China ushered in the country's new year in style - with the help of 540 dancing robots.

Broadcast by China Central Television, a hundreds-strong fleet of boogie-bent bots welcomed the Year of the Monkey, named after one of the 12 animal Chinese Zodiac signs, with a synchronized dance routine during the Chinese network's annual new year-themed variety show.

Against the neon-lit skyline of Guangzhou, a city located 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong, the bots danced their hearts (or motherboards) out, "flexing" their muscles and busting out moves like the discofinger and the pop-n-lock - all paired with a blue-tinted laser show spectacular.

Tunes were provided by the mainland-based crooner Sun Nan, whose accompanying song was "about China catapulting itself to the peak of the world," according to a Facebook post published by the Chinese urban culture site The Shanghaiist.

Precipitated by a quick round of bonafide breakdancing, the robot squadron completed their number with a grand finale ushered in by a formation of 29 drones, all of which dropped actual glitter bombs.

Despite the theatrics, not everyone was enthralled by the spectacle: according to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese filmmaker Zhou Zhongqiang declared that the Lunar New Year variety show as a whole had "become a big propaganda film."

See 540 robots dance it out to celebrate the Year of the Monkey in the video clip below.

Source: Shanghaist on Facebook