Rolling Moon Balloon

Overview

Rolling Moon Balloon refers to a large, moon-shaped inflatable that was spotted rolling through Fuzhou, China.

Background

On September 13th, 2016, an inflatable moon that was erected for Fuzhou's celebration of China's annual Mid-Autumn Festival came untethered due to high winds from the oncoming super-typhoon Meranti. It was then filmed rolling through the streets over cars and pedestrians.

Developments

The balloon was caught at around 2:00 pm in China, and local media assured the public that the balloon had not harmed anyone or caused traffic congestion.^[1] Meanwhile, users of the Chinese Twitter -like website Weibo commented with glee and began publishing pictures and original GIFs where they'd drawn over the balloon to make it look like a cartoon. They also mourned for an inflatable rabbit that was deflated as a precautionary measure.

Western publications Buzzfeed^[2] and The Verge^[3] picked up the story, with The Verge remarking the similarity between the event and the video game Katamari Damacy. A tweet of the video by @XHNews^[4] made Twitter Moments^[5] the same day.

External References