And China Makes Three

I've posted before about the android race taking place between Japan (Actroid) and Korea (Ever-1) ("I-Robot"). Well, put another shrimp on the barbie, because China refuses to be left eating their silicon-chip dust.

Meet China's "Rong Cheng", their newly created robot as she sits on display at the Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Rong Cheng, dubbed as the first Chinese "beauty" robot, is able to respond to some 1,000 Chinese words. She can dance, bow and greet people in the Sichuan dialect as she is destined for the Sichuan Science Museum to serve as a receptionist. The robot costs about 300,000 yuan (US$37,500) to make, according to Xinhua News.

Now...I thought the Korean robot was the definition of fugly, but holy egg foo yung batman, this 'bot is one scary creature! Seriously, is this some chinese engineer's definition of beauty? Kid, get outside more. The women in Beijing must be crying foul play right about now, if this is what's supposed to represent Chinese beauty in the scientific world. I keep expecting her to pop out from behind a door with a knife in her hand, like a Chinese Michael Myers. How do you whisper "kill kill kill kill" in Mandarin?