Magician Liu Qian “Touched Porcelain” by Interacting with Robots Backstage at the Spring Festival Gala

On January 30th, Taiwanese magician Liu Qian shared a behind-the-scenes moment from the Spring Festival Gala on Weibo. In the footage, he approached a robot backstage wanting to shake hands but the robot unexpectedly collapsed backward upon getting close to him. The scene caused a stir among the people present. Some humorously commented, “The magic is too powerful, even the robot couldn’t handle it.” Liu Qian exclaimed in shock, “It wasn’t me! How scary!”

In a video posted by Liu Qian on January 30th on Weibo with the caption “It really wasn’t me,” it showed staff controlling robots backstage, including the black robot twisting Yangko dance in a program directed by Zhang Yimou called “YANG BOT” during the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala. Additionally, there were a robot dog (quadruped robot) and a silver-white bipedal robot.

Curiously observing this scene, when Liu Qian hesitantly reached out his hand to shake the robot’s hand, the robot suddenly kneeled down and collapsed backward, leaving Liu Qian startled, exclaiming, “It wasn’t me!” and expressing how terrifying it was before swiftly being ushered away from the scene.

On the evening of January 28th, on the stage of CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a group of robots from “Hangzhou Yushu Technology,” about 1.8 meters tall and weighing only 47 kilograms, dressed in Hanfu attire and holding red handkerchiefs, performed the Yangko dance alongside dancing actors. The program sparked criticism from many netizens commenting, “Funny but not beautiful,” “I was really afraid they would fall during the show,” “Why aren’t the robots wearing pants while dancing?”

Although some “Little Pink” supporters of the Chinese Communist Party touted the technological advancement and claimed that even the Silicon Valley elites were impressed, some netizens pointed out that these robots performing the handkerchief dance on stage were actually motorized, controlled by thin strings connecting the handkerchiefs to the robots’ arms.

Some netizens shared related videos mocking that these robots couldn’t even walk properly. The videos showed the robots being pushed offstage one by one by actors; in backstage footage, the robots’ movements were controlled one-on-one by staff using handheld controllers, appearing unsteady on flat ground, looking awkward, and eliciting bursts of laughter in the video.

After several years of being based in mainland China, Liu Qian returned to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala last year, only to face another blooper. Despite a host disclosing that Liu Qian “left with tears” and declared he would not participate in the Spring Festival Gala again in the future, according to a report by “Lianhe Zaobao,” Liu Qian faced many life challenges in the past year. After being diagnosed with pulmonary adenocarcinoma and undergoing surgery following the end of last year’s Spring Festival Gala performance, he disappeared from the public eye for a while. This year, Liu Qian participated in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala once again, showcasing two magic tricks themed around “drawing a snake to add fortune.” However, the first act was considered by some netizens as merely a simple display of skills, while the second act was seen as demonstrating combinatorial principles in mathematics with few elements of actual magic tricks.