A school in Hangzhou, eastern China, turned its playground into a hands-on festival for the local winter-pickling tradition. On the field sat about 2.5 tonnes of long-stem cabbage and 23 large crocks as pupils worked class by class to salt and pack the crop.

Dressed for duty, students stomped and mixed the cabbages in the old-fashioned way, learning the ritual by doing and tasting the season’s flavours. The activity brought folk custom straight into the school day.

A humanoid robot joined the action. After a few failed trial runs, the robot’s stomping during the formal session proved effective, pressing juice from the cabbages with repeated steps.

School leaders said the heart of the custom remains unchanged, but they welcome creative touches in the AI era. By pairing robots with age-old practice, the event aimed to give tradition a new pulse while teaching kids where the food on their table begins.