What happened in China Papergames, the Shanghai-based studio behind a portfolio of deeply engaging female-oriented gaming IPs, posted a cluster of AI robotics-related recruitment roles on Chinese hiring platforms. The open positions included an AI robotics structural lead, a hardware engineer, and a product manager focused on hardware supply chains. The postings appeared as of March 25, 2026. This is not a side experiment. Papergames' core franchises — Love and Producer, Love and Deepspace, and Shining Nikki — have spent years cultivating intense parasocial bonds between players and virtual characters. These are IPs built, from the ground up, around emotional attachment. The recruitment signal suggests the company is exploring what happens when those characters stop living exclusively inside a screen. The move sits within a broader wave of Chinese physical AI development. Westlake Robotics, incubated by Westlake University, launched its Titan o1 humanoid robot on March 24, 2026, designed…