The Kaohsiung Yellow Rubber Duck Opens Without Hoffmann Amidst Wind and Rain

▲The Kaohsiung Duck Officially Opens Amidst Wind and Rain (Photo / Reporter Chen Tzu-yin)

Reported by Chen Tzu-yin / Taipei

After several days of turmoil, the Kaohsiung Yellow Rubber Duck officially opened this morning (21st)! Rainy Kaohsiung continued to pour, turning the duck, which had been in place since the night before, into a "duck in the wind and rain." However, with a 50-day exhibition period ahead, the public will still have the chance to see the duck under clear skies in the future.Although originally scheduled to attend, Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman canceled at the last minute last night, which was a bit of a letdown, but the opening ceremony still commenced with an announcement by Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Huang Jing-tai.

The opening ceremony invited two lucky girls who survived recent disasters—Chan Ya-wen, rescued from the collapse of the Zhongshan Road Bridge in Kaohsiung, and Chen Pei-yu, saved when her home collapsed at Bisha Fishing Port—to join Speaker Huang Jing-tai in declaring the launch of the Kaohsiung Yellow Rubber Duck event. Although the "Duck Dad" himself—Hofman—was absent, the organizers invited a “trio of stars” for a series of performances: tenor Wang Dian, piano prince Chen Guan-yu, and soprano singer Ai Ichiko to celebrate the official arrival of the yellow duck in Kaohsiung.

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