Item from Aug 23, 1984, in China Daily: Robot salesmen attracted scores of eager young customers to a special advertising display organized this month by the Fuzhou Pencil Factory at Shanghai's first department store.

As technology advances, robots are predicted to lead the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, replacing more than 5 million jobs around the world by 2020, a report released this year by the World Economic Forum said.

In China, the transformation is already underway with factories across the country replacing workers with robots. China has surpassed Japan to become the world's largest market for industrial robots.