Hong Kong’s favourite giant rubber duck is returning to Victoria Harbour but it’s bigger and it’s bringing a friend

HONG KONG — An inflatable rubber duck that floated in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour a decade ago will return to the city in mid-June, and not only has it grown but it is bringing a friend, the Post has learned.

The two yellow rubber ducks were being tested in waters at a dockyard in Tsing Yi on Thursday (May 25) morning before they would be towed off to Admiralty in about a week, sources familiar with the arrangement said.

“The public art project will be subject to weather conditions as typhoon season is approaching, and it is hoped that the sculptures will attract more tourists and bring joy to Hong Kong,” an insider said.

Organiser AllRightsReserved, a Hong Kong-based art studio, was still finalising details with local authorities, such as the exact location in the harbour and how long the pieces would be displayed, they said, with an announcement expected on June 1.

Hong Kong is in the early stages of recovering from the havoc caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and tourists have only just started to return in numbers following the cancellation of all the travel curbs in February.

In the early hours of Thursday, dockyard workers were seen preparing to inflate the giant ducks. More than 20 staff members strapped the ducks to bases with the help of a crane before towing the installations out to nearby waters for a test run.

Both ducks, escorted by two vessels each, “swam” from the Tsing Yi shipyard to Ting Kau Bridge and Tsing Ma Bridge before returning. The whole process took about an hour.

More than 30 journalists were invited on board another yacht to witness the event marking the return of the beloved giants after a decade.

“We hope to spread the healing power of art and bring joy to everyone via this large-scale public art exhibition,” the organiser said on Thursday.

Created by 46-year-old Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, the original duck debuted in France in 2007 and was displayed in Hong Kong in 2013. Over the past 10 years, the birds toured the world, stopping in many cities, including Taiwan’s Kaohsiung, Seoul, Shanghai, Macau and Toronto.

Sources said the pair visiting Victoria Harbour would be bigger than the previous duck, which was 16.5m tall.

When the previous duck floated off Tsim Sha Tsui for almost six weeks from May 2, 2013, it was a hit with locals and tourists. It was popular with tens of thousands of photographers and those taking selfies. On May 15, to the disappointment of fans, the artwork deflated temporarily, but was restored.

Mr Hofman is known for creating larger-than-life pieces aimed at breaking the boundaries between people and public art spaces viewed as inaccessible.

AllRightsReserved worked with Harbour City shopping centre to bring the duck to the city in 2013.

The studio has organised various art exhibitions in Hong Kong since it was established in 2003, including the display of 1,600 handcrafted paper pandas around the city in 2014 and thousands of LED roses from South Korea in Tamar Park in Central in 2016.

In 2019, it exhibited a 37-metre-long sculpture of Kaws’ Companion, a signature character created by artist Kaws, whose real name is Brian Donnelly, floating off the waters of Tamar Park. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST