Opinion | What lies beneath the surface of Hong Kong’s cheery giant rubber ducks?

Those groaning under the pressure to be happy and ‘enjoy the moment’ with ‘double ducks’ plastered seemingly everywhere in the city might find an alternative message if they look deeper

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A duck-themed display is seen at Admiralty MTR station on June 1. With ducks seemingly everywhere on the network, some may feel trapped in a juvenile hell. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 8:15am, 9 Jun 2023Updated: 11:57am, 9 Jun 2023

Did Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and local creative studio AllRightsReserved decide to bring two of his giant rubber ducks to Hong Kong because they thought the city was twice as in need of happiness as when his whopping waterfowl visited a decade ago?

Possibly. Back in 2013, a top 10 most-read Hong Kong story of the year on the Post’s website was about a five-year-old who upset fellow passengers by urinating inside an MTR train – an age of innocence compared with what’s in the news these days.

On June 10, Hofman’s 18-metre high “Double Ducks” will be launched in Victoria Harbour. “Double duck is double luck,” the artist said in a press release full of language as inflated as the ducks. “‘Double Ducks’ is not about looking into the past but enjoying the moment together!” All in, they waddle perfectly in sync with the government’s “Happy Hong Kong” campaign.

If two ducks are better than one, how about 5,002? Five thousand (smaller) rubber ducks will be laid at the feet of the Big Buddha on Lantau because the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, owned by MTR Corporation, is one of the sponsors. Trams and 18 MTR stations are also decked out in rubber duck decorations – from lift doors and escalators to giant overhead suspensions.

Given that the Airport Express, also run by the MTR, is already covered in pictures of its cartoon mascot “KT Chai” (KT sounds like the Cantonese for Airport Express), you are basically trapped in a juvenile hell as soon as you enter the MTR network.

AllRightsReserved, founded by Lam Shu-kam – better known as SK Lam – is an expert in staging and marketing such spectacles, including the international tours of the giant inflatable cartoon characters designed by the American artist known as Kaws.