Who Does It Better, Jet Li or 108 Dancing Robots?

The robots are coming! The robots are coming! … to a dance floor near you.

Just as China announced it’ll “triple its annual production of industrial robots to 100,000 by 2020,” we get an altogether different kind of robot. Two weeks ago, the CCTV show Brilliant Chinese (出彩中国人) featured a segment in which 108 robots took to the floor to perform a tai chi / kung-fu routine set to the title track from Jet Li’s movie Fearless.

Check out the (human) hosts giggle with delight as the robot DJ lays down a beat (at the 37-second mark).

Interviewed afterward, the lead robot (“Brilliant Chinese Robot No. 1”) replies to a question about its gender with: “Tell you guys a secret: robots don’t have gender.”

“Ahhhhh,” the (human) hosts say.

A female (human, obviously, since robots don’t have gender) host asks if they have age differences.

“We were born on the same year, same month, same day. We are just over a year old. We are all still babies.”

And the crowd cheers happily.

Robot No. 1 goes on to explain his troupe has practiced only for a few days, and that his fellow companions don’t like to talk much. It then tells a joke in the form of a song that makes a pun out of China’s mythical Monkey King, which I’m not even going to try to explain.

At the very end, the robot challenges one of the male hosts to a push-up competition. I think you all know who won.

For those curious about the original (human) version of the “Fearless” track, here it is, featuring mega pop star Jay Chou (of Green Lantern fame):

H/T:

Meet the Kung Fu robots from China: 108 robot masters showcase some kick ass moves on stage pic.twitter.com/uRwsaBQV0m

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) June 15, 2017