Pekinška Patka's roots are found in Trafo, a short-lived cover band formed in 1976 by electric guitarist Sreten Kovačević with Nebojša Čonkić providing the vocals.

[1] Kovačević then brought in bass guitarist Miloš "Žure" Žurić as the now four-piece practiced throughout June 1978, scheduling the rehearsals around Yugoslav state television live broadcasts of football matches from the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

[1] Sporting long hairs, despite trying to play punk, each one of the four guys' respective appearances and musical sensibilities were still a mixture of several Western 1960s and 70s cultural trends, mostly hippie counterculture and prog rock.

[1] According to Kovačević, on the other hand, Pekinška Patka was his idea all along, spawned during February-March 1978 while he played weekly Thursday-night dance parties at Mašinac with his pop band Café Express.

[2] Frustrated at the crowds' indifferent reaction to his shoddy guitar solos, construction engineering graduate Kovačević reportedly sought a simpler and more direct way of playing music, finding the emerging punk genre perfectly suitable in this regard.

The material they performed consisted of four tracks: aforementioned "Bela šljiva" and cover of "Homburg", in addition to two new songs—Čonkić-written "Kratkovidi magarac" and Čonkić/Kovačević co-written "Šta je zbližilo nas".

[3] Taking in the city's music scene by going out to live shows on a nightly basis, he ended up seeing a variety of performers—including punk and punk-adjacent acts such as The Clash, The Specials, Midge Ure, Glen Matlock's Rich Kids, Skids, and Magazine.

The band's first official live appearance took place in December 1978 at Novi Sad's Klub 24 venue and immediately got the local public talking due to the commotion it raised among the club's staff who were sufficiently shocked by the performance that they decided to put a stop to it, sending the crowd of about 200 youngsters home.

The immediate reason was the band's performance of an impromptu vulgar punk cover of a communist youth work action song featuring the modified lyrics "Brižit Bardo bere čičke; Vidi joj se pola pičke" ("Brigitte Bardot is picking thistles; half of her pussy is hanging out").

The band based their act on melodic punk and vivid public image with high-energy live shows featuring constant jumping and gyrating that had a strong effect on the young crowds.

He also purposely courted controversy with soundbites such as referring to his group as the "first Orthodox punk band", which went against the doctrine of the ruling Communist League (SKJ) that very much promoted atheism in Yugoslav society.

Essentially playing themselves, though not credited as Pekinška Patka, during fall 1979, the band members shot their part—playing a random group of punks performing "Panker u starom sakou" in a scene featuring actor Slavko Štimac and singer/actor Đorđe Balašević.

The album Plitka poezija (Shallow Poetry), a punk rock material with occasional ska elements and humorous lyrics, was completed by fall 1979, but Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito's illness postponed the release until summer 1980.

The band recorded the cover of the popular Dragan Stojnić [sr] chanson "Bila je tako lijepa", with altered lyrics, and released it on single with "Buba-rumba" as the B-side.

During December 1980, the band performed at the Grok festival held at the Novi Sad Fair, leaving a good impression but also causing an uproar by burning a copy of the Borba newspaper.

The reunited band's 30-minute greatest hits set took place on EXIT's main stage on Sunday, 13 July 2008—the festival's closing night—as part of a lineup featuring Sex Pistols, The Hives, and Ministry.

[7] In late April 2010, several months after pulling out of a Novi Sad performance for New Year's 2010, the band announced its intention to reconvene again, specifically for a single show on 21 May 2010 at Belgrade's SKC—this time in the lineup that recorded the band's second studio album, 1981's Strah od monotonije: Čonkić on vocal, Zoran Bulatović on guitar, Marinko Vukmanović on bass, and Laslo Pihler on drums—ostensibly, in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the "Bila je tako lijepa" single release.

[10] On 5 May 2010, while promoting the upcoming SKC show at a press conference held in the Makao Chinese restaurant in Belgrade, the reunited band—with Čonkić, Bulatović, Vukmanović, and Pihler on hand—also announced a new single set to be released in early July 2010 though not revelling anything beyond that it's a cover of song from a Pedro Almodóvar movie.

[13] Scrambling to find a replacement on short notice, the remaining members managed to bring in Veliki Prezir's drummer Robert Radić who, having already been familiar with Pekinška Patka songs, learned the drum parts in only five days.

[14] Kovačević's press release ends by once again dismissing Čonkić, Bulatović, Vukmanović, and Radić as a "random collection of individuals that decided to book a gathering under the Pekinška Patka name" before threatening legal action should they continue to do so.

[14] In response, the band posted a press release of their own on their record label Long Play's official site, disputing Kovačević's claims and attributing them to "either [his] faulty memory or [his] deliberate intent to spread mistruths regarding Pekinška Patka's origins and subsequent work".

[15] The setlist at both the Belgrade and Zagreb shows mostly featured tracks from Plitka poezija, though one of their most popular songs "Bolje da nosim kratku kosu" was excluded, likely due to its SOKOJ-listed author Kovačević's complaints.

[16] In December 2010, the band released a free digital download MP3 version of the single "Un año de amor" on the Long Play record label official site.