AI Technology Stole the Show at China's 2026 Spring Festival Gala
Forget the robots. The real star of China's biggest night was the AI infrastructure behind everything — from video generation to real-time voice synthesis. Some of these models are already available via API, and Seedance 2.0 is expected to open API access in late February (Beijing time).
TL;DR
- China's 2026 Spring Festival Gala wasn't just a robot showcase — it was the largest live demonstration of AI technology ever broadcast, reaching hundreds of millions of viewers (CMG reported 677 million all-media live reach; peak concurrent viewership exceeded 400 million).
- ByteDance's Volcengine served as the exclusive AI cloud partner, with the Doubao large model powering everything from robot voice synthesis to real-time subtitles.
- Seedance 2.0 — ByteDance's video generation model — created custom visual effects for multiple gala performances, including the viral He Hua Shen (《贺花神》, "Ode to the Flower Deities") sequence.
- Doubao 2.0 (Seed 2.0) was released just two days before the gala, positioned against GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Pro at a fraction of the cost.
- Many of these Chinese AI models — including Seedance, Seedream, Kling, Wan, and DeepSeek — are accessible via API through EvoLink, without needing a Chinese phone number or ID.
Seedance 2.0: The Visual Engine Behind the Gala
The standout AI moment was He Hua Shen (《贺花神》), a dance performance where AI-generated visuals of blooming flowers, flowing water, and seasonal transitions were seamlessly integrated with live performers. These weren't pre-rendered CGI effects — they were generated by Seedance 2.0, ByteDance's video generation model.
What made this technically significant:
- Close-up shots required pixel-perfect generation — any jitter or distortion would be visible to hundreds of millions of viewers
- Micro-changes like the slow blooming of a flower demanded precise temporal control over texture, layers, light, and shadow
- High aesthetic standards meant the AI couldn't just "generate" — it had to "precisely control"
ByteDance described this as a shift from "AI-generated content" to "AI-directed content" — where the model serves as a creative tool rather than an autonomous creator.
Doubao 2.0: The Brain Behind the Operation
If Seedance was the artist, Doubao (豆包) was the brain.
ByteDance's flagship large model served as the backbone of the entire gala's AI capabilities. According to reporting from Cailian Press, Volcengine's technical support covered four major areas:
- Artistic Creation — Seedance 2.0 and Seedream 3.0 generated visual effects for performances
- Intelligent Interaction — Doubao powered the robots' ability to understand and respond to human performers in real time
- Broadcast Technology — AI-powered real-time subtitles, sign language interpretation, and multi-language translation
- Audience Engagement — Interactive AI features for viewers watching via mobile apps
The scale of deployment was significant:
- 800 billion+ tokens processed daily across the Volcengine platform
- 1 million+ enterprises using Volcengine AI services across 100+ industries
The Spring Festival Gala wasn't just a showcase — it was a live stress test of ByteDance's entire AI infrastructure at nation-scale.
Robots Were Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Yes, four robotics companies — Unitree, Noetix, MagicLab, and Galbot — delivered impressive performances. Unitree's G1 robots did Kung Fu backflips. Noetix's Bumi robots performed a comedy sketch with veteran actress Cai Ming, complete with a lifelike bionic robot double of her with 32 facial motors. MagicLab's robots danced to "We Are Made in China."
But the robots were the visible layer of a much deeper AI stack. Without Doubao's language models, the robots couldn't interact with human performers. Without Seedance, the visual spectacles wouldn't exist. Without Volcengine's infrastructure, the real-time interactions would have collapsed under the load.
The gala proved that Chinese AI has moved beyond demos and benchmarks into production-grade deployment — live, at scale, under the most unforgiving conditions imaginable: hundreds of millions of viewers watching in real time.
The Access Problem: Why Global Developers Are Frustrated
Here's the catch that every international developer hits:
Volcengine's platform requires a Chinese phone number and ID for registration. If you're outside China, you're effectively locked out of some of the most capable AI models in the world.
This is a well-documented pain point. On Reddit's r/comfyui, a developer trying to access Kling 3.0's API described the experience:
"Kuaishou's direct API is region-locked and honestly a pain if you're outside China — payment issues, docs mostly in Chinese, etc. I wasted a full afternoon trying to get it working directly."
For Seedance 2.0 specifically, the official API hasn't launched yet as of mid-February 2026 (expected in late February), and when it does, international access will still require navigating Volcengine's registration barriers.
Developers on r/StableDiffusion and r/GoogleGeminiAI have echoed the same frustration: "You need a Chinese ID to obtain an API key."
This creates an ironic situation: the most impressive live AI demonstration in history used models that most of the world's developers can't access.
How to Actually Use These Chinese AI Models Today
This is where EvoLink comes in.
EvoLink is a unified API gateway that gives global developers access to models — including many of the Chinese models that powered or relate to the Spring Festival Gala's technology:
Chinese AI models available on EvoLink
| Model | Type | Gala Connection |
|---|---|---|
| Seedance | Video Generation | Powered Spring Festival Gala visual effects |
| Seedream | Image Generation | ByteDance's image model (updated alongside Seedance 2.0) |
| Kling | Video Generation | Kuaishou's leading text-to-video system |
| Wan 2.6 | Video Generation | Alibaba's video generation model |
| DeepSeek | Language Model | China's leading open-source reasoning model |
| Doubao | Language Model | The brain behind the gala's AI interactions |
How it works
- Sign up at EvoLink — no Chinese phone number or ID required
- Get your API key
- Use the OpenAI-compatible API format you already know
- Access 40+ models from multiple providers through a single endpoint
Why developers choose EvoLink
- No geo-restrictions — Access Chinese AI models from anywhere
- OpenAI-compatible API — Drop-in replacement, minimal code changes
- Unified billing — One account for all providers
- English API docs — No need to navigate Chinese-only documentation
If the Spring Festival Gala made you curious about what Chinese AI can do — whether it's Seedance-style video generation, Kling's text-to-video, or DeepSeek's reasoning capabilities — EvoLink is the fastest path from curiosity to working code.
FAQ
What AI technology was used at the 2026 Spring Festival Gala?
ByteDance's Volcengine served as the exclusive AI cloud partner. Key technologies included: Seedance 2.0 (video generation for visual effects), Doubao large model (robot voice synthesis, real-time subtitles, sign language interpretation), Seedream 3.0 (image generation), and infrastructure supporting 800 billion+ daily token processing.
When will Seedance 2.0 API be available?
As of mid-February 2026, Seedance 2.0's API is expected to launch in late February (Beijing time) through Volcengine. International developers can access it through EvoLink without Chinese registration requirements.
How does this compare to AI usage in previous Spring Festival Galas?
The 2026 gala represented a massive leap in AI integration. In 2025, AI involvement was limited — 16 Unitree robots danced and a few AR effects were used. In 2026, AI was embedded in the entire production pipeline: visual effects generation, robot intelligence, broadcast processing, accessibility features, and audience interaction systems. Chinese netizens called it the "highest AI content ratio" in gala history.
What is EvoLink?
EvoLink is a unified AI API gateway that gives global developers access to 40+ AI models from multiple providers — including Chinese models like Seedance, Kling, DeepSeek, and more — through a single, OpenAI-compatible API. No Chinese phone number or ID required. One account, one API key, access to everything.
