A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

春节晚会上的机器人表演
Robots and AI Perform at China's Spring Festival Gala 2026
About this story
Humanoid robots and AI dance, sing, and surprise the audience at China's 2026 Spring Festival Gala on CCTV. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 7 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 15 key vocabulary words such as 节日、节目、聪明 and walks through 5 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
Read at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Speaking of this year's Spring Festival, many very interesting things appeared on TV, among which the most special were robots.
This time of every year is Chinese New Year.
In China, New Year is a very important festival.
Everyone stops going to the company to work.
Everyone also stops going to school to study.
Everyone returns to their own home.
Everyone is together with their father, mother, older brothers, and older sisters.
Everyone eats delicious meals together.
After finishing the meal, what will everyone do?
In China, many people will sit on chairs and watch TV together.
This TV program is very big and also very long.
Its name is "Spring Festival Gala," and we can also call it "Chunwan."
In this program, there is singing and also dancing.
But this year, everyone saw many new things.
That is robots.
These robots are different from the toys we saw before.
They are made very large.
They look very much like humans.
They have heads, bodies, hands, and also feet.
They stand on the stage and perform together with real people.
Do you know what they are doing?
They are doing Chinese Kung Fu.
Kung Fu is a type of Chinese sport and also a type of culture.
Doing Kung Fu is very hard.
It requires the body to be very fit.
But these robots do it very well.
Some robots are holding sticks in their hands.
They play with the sticks very fast.
When you watch, you might worry about the stick hitting someone.
But robots are very smart; they will not make a mistake hitting.
There is another kind of performance that is more interesting.
That is "Drunken Fist."
What is "Drunken Fist"?
The meaning of "Zui" is having drunk a lot of alcohol.
After a person drinks a lot of alcohol, walking becomes unsteady.
The body will fall to the left and also fall to the right.
It looks like they are about to fall down.
But this is a special kind of Kung Fu.
Although it looks like being drunk, actually they are very sober.
Robots are also learning this movement.
They are on the stage, their bodies swaying back and forth.
Just like they have drunk alcohol.
When everyone sees the robots moving like this, they all feel it is strange and also feel it is very fun.
Everyone is laughing and is also very happy.
Besides doing Kung Fu, robots can also dance.
They can jump very high.
They can also jump backward.
For robots, this is a very difficult thing.
If its body is not good, it will fall and break.
But these robots did not fall and break.
They run back and forth on the stage.
They know where they are.
They also know where other robots are.
They will not bump into others.
This shows that the companies making the robots are very formidable.
These companies are all Chinese companies.
They want to let everyone see how good current technology is.
Besides dancing and Kung Fu, robots can also act.
Acting is telling a story.
There is a story about family matters.
There are elderly people in the story.
The elderly person's health is not very good.
The robot then goes to help the elderly person.
In this story, the robot is our friend.
It can help the elderly person get water.
It can help the elderly person get medicine.
It can support the elderly person to walk.
It can also talk with the elderly person.
This makes everyone feel very warm.
Everyone feels that perhaps in the future, our homes will also have such robots.
If mom and dad get old, robots can take care of them.
This is a very good thing.
Besides robots, there are many things done by computers in this TV program.
Current computers are very smart.
We call it "AI".
In this program, many beautiful paintings were not painted by humans.
They were painted by computers.
Computers paint very fast.
It painted many flowers, and also painted many mountains and water.
These paintings are behind the stage.
They look very beautiful.
Computers can also speak.
It talks with the host on TV.
Its voice sounds very pleasant.
You cannot tell it is a computer.
You might think it is a real person.
This is the progress of technology.
Because of these new technologies, this year's TV program became better to watch.
Many young people also like to watch it.
Before, young people might have felt this program was uninteresting.
But now, because of robots and computers, young people think it is very cool.
Young people like new things.
They like to watch high-tech things.
So, there were very many people watching TV this year.
Besides Chinese robots, there were also foreign friends.
Many foreign singers came.
They come from different countries.
They sang on the stage.
They sang songs that everyone likes.
Some songs were English.
Some songs were Chinese.
Everyone was very happy hearing them.
This shows that this festival is everyone's festival.
It is not only a festival for Chinese people but also a festival for friends all over the world.
Everyone is together, watching robots, listening to songs, and celebrating a happy New Year.
What we just talked about is actually regarding a recent news item.
The news said that at this year's Chinese Spring Festival Gala, many robot companies participated in the performance.
There were a total of four big robot companies.
Their robots performed many difficult movements.
For example, holding nunchucks to do Kung Fu, and also the Drunken Fist we mentioned earlier.
This made many people start discussing China's technology.
Everyone saw the combination of technology and culture.
This is the most special place of this year's Spring Festival.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇A general term for holidays or festivals. Used here to describe New Year.
Refers to a TV program or a specific performance segment.
Adjective describing intelligence; used here for both robots and computers.
Verb or adjective meaning to be anxious about something.
Verb meaning to look after someone, such as elderly parents.
Adjective describing something unusual or surprising.
Noun referring to audio or human voice.
HSK 1-2. interesting.
Compound word: 机器 (machine) + 人 (person). The main topic of the script.
The platform where performances take place.
Chinese martial arts; also implies skill or effort.
A specific style of martial arts that mimics the movements of a drunk person.
Verb compound: 摔 (to fall/cast) + 倒 (to topple).
Verb-object compound meaning to perform in a play or movie.
Short for 科学技术 (science and technology).
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法除了 ... (以外),还/也 ...
A structure meaning 'Besides... also...'. It introduces an additional item or action.
除了做功夫,机器人还会跳舞。
除了机器人,这个电视节目里还有很多电脑做的事情。
除了中国的机器人,还有外国的朋友。
Verb + 得 + Complement of Degree
Used to describe how an action is performed. The adjective after '得' comments on the verb.
它们做得非常大。
它们把棍子玩得很快。
它们可以跳得很高。
Verb + 来 + Verb + 去
Indicates a repetitive action back and forth.
它们在舞台上跑来跑去。
虽然 ... 但是 ...
A conjunction pair meaning 'Although... but...'.
虽然看起来像是喝醉了,但是其实很清醒。
把 + Object + Verb + Complement
The 'Ba' sentence structure, used to emphasize the manipulation of an object.
它们把棍子玩得很快。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
Keep learning from this story
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.
- Keep words with their story context
- Remember your preferred level
- Build your vocabulary over time