‘I Am Real Human’: A Chinese Influencer’s Hyper-Realistic Robot Cosplay Is Fooling Strangers in Public and Going Viral

A post in r/nextfuckinglevel shared video of Chinese cosplayer Dalaotian, a Douyin and TikTok creator known for hyper-realistic robot cosplay that has left viewers questioning whether she is human.

In one clip, a man asks her directly if she is real, and she responds, "I am real human," before smiling. Other clips appeared to show passersby stopping to stare, open-mouthed, as she walked through public spaces.

Dalaotian is a 30-year-old influencer from Sichuan province, China, standing over 6 feet 3 inches tall, according to the South China Morning Post. She has amassed roughly five million followers and typically wears a metallic silver bodysuit, light blue cosmetic contact lenses, and a short bob wig styled after anime characters, occasionally shifting her aesthetic to resemble Barbie instead.

Several replies focused on her physical proportions as the key to the effect. One commenter wrote, "It's really the tiny waist that sells it I think. You just don't expect someone to have that unusually small waist compared to shoulders hips etc. The face definitely helps. She looks like Battle Angel Alita lol."

One commenter repeated an unverified claim about the cost of her transformation. They wrote, "I read in another post that she has spent about 150k in surgeries. That can't be healthy." The figure appears to be inaccurate, according to subsequent reporting.

According to the South China Morning Post, Dalaotian said her face and breasts alone cost more than $140,000, referring to cosmetic procedures rather than her costume. However, the exact figure she spent on her makeup and costume has not been revealed.

Another offered a more technical explanation involving her costume design. They wrote, "She's very small, but the suit adds bulk to her shoulders and hips, and parts of her face, making her proportions look even more uncanny, all things considered it's beautifully executed."

Another commenter disputed the surgery claim based on their own research, writing, "I googled it and didn't find any source on that. I did however find several sources claiming she spent 140k on an 'android costume.' Maybe people get that confused. I see there are multiple purposely misleading sites saying stuff like 'Influencer spends $140k to look like an Android,' and people assume surgeries while that was the cost for her costume. They know what they're doing."

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the exact cost breakdown of Dalaotian's transformation, including how much, if any, involved cosmetic surgery versus costume and makeup expenses. Background information on Dalaotian was sourced from the South China Morning Post. Reddit comments cited in this article reflect individual users' unverified claims and have not been independently confirmed by the Daily Dot.