advancements in humanoid robotics, currently focused on entertainment and public demonstrations as a stepping stone toward future industrial and service applications.
The segment, aired on CGTN (CCTV’s international channel), quickly went viral, amassing nearly 500,000 views on YouTube within hours. Partnerships with the four robotics companies were reportedly valued at around 100 million yuan ($14 million), according to the South China Morning Post.
The robotic showcase unfolded in stages:
- Noetix’s Bumi models made their debut in a comedy sketch.
- Unitree robots performed martial arts routines alongside child performers, executing backflips and trampoline jumps.
- Magiclab’s humanoids took center stage in a musical number, demonstrating fluid dance-like movements.
The gala also spotlighted China’s fierce competition in artificial intelligence. ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, leveraged the platform to unveil its upgraded Seedance 2.0 video-generation model and the enhanced Doubao-Seed 2.0 AI systems. ByteDance announced an ambitious giveaway campaign, distributing over 100,000 products—including drones, electric vehicles, robots, and 3D printers—along with digital red envelopes worth up to 8,888 yuan ($1,286) through lucky draws during the broadcast.
This move intensified rivalry with other tech giants:
- Tencent’s Yuanbao AI app had previously rolled out giveaways valued at 1 billion yuan.
- Alibaba’s Qwen AI offered prizes worth 3 billion yuan in cash and vouchers ahead of the holiday.
- Excluded from the main CCTV partnership, Alibaba instead sponsored Lunar New Year galas hosted by local broadcasters in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Henan provinces.
Adding a celestial touch to the celebrations, the three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-21 mission joined from the Tiangong space station. Crew members decorated the orbital outpost with red lanterns, prepared and shared dumplings, and enjoyed a freshly baked cake made using the station’s specialized space oven—symbolizing family reunion traditions even in orbit.
The 2026 Lunar New Year, beginning February 17, 2026, officially marks the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac. The holiday, also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, is the most important traditional festival in China and among Chinese communities worldwide, characterized by family reunions, feasting, fireworks, red envelopes (hongbao), and cultural performances.
This year’s gala underscored China’s strategic push to blend cultural heritage with cutting-edge technology, positioning the country as a global frontrunner in humanoid robotics, generative AI, and space exploration—all on full display during one of the world’s largest annual television events.
