Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

China Media Group (CMG) kicked off the final countdown to the 2025 Spring Festival Gala with the release of a charming animated promotional video on Saturday, marking just 10 days until the grand show airs on January 28, the eve of Chinese New Year.

The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is China's most cherished traditional celebration, uniting families across the country in joyous festivities.

As the Year of the Snake approaches, the gala unveiled its official mascot "Si Shengsheng." Drawing inspiration from a 3,000-year-old bronze snake, the mascot has a round head and serpentine body, resembling the character "si" in the oracle bone script, which stands for snake in the Chinese zodiac.

An animated Si Shengsheng puts on a playful performance in the video, capering with a large persimmon, a symbol of good luck and longevity which often has a place at Chinese New Year celebrations.

In a remarkable milestone, UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in late 2024, officially recognizing the global significance of this vibrant tradition.

Initiated in 1983, CMG's annual Spring Festival Gala has become an iconic part of the Chinese New Year celebration, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide with its star-studded performances. The gala is a rich mix of comedy skits, songs and dances, acrobatics, and magic acts.

On Friday, the 2025 Spring Festival Gala concluded its third rehearsal. For the first time, sub-venues in Chongqing Municipality, Wuhan of Hubei Province, Lhasa of Xizang Autonomous Region, and Wuxi of Jiangsu Province made their appearances, joining the main venue in Beijing for a combined rehearsal.

More than four decades since its inception, the gala, also known as "Chunwan" in Chinese, has evolved beyond a mere television show. It represents a nationally shared experience, a collective memory, and its evolution is in many ways representative of China's wider technological growth and social development.

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Adorable snake dances in CMG promo video marking 10 days to 2025 Spring Festival Gala

China's elderly care robot industry is projected to surpass 10 billion yuan (about 1.47 billion U.S. dollars) in 2026, with the market maturing and transitioning from technological verification phase to large-scale application, according to a report released on Tuesday by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

According to the MIIT, the rapid expansion of the market is being driven primarily by an aging population and the mismatch between the supply and demand for elderly care services.

"As the aging process of the population continues to accelerate, the shortage of nursing staff becomes a long-term challenge and the demand for intelligent technologies and products among the elderly becomes increasingly urgent. Intelligent elderly care service robots have emerged as an innovative solution to traditional aging-related issues, and their future market potential is expected to be very broad," said Liu Wenqiang, vice president of the China Center for Information Industry Development.

After years of development, China's elderly care robot industry has built a full-fledged industrial chain ecosystem -- covering everything from research and development of core components and complete machine manufacturing to system integration and operational services.

Continuous breakthroughs have been made in key human-robot interaction technologies including multimodal perception, AI algorithms, and high-precision motion control. Domestically produced products have now reached internationally advanced levels in core functions such as fall detection, remote monitoring, and rehabilitation training.

The capabilities of these robots have expanded far beyond early basic tasks such as cleaning or meal delivery. Today, they offer a broad range of services -- including daily living assistance, health monitoring, emotional companionship, rehabilitation support, and helping to move or transfer seniors. That makes them suitable for the diverse needs of elderly individuals with different health conditions.

"Through recent years of follow-up research, continuous efforts are needed in areas such as technology, application scenarios, standards, and safety to rapidly improve the quality of robots. It is important to guide the integration and application of new technologies, like large AI models, new materials, and secure human-robot interaction, into elderly care service robots, while optimizing and upgrading them based on the specific pain points and needs of the elderly population," said Liu.

Forecasts indicate that professional nursing institutions will remain the largest market for elderly care robots, accounting for about 50 percent of demand. Community-based elderly care follows with roughly 30 percent.

While home-based care currently accounts for the smallest share, approximately 20 percent, it is seeing the most significant growth.

The elderly care robot sector is growing at an average annual rate of about 32 percent, while the market for companion robots is seeing even faster growth, at around 42 percent per year.

By 2025, China's population aged 60 and above had reached 323.38 million, with more than 130 million seniors living alone or as so-called "empty-nesters" whose children have moved out of the family home.

China's elderly care robot market growing rapidly: report