This Friday, we’re pleased to bring you the 400th edition of our popular weekly newsletter, Asia Pick of the Week (if you’re not yet subscribed, you can join the 4,000+ who are here).
As luck would have it, this milestone lands neatly in the middle of the Lunar New Year festive season, which runs this year from 17 February to 3 March. So, to mark the occasion, we’ve put together this special edition containing a primer on where Lunar New Year is celebrated across the region, how the holiday is harnessed by tech companies battling for market share, and what this might mean for your business.
As you may know, 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, last celebrated in 1966 (anyone from England will know how long ago that feels!). According to Forbes, “The horse arrives with a clear message for founders. Stop waiting. This year favours those who think bigger and move with confidence. The symbolism matters because you'll see it everywhere. In your network. In the opportunities that appear. In the energy that surrounds big decisions”.
Suffice to say, if you’ve thinking about an ambitious goal – such as expanding your business internationally – now is surely the time to move!
Horsen lanterns in Nanjing (Source: Author)
Lunar New Year is celebrated in China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as in Southeast Asia, where it is an official holiday in Vietnam (where it’s known as Tết), Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and, as of this year, Indonesia, where it coincides with Ramadan.
Japan remains a notable exception, having adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873 during the Meiji Restoration. Even so, cities such as Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki – each home to historic Chinatowns – host celebrations, often attracting Chinese tourists keen to escape the holiday crowds back home.
Technology has become an integral part of Lunar New Year, blending centuries-old traditions with the latest advancements. While digital tools help families connect, organise gatherings and even provide reminders of how to perform traditional customs such as the Korean sebae bow to one’s elders, the festival also serves as a high-profile showcase of technological progress across the region.
We combed through the mass of news over the past few weeks and selected the following examples of technology and tradition intersecting – from headline-making stories to the more unusual …
This year’s Spring Festival Gala – held annually in Beijing – is the best showcase of technological innovation. This time round, four Chinese robotics companies (Unitree Robotics, Magiclab, Galbot and Noetix) reportedly forked out 100 million yuan ($14m) for the privilege of demonstrating their latest models on stage, with the standout performance coming from a fully autonomous robot cluster – the world’s first – developed by Hangzhou-headquartered Unitree.
The show (you can see a clip here) demonstrated Unitree’s G1 and H2 humanoid robots performing kung fu alongside students from one of China’s largest martial arts schools.
It underscored just how quickly humanoid robotics is advancing, not only in China but across the region. In Japan, Renesas is teaming up with Sumitomo Heavy Industries on cutting-edge humanoid robots. In Korea, Samsung SDI and Hyundai Motor are powering next-generation AI robots with all-solid-state batteries. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Foxconn plans to deploy humanoid robots at a new US AI-server plant.
A Unitree humanoid robot performing alongside kung fu students at the Spring Festival Gala (Source: SCMP)
AI is playing an increasingly prominent role in Vietnam’s Tết celebrations: this year, the number of digital ‘red lucky money envelopes’ (known locally as lìxì) doubled to 150 million, and users can now generate personalised QR codes featuring customisable portraits, names and messages powered by GenAI. In fact, all of Vietnam’s leading digital payments providers – MoMo, ZaloPay, Viettel Money and Singapore-based ShopeePay – now support this feature.
In Korea, where the holiday is known as Seollal, AI tools are seeing a surge in usage during the festive season, with platforms such as ChatGPT being used by many to plan ancestral rites, help select family gifts and plot traffic-light-free routes home. During the period, messages related to holiday food preparation rose 22% month on month, shopping-related conversations increased 21%, and requests for quizzes, icebreakers and family-friendly games jumped 35% – a snapshot of how AI is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday Korean life.
That adoption is underpinned by Korea’s leadership in advanced memory chips. Surging global demand for AI infrastructure has helped propel the KOSPI, South Korea’s main stock market index, to record highs and sent profits at Samsung and SK hynix skyrocketing. Seeing this, some Koreans have even taken to gifting shares in these companies instead of the traditional white envelopes or pouches called bokjumeoni containing money.
And a couple of lighthearted examples of technology intersecting with tradition caught our eye: a Jakarta shopping mall staged a lion dance using a flyboard, while in Shenzhen, Polo Ralph Lauren lit up the skies as part of the city’s Lunar New Year drone show with its logo of a polo player on horseback – possibly the marketing coup of the century?
Ralph Lauren took part in Shenzhen’s LNY drone show. Source: Straits Times
Last year, the Year of the Snake, which is traditionally associated with renewal, proved to be a year of expansion for us. We acquired Southeast Asia consultancy Orissa International, and we opened in India to help clients expand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
As the Year of the Horse now gathers pace, the regional picture remains encouraging: the International Monetary Fund expects Asia to contribute around 60% of global growth over the next 12 months, while equity markets across much of the region have strengthened, currencies have shown resilience and credit conditions continue to reflect steady confidence.
As the author of Asia Pick of the Week, my aim is always to cut through the noise and highlight the most significant developments shaping technology and business across Asia to help you spot where opportunities are emerging.
Here’s to reaching the 400th edition, looking ahead to Issue 500 and beyond! And of course – gong xi fa cai!
Will Oliviero (欧品威)
Asia Pick of the Week