Andrés Monroy-Hernández, a researcher in FUSE Labs at Microsoft Research, explains that the memes fulfilled a meaningful role, while also giving Internet users a good laugh.
"Memes are the web culture equivalent of The Daily Show or Colbert Report. In the case of the big yellow ducks, you can imagine that for some Chinese this meme is their first exposure to the Tinanmen massacre. If this happens, this would demonstrate the power of memes," Monroy-Hernández said.
Tank memes continued to pop up in different forms, ranging from the highly political to the absurd.