If you close your eyes and think of a robot, what do you see? 

It's very likely that you will think of something shaped like a human. You likely won't imagine a disembodied arm, assembling a car on a factory production line; you'll probably have pictured something human-sized, human-shaped, idealized and shiny. 

There's nothing wrong with that – the humanoid robot has been discussed for centuries, even millennia. The Liezi, a Daoist text based on the writings of the philosopher Lie Yokou at least four centuries BCE, tells of a humanoid automaton impressing a king of the Zhou dynasty who lived around 950 BCE. 

So it's perhaps fitting that modern-day China leads the way towards the actualization of an ancient human dream…

Welcome to the robot show 

Picture a gala where the performers are all robots – and so are the audience. Except this time, it's not a thought experiment – it actually happened. 

"I might be the only biological entity in the room," says CGTN's Wang Tianyu. He's attending a Shanghai event performed entirely by humanoid robots… and the audience are all humanoid robots too. 

"Some are tall and some are small," he says, but "they all have one thing in common: they're humanoid."

The "Robot Gala" was organized by major Chinese robot maker AgiBot. And as you'd expect, it's a stunning showcase of these human-like machines' motion control, computer vision and creativity.

And the fact they're the stars of the show may be a harbinger of tomorrow's entertainment industry.

"Usually, robots are just there to support the show," says Li Jiayu, AgiBot's Director of Solutions. "This time, we want them to be the stars."

But behind the laughter and the LEDs is China's dominance in the race for embodied AI. In 2025, eight out of 10 humanoid robots sold were from Chinese vendors – and it's a competitive market, with 140 Chinese robot-makers in the country vying to create the best products. 

From the dance floor to the factory floor 

Of course, robots aren't only intended for use in the entertainment and leisure sector. We humans have long wanted to put them to work for us. 

Indeed, the very word 'robot' comes from this idea of palming off repetitive or boring work onto our automated cousins. (The concept was previously encapsulated in English by the word 'automaton'.) 

It comes from a 1920 sci-fi play by Czech writer Karel Capek; in many Slavic languages, robota translates to 'work' or 'labor' – and in Czech, it specifically refers to forced labor, as formerly imposed by feudal overlords, a meaning more recently developed to include any repetitive drudgery. 

So it's no surprise that some of the earliest 'robots' to go into production were for industrial purposes, with 1930s US patents filed for machines to perform simple repetitive movements like lifting, pulling and switching. 

And although the 1950s sci-fi boom promised a future of humanoid robots performing the housework while we humans lounged around, the first actual widespread application of robots was on automotive industry assembly lines, starting in the 1960s with die-casting and welding, but gradually expanding into other functions. 

But to assess the current cutting edge of factory-floor robotics, CGTN's Michael Marillier visited Extend Robotics, just outside London.

There, Chinese engineer Chang Liu is building software that allows users to train robots that learn from every interaction. And with enough practice, they could eventually be ready for the production line – helping companies work faster and smarter, while also making up for any shortfall in the availability of human hands. 

"Robotics is the opportunity that would bridge the labor gaps," says Extend Robotics CEO Chang Liu. "That would ultimately produce enough productivity that would serve the need for future societies."

Humanoid robots look set to perform more and more tasks once reserved for us mere mortals – such as making food, delivering parcels, even working in hospitals.  

In fact, analysts say the numbers could climb from 3,000 in 2024 to nearly 2.6 million in 2035 – and in China, they're already a regular sight in public…

Your robot host… or teacher?

In a trendy Miniso store in the heart of Shanghai, CGTN's Tianyu watches a robot welcoming guests.

"It answers customer questions, interacts in the store, and helps create a lively atmosphere," says Miniso Land Shanghai's store manager Zhang Qian. 

It must have helped attract a lot of customers, because they seem to be overlooking Miniso's mascot Gift. As Tianyu says, "When a robot is in town, Gift gets a bit of a cold shoulder."

However, there's a world of difference between saying hello and shifting heavy goods. Handling things independently is still a big hurdle for humanoid robots, and while the technology is constantly improving, what you might call the 'ChatGPT moment' of widespread public acceptance is yet to arrive. 

But while robots keep on learning from humans, could we learn from them? At Bett UK, one of Britain's biggest tech shows with a special focus on education, CGTN's Michael discovered that AgiBot has been adventurously exploring how robots can help in the classroom. 

"In China, we're working with a secondary school already," says AgiBot's UK Country Manager, Martin Ma. "We built up some courses and lessons for the robots to work with the students."

For now, training robots takes time and money. But pretty soon, things could be different. 

Elliot Wu, an assistant professor in machine intelligence at the University of Cambridge, is working on software that could allow robots to learn simply by uploading a video. 

"Potentially that's going to be a hundred or even a thousand times faster in terms of the scale of the data that we can collect in a certain period of time," Wu tells Michael. 

So while robots may not be part of everyday life just yet, they're learning all the time – and the market for China's robotics industry is only going to get bigger.