Photo:PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

In early May, a five story high inflatable rubber duck was set adrift in Hong Kong harbor. The duck was sponsored by the Harbour City shopping mall. Created by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, it was named “Spreading Joy Around the World” but is universally known simply as “Rubber Duck.”  The duck is well traveled. Since 2007, it has visited 13 cities in nine different countries. Arriving in Hong Kong, it was an immediate hit.  As reported by the New York Times:

Thousands gathered around the waterfront when “Rubber Duck” made its debut May 2. Since then, countless duck-themed products have shown up at shops and restaurants. Teenagers are wearing rubber-duck outfits, and tourist kiosks are selling rubber-duck postcards. Its smiling face was even seen at the Cheung Chau bun festival, a 200-year-old tradition on an outlying island.

The South China Morning Post, the main English-language broadsheet, has published no fewer than 19 articles, opinion pieces and blog posts about it. One editorial, “Giant Rubber Duck Has United the City,” argued that it did more to inspire Hong Kongers than a recent government drive to raise morale.

The euphoria would not last, however.

Then on May 15, to the horror of the crowds, “Rubber Duck” listed, fell on its beak and slowly capsized before deflating into a bright yellow puddle. The Standard, another Hong Kong newspaper, described the public’s response as “disconsolate.”

Rumors spread that the duck had been “burned to death” by mainland Chinese tourists who had thrown 30 lit cigarette butts at it.  The government denied the reports. Then just before the opening of the first Art Basel Hong Kong art fair, the duck was re-inflated as hundreds cheered from the sidelines.  The duck will remain afloat in the harbor until June 9, when it will move on to greet another city, reportedly in the US.

The duck appears to have taken on a life of its own.  On June 1, Children’s Day, a rubber duck was seen floating serenely on a lake in Wuhan, Hubei province.   Other ducks have appeared at shopping malls in various parts of China.  Images of the duck have also begun appearing on the Chinese internet.   One showed the famous photograph taken during the Tiananmen massacre where a single man stopped a row of tanks, except the tanks have been replaced by a row of ducks.

Not everyone is pleased.  On the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, 24 years ago today, the Chinese internet police are censoring the phrase ‘big yellow duck’ in internet searches.  It appears that even a big yellow rubber duck intent on spreading joy around the world can be considered subversive by some.

China bans all internet searches for ‘big yellow duck’ as part of Tiananmen Square anniversary clampdown after prankster substitutes ducks for tanks in viral image