During this year’s live broadcast of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, there was a program directed by Zhang Yimou called “Yang BOT”, featuring a group of robots and dancers performing the Yangko dance together. Many people found it strange to see a robot wearing a Northeastern-style cotton-padded jacket and holding a handkerchief while dancing Yangko. What was even more peculiar was the shaky and disorganized exit of the robots from the stage.
According to reports from mainland media, the performance began with a group of dancers dressed in “Northeast Big Flower” costumes dancing the Northeastern folk dance “Yangko” on stage. After a while, the dancers exited the stage, and a large group of robots wearing cotton-padded jackets and holding handkerchiefs appeared in the background.
The report stated that these robots, belonging to Hangzhou Yushu Technology, stand about 1.8 meters tall and weigh only 47 kilograms. They not only changed formations and moved their bodies but also rotated the handkerchiefs at various angles.
The program sparked discussions among netizens, with comments such as “Funny, but not beautiful”, “I was afraid they would fall while watching the show,” and “My dad didn’t bring his glasses, and when watching TV, he said how come there’s a bunch of zombies on stage.” There were also remarks like, “Why aren’t the robots wearing pants?” To which netizens responded, “Wearing pants would affect their performance,” and “At least they are wearing clothes.”
Although mainland media cited the hyped-up foreign propaganda saying, “These robots are indeed very impressive, they have been praised on foreign websites, and many netizens even believe that they can replace soldiers on the battlefield. This technology can control 500 drones simultaneously.” But as the topic of the robots on the Spring Festival Gala trended, the program was approaching its end. When the robots were getting ready to exit, an unexpected incident occurred.
Instead of a coordinated and orderly exit, the robots suddenly descended into chaos. Some robots seemed to lose signal and spun in place on the stage; some hurriedly ran in the opposite direction, disregarding the positions of other robots; some even stopped in the middle of the stage, looking disoriented. Moreover, all the robots had shaky footsteps as they walked off.
This scene caught the audience off guard, breaking the previously tense atmosphere and turning it into laughter. Audience members quickly took out their phones to capture the awkward exit of the robots. Meanwhile, the staff swiftly cleaned up the aftermath, each person corresponding to a robot, walking alongside them with remote controllers, taking care of each robot’s condition. Netizens exclaimed, “Impressive, but not as impressive as hyped, it’s a bit ‘revealing’.”