Shanghai robot carnival shows China's humanoids shifting into public entertainment

A holiday crowd meets the machines

On a public holiday on the outskirts of Shanghai, families streamed into a robot "carnival" run by the Intelligent Manufacturing & Robotics Global Co-Innovation Center, a hub that houses more than 100 companies developing and marketing robotic technology. Reporter You Xiaoying, writing for MIT Technology Review, describes a day built around spectacle rather than industrial demonstrations: an 11-year-old boy showing off a newly bought mini robotic dog attempting handstands, staffers coaching children through getting a quadruped up a flight of stairs, and remote-controlled machines trading water beads in a temporary battle ring while onlookers cheered.

The venue normally points at practical work. Many of the companies based there build specialized machines for tasks such as hauling heavy loads or inspecting sewage pipes, the report notes. On this day, however, nearly everything was designed for show.

Humanoids take the stage

The headline acts were in the main tent. One humanoid, dressed in a decorated top, performed drunken boxing, a Chinese martial arts style, while another executed a front flip. A row of small robotic lions waited nearby for their turn. The audience, clearly entertained, chanted for more.

The carnival is part of a broader pattern, according to MIT Technology Review. Shopping malls and tourist attractions in several Chinese cities now host humanoids that perform for crowds, and in Beijing bipedal robots have run half-marathons. Utility made appearances too: DexForce exhibited a model that prepares coffee, and a pair of robotic arms at a nearby booth worked through a basket of T-shirts. Yang Duan, a product manager at DexForce, told the publication that such machines can "free people from physical work and mundane chores."

A national strategy behind the spectacle

The entertainment push is not happening in a vacuum. The report ties it to China's effort to bring artificial intelligence into everyday life, with embodied AI — building intelligence into physical systems — named as a key element of the country's most recent five-year plan. Chinese firms also hold a commanding position in the hardware itself: of the more than 13,000 two-armed, two-legged robots delivered globally last year, nearly 90% were manufactured in China, MIT Technology Review reports.

What the show leaves out

The cheerful framing stands in contrast to the state of the technology more broadly. The report points out that humanoid progress has been slow elsewhere, held back by safety concerns tied to the machines' weight and the difficulty of balancing on two legs, as well as by high prices and short battery life. Many roboticists also question whether a human shape is even the right design choice for a robot. The public campaign appears to be working, the report suggests — at least among the weekend crowds in Shanghai.

Why it matters

The carnival illustrates how China's robotics industry is using entertainment as an on-ramp for public acceptance. Rather than waiting for humanoids to prove themselves on factory floors or in homes, companies and venues are putting them in front of families as performers, opponents in robot battles and purchasable pets. That exposure matters both commercially and politically: it builds consumer familiarity with machines that are still expensive, power-hungry and technically limited, while aligning with a national plan that treats embodied AI as a strategic priority. The gap between choreographed stunts and dependable everyday labor remains wide, and closing it — in safety, cost and battery life — will determine whether today's carnival attractions become tomorrow's household workers. For now, the crowds chanting for more suggest the marketing phase is succeeding.