China got a taste for the Giant Rubber Duck, now it never wants it to go away. It’ll even make its own if it must.

And ship it to Dubai.

This from 7 Days in Dubai:

The company behind the giant duck that appeared on Dubai Creek earlier this month is trying to make peace with the creator of the original artwork ahead of the firm’s upcoming ‘surprise’ event.

7DAYS reported earlier how green mobile car wash firm GeoWash initially claimed the 18m inflatable duck was created by artist Florentijn Hofman. It later emerged that the project is not art that has toured the world – but a replica bought in China.

Oh, Dubai. Oh, China.

Meanwhile, GeoWash has confirmed the controversial quack will make a “surprise” return to UAE waters “soon.”

No. Don’t do it. Like with love, you’ll scrub and scrub and you’ll never be clean of it. The duck, the goddamn duck.

Firm apologises for ‘fake duck’ stunt on Dubai Creek (7DAYS, h/t James Wilkinson)

Not with a bang but a whimper.

The sound of hot air being evacuated.

We feel the same way.

(Via Sina)

Previously: A Giant Rubber Duck in Beijing

Poor duck. Poor, poor duck.

It was only last week that it was inflated at the Summer Palace and attracting hordes of visitors, as Chris Clayman learned. Look at it now:

Oof. We’ve seen ducks down before, but not quite like this. China Daily explains that the duck was deflated due to high winds on Thursday, after Beijing Weather Station issued a “blue alert.” Organizers are perhaps afraid it’ll be blown ashore, then stolen? No word on when it’ll be back up.

Until then, enjoy this funny image:

Giant Duck falls flat in Beijing (China Daily, h/t Alicia)

“It’s not just children who like it. The core value of the rubber duck is to bring back childlike innocence to all of us, especially weary adults.” – Zeng Hui, head of the Beijing Design Week Organizing Committee

This past summer, the CCP wiped three dangerous terms from the Internet: June 4, May 35, and “Big Yellow Duck.”

For the third term, the culprit — a doctored photo of a rather famous person staring down three tank-sized ducks — disappeared from most Chinese sites before it could become viral. When I first saw it, I imagined John Filo’s 1970 photo of a cold, dead body in a university quad, the incredulous onlookers’ faces superimposed with those of Bert and Ernie.

I kept the nightmares at bay, at least until the announcement that Florentijn Hofman’s “Rubber Duck” (in quotes because, ostensibly, this is True Art) was to be airlifted out of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor to Beijing Design Week.

Well, not airlifted. Replicated. What’s the difference?

The end was near.

An 18-meter-tall ode to a bathroom toy, supported by PVC pipe and pontoons. A disposable thing, a multicolored, artificial thing, floating under the shadow of the Summer Palace. To quote Hofman’s webpage, “The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers; it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!”

Hofman channeled what must have been a common sight from his own childhood bathtub, and took it for a multiyear, worldwide tour to Auckland, Sao Paulo, Pittsburgh, Kaohsiung, and now Beijing. He and his promoters could only have assumed that (1) the rubber duck is a universally recognized image; and (2) no one would raise a ruckus if it was placed in a park, or a harbor, or, say, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

They may be right, even if the Chinese translation of “Big Yellow Duck” rejects any nostalgic familiarity. I had to take a look and see what the fuss was about. On the first day of Golden Week, I got off at the Xiyuan subway station in search for the sculpture. Riding up the escalator, I had already counted two dozen ducks, in plush form, held tightly by children and girlfriends.

At the gate near Kunming Lake, street vendors blocked most of the entryways with jianbing stands converted into Duck stores. I swam through and made my way towards the gate.

The Duck faces southeast, with its back towards Longevity Hill. The Seventeen Arch Bridge had the best location for pictures, as long as one was able to secure a spot at the front of the crowd.

The Duck was, in all truth, the least exciting thing on display. It was cordoned off by a circle of buoys which prevented any of the tourist boats from slamming directly into it. A lone boat underneath the Duck housed a man one could call the Duck Doctor, spot checking the Duck and keeping an eye out for any dangers (thrown cigarettes? vandals?) that may endanger his patient.

I yawned. The people were more interesting. I surveyed the shag carpet landscape of cameras and plush dolls. I had more questions than answers. When taking a picture, what’s the most popular pose? (A: Pretend to grab the Duck’s beak.) Why are all of these boats willing to ram each other for a closer look at the Duck? (A: Because you only live once.)

I started to leave, underwhelmed and perplexed as to why, of all of the stops on the Duck’s worldwide tour, the representative bathtubs of China have brought the largest crowds. There’s been something about inflatable art in China as of late. The Duck will one day leave Beijing, but copies and counterfeits will remain.

Like many other foreigner armchair commentators in this jeweled capital city, I tend to assume wrongly that everything Weibo’d on Weibo wields a sharp axe to social and political conventions of China, when we very well know that it is rarely the case, and at the end of the day, most people just want to take pictures of food. The Duck Man picture, even if it was uncensored tomorrow, would likely be buried underneath millions of self-portraits.

But after my brief visit with the Duck, the picture — and its political connotations — made much more sense. The Ducks are coming, part of a steady invasion of 21st-century kitsch, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Before exiting, I turned around for one last look at our new overlord. Long live the true Beijing Duck.

Chris tweets @chrisclayman and keeps a Tumblr.

“Mass-produced curio,” we called it. “Kitsch.” “Pop art.” “Naked commercialism.”

And it’s here, all here — in Beijing.

Florentijn Hofman’s rubber duck was unveiled at the Summer Palace on Friday. There was an “autistic art show” that day, featuring paintings by 15 autistic children. More duck-centric events will follow as part of Beijing Design Week.

On behalf of BJDW organizers, I’ll go ahead and say you should check out their other exhibits in Caochangdi and Dashilar as well. It’s not all about the duck.

Florentijn Hofman’s rubber duck is the goldmine that will never be depleted. Deflated, maybe, but never depleted. This we know because his rubber duck arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on Thursday ahead of Typhoon Usagi — that storm that’s killed 33 people in southern China and southeast Asia so far, i.e. around where Taiwan is located — and attracted half a million spectators.

Cower before your new overlord.

Kaohsiung residents pulled out all the stops for the duck’s arrival, including young dancers dressed as ducks. “It keeps on smiling to you, you know. It says, ‘don’t you worry, laugh, be happy!’” said Hofman, who was on site.

“This big rubber duck in your harbor, in Kaohsiung in this case, changes Kaohsiung.”

It changes Kaohsiung.

“And it changes also your fantasy and your brain.”

It’s like LSD!

“And it’s a piece of art.”

G’damn right!

The duck is slated for a multi-city tour around Taiwan. It’ll leave Kaohsiung on October 20, but not before it’s expected to lure 3 million visitors and rake in $30 million, according to CNN.

And look: the duck is only getting stronger.

“The rubber duck usually takes more than an hour to be inflated,” said Lai [Zeno Lai, director general of the Kaohsiung Government Information Bureau and the event's spokesperson]. “But in Kaohsiung, it only takes seven minutes.”

The team has promised to pass on its new techniques and any lessons learned to other Taiwanese cities set to receive the duck.

The duck is 18 meters (60 feet), according to an official website, which is half a meter larger than the original that captivated Hong Kongers. Not sure how that compares to Beijing’s version, but…

Wait. How can the Rubber Duck be in multiple places at the same time? Taiwan and Beijing?

You mean to tell me it’s just a mass-produced curio that plays off our weakness for kitsch while unapologetically blurring the line between pop art and naked commercialism?

Is that it?

Waiting…

Waiting…

Waiting…

Hello?

(Images via Seattle PI)

That rubber duck — you know the one — looked pretty sad in its new environs of Beijing last week. Check out these photos via AP, and the accompanying story via Reuters:

The 18-metre (60-foot) tall duck, on show at the Beijing International Expo, appeared wrinkled and its beak drooped, prompting a barrage of ridicule on the Internet, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Zeng Hui, deputy manager of the Beijing Design Week Organizing Committee, said “there were some flaws” in the duck, which currently sits in the Yongding River.

The snafu prompted one netizen to joke that the duck wanted to look like a chicken so that it would avoid the city’s Peking Duck restaurants, where specially bred ducks have air pumped through them after being slaughtered to help produce the dish’s crispy skin.

Zeng said the committee “adjusted it overnight.” Here’s the duck after getting a beak job:

Via Shanghai Daily

The Florentijn Hofman-designed duck will remain on the Yongding River until September 23, when it is shifted to the Summer Palace.

We feel slightly sorry for the Beijing Design Week organizers, who I’m sure have prepared tons of interesting, creative exhibits that no one will visit or care about, because RUBBER DUCK.

This one:

(H/T Shanghaiist)

RUBBER DUCK!

Please watch this introductory video:

SCMP reports that the rubber duck was inflated last night, three days before its official unveiling. And a reminder that it’s big — bigger than the one that was in Hong Kong, also designed by Florentijn Hofman.

Hofman’s creation will first been exhibited at the newly built Beijing Garden Expo Park in Beijing’s southwestern outskirts until September 23. It will then be moved to the Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace until October 26.

Some more pictures via Sina Weibo:

Pictured: Giant rubber duck arrives in Beijing (SCMP)

As we in Beijing eagerly await the arrival of the Rubber Duck, here’s a reminder that large floatation thingies do require upkeep. This picture was taken at Yuantouzhu Scenic Area in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, posted to Sina Weibo and highlighted by China Navis.

The duck could also use a good scrubbing:

At least people weren’t flicking cigarettes at it… we don’t think.

Ever since we found out that Florentijn Hofman’s famous Rubber Duck was coming to Beijing, the question has been: where will it be placed? Houhai? The National Center for the Performing Arts (“The Egg”)? Zhang Xin‘s personal swimming pool?

Summer Palace, it turns out.

Reports SCMP:

The lake, which is part of the former imperial summer palace was chosen as a venue for Beijing’s version of Hong Kong’s giant rubber duck, which floated in Victoria Harbour earlier this year, organisers of Beijing Design Week said on Thursday in a microblog post.

The duck is coming on September 16, reportedly. It’s unclear how big it’ll be, but Beijing’s official Sina Weibo account says it’ll be bigger than Hong Kong’s version, at least. FUCK YES, BEIJING.

As Bad Canto translates:

【”Giant Yellow Duck” The height of the Beijing version will be taller than that of Hong Kong】”Giant Yellow Duck” is coming to Beijing next month. The location where the “little guy” will be exhibited is still a mystery.  However, the committee of Beijing Design Week and the designer of the “Giant Yellow Duck” Hofman have decided to increase the height of the originally 10m-tall “Giant Yellow Duck”. The Beijing “Giant Yellow Duck” will be taller than the 16.5m-tall Hong Kong version.

Get excited! …to the best of your ability and such. The following is from Design Week’s Weibo:

The rubber duck is coming to Beijing Design Week in September. Dutch creator Florentijn Hofman apparently made the announcement at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday, saying, “The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!”

Also, the duck will be used to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual protection, because China.

Wang Jun, a Senior Consultant to BJDW’s IP Protection Office stated: “ We want to use the Rubber Duck case to drive an awareness programme raising the sensibility towards intellectual property rights around China.”

We’re not sure where the duck will be placed, though City Weekend seems to think it’ll be in Houhai. The over/under on how many days it lasts before deflation is hereby set to 1.5.

This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end, my only friend.

(AFP: “Thousands said farewell Sunday to a giant inflatable yellow rubber duck which has captivated Hong Kong, on its final day in the city’s harbor before it heads to the United States.”)

Also see:

• Tiananmen Duck Man
• Wuhan Has Its Own Rubber Duck
• RUBBER DUCK DOWN
• FUCK YES RUBBER DUCK

I’m just going to put this here and admire from afar.

(Via I Love China)

Noting the wild popularity of Hong Kong’s big rubber duck in Victoria Harbor, designed by Florentjin Hofman, Wuhan went ahead and got its own. It’s made by a property company, notes Sina.

To be honest, I’m surprised that a property company practicing shanzhai wouldn’t go bigger instead of smaller. Surely 16.5 meters isn’t the upper limit for rubber duck sizes.

(H/T Alicia)

The 16.5-meter inflatable duck in Hong Kong’s Victoria Bay remains entertaining. Look at the above. Just look at it.

It was due to air leakage, says Sina. It lasted 12 days, as of yesterday.

Pity the duck. Pity us all.

(H/T Alicia)

UPDATE, 5/22, 10:26 am: It’s back up.