Robots Did Kung Fu on Live TV This Week. What Are You Still Afraid Of?

Why teachers need to stop resisting and start building alongside the machines

Last night, while you were sleeping, hundreds of humanoid robots performed kung fu on live television in front of 700 million people.

Not CGI. Not a tech demo behind closed doors. Real robots. Swinging swords. Doing backflips off trampolines. Performing drunken boxing sequences alongside children. On the biggest stage in the world.

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala is China's Super Bowl. It's the single most-watched broadcast on the planet. And this year, four robotics startups (Unitree, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab) didn't just make cameos. They were the opening act. Humanoid robots appeared in the first three sketches. They performed martial arts with nunchucks, poles, and swords in close proximity to human performers. They danced. They appeared in comedy skits. They moved at speeds of up to 4.5 metres per second.

This wasn't a novelty segment squeezed between musical numbers. This was a country showing the world what's coming next.

And it's coming whether you're ready or not.

The numbers are staggering

China shipped 90 per cent of the roughly 13,000 humanoid robots sold globally last year. Morgan Stanley just raised their 2026 forecast to 28,000 units. In Shenzhen phone factories, UBTech's Walker S robots already work 15 per cent faster than skilled humans, with near-zero errors. The Noetix Bumi robot (designed to accompany elderly people on walks, remind them to take medication, and call emergency contacts if they fall) costs under $1,400.

Elon Musk said last month: "People outside China underestimate China, but China is an ass-kicker next level."

He's not wrong.

And if you're a teacher sitting in a staffroom right now, complaining that AI is going to ruin education, or that robots are taking jobs, or that this is all just hype... you need to hear something uncomfortable.

Stop bitching. Start building.

I was a teacher. I get it. The workload is crushing. The pay is insulting. The system treats you like a replaceable part in a broken machine. You're exhausted, and now someone's telling you that AI and robots are going to change everything, and honestly, you just don't have the bandwidth to care.

But here's the thing. The robots doing kung fu on Chinese television this week? They don't care about your bandwidth. They don't care about your union negotiations. They don't care about your marking pile. They're getting better every single year, and the gap between "cool demo" and "doing your job" is closing faster than anyone predicted.

Last year's gala had 16 robots twirling handkerchiefs. This year, hundreds were doing autonomous martial arts with weapons. That's the pace. That's the acceleration curve you're sitting on.

But robots can't do what you do (yet)

Here's where it gets interesting. And where teachers actually have an advantage, if they're willing to see it.

Those robots performing at the Spring Festival Gala were extraordinary. But they didn't choose to perform kung fu. They didn't decide that pairing ancient martial arts with modern robotics would be culturally meaningful. They didn't pick the music or feel the audience's energy or know that drunken boxing would get a bigger reaction than tai chi.

Humans did all of that.

The robots executed. The humans curated, judged, and directed.

This is the future of work. Not humans versus machines. Humans with machines, where the human brings taste, judgement, accountability, and meaning.

A robot can grade a multiple-choice test faster than you. It can generate lesson plans, create differentiated worksheets, translate materials into six languages, and build interactive simulations. But it can't look at a struggling 14-year-old and know that what they actually need right now is five minutes of quiet conversation, not another worksheet.

It can't decide which parts of the curriculum matter most for this particular group of kids in this particular community. It can't model vulnerability or resilience or how to handle failure with grace. It can't hold a parent's hand during a difficult conversation about their child's mental health.

Those are human capabilities. Taste. Judgement. Accountability. Presence.

And they're about to become the most valuable skills in the economy.

The "fuck it" line

There's a moment every teacher who leaves the profession knows. I call it the fuck it line. It's the point where the fear of staying becomes greater than the fear of leaving. Where you stop asking "but what if it doesn't work out?" and start asking "what if I waste another decade not trying?"

For a lot of teachers, that line is approaching fast. But I'm not talking about leaving teaching (though some of you should). I'm talking about crossing the fuck it line with technology.

Stop treating AI like a threat. Stop waiting for your school to run a professional development session on ChatGPT. Stop asking for permission.

Just start using it.

Use AI to cut your planning time in half. Use it to generate parent communication templates. Use it to differentiate materials for your 28 students who all need something slightly different. Use it to automate the soul-destroying administrative tasks that eat 60 per cent of your week.

Then, with the time you've freed up, do the things only you can do. Connect with kids. Build relationships. Exercise judgement. Bring your taste and experience and humanity to the job.

That's the model. Human capability amplified by AI. Not replaced by it.

What China understands that we don't

Here's what struck me about the Spring Festival Gala. It wasn't a tech conference. It wasn't aimed at engineers or investors. It was a family show. Grandparents, kids, everyone. And the robots weren't presented as scary or threatening. They were presented as exciting, useful, and part of daily life.

At the Yuyuan Garden fair in Shanghai, robot "cyber Gods of Wealth" wrote calligraphy and handed out blessing characters to visitors. In Chengdu, robotic arms made sugar-coated hawthorn skewers and served coffee at a traditional temple fair. In Beijing, little robot lions practised lion dances alongside children.

Technology woven into culture. Not fighting it. Enhancing it.

Meanwhile, in Western education systems, we're still debating whether students should be allowed to use calculators.

China is integrating robotics into its cultural celebrations, its manufacturing, its elder care, its entertainment. They're normalising the technology at a population level. Their children are growing up seeing robots as tools and companions, not threats.

Our children are growing up watching us be afraid of it.

For our children's sake

This is the part that actually matters. Forget your career for a second. Think about the kids in your classroom.

They're going to graduate into a world where humanoid robots do factory work, aged care, logistics, food service, and a hundred other jobs that currently employ millions of people. They'll live alongside AI systems that write code, design buildings, diagnose illness, and create art.

Your job, as their teacher, is to prepare them for that world. Not the world you trained for. Not the world your curriculum was written for. The world that's actually coming.

And you can't prepare them for a future you're too scared to engage with yourself.

If you've never used an AI tool seriously, start today. If you've used it but only for basic stuff, go deeper. If you're already comfortable with it, start teaching your colleagues. And if your school is blocking AI tools, push back. Hard.

The children watching those robots do kung fu on Chinese television this week? They're not afraid. They think it's the coolest thing they've ever seen. They want to know how it works. They want to build the next one.

That curiosity, that fearlessness, that instinct to engage with the future rather than hide from it? That's what we should be cultivating.

Not compliance. Not fear. Certainly not the kind of learned helplessness that comes from years of being told to follow the syllabus and don't ask questions.

Cross the line

The technology won't stop. The robots won't stop. The AI won't stop.

You can complain about it. You can sign petitions. You can hope that regulation slows it down. You can pretend it's not happening.

Or you can cross the fuck it line.

Learn the tools. Build with them. Show your students what it looks like when a human being embraces the future instead of running from it. Model the courage and adaptability you want to see in them.

Because right now, in a factory in Shenzhen, a robot is assembling phones faster than any human can. In a lab in Hangzhou, a 130cm humanoid is learning to do backflips. In a Beijing comedy studio, robots are rehearsing sketches for next year's gala.

And in a classroom somewhere, a teacher is marking papers by hand, wondering why they feel so stuck.

You don't have to stay stuck.

Cross the line. Your students are watching.