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Tank Man in Tiananmen Square: who was he?

by Amy Judd | June 4, 2009 at 09:31 am

1091 views | 54 Recommendations | 7 comments

The Tank Man in Tiananmen Square, as he is simply known, has become the ultimate symbol of a peacful protest in Tiananmen 20 years ago.

A lone Chinese man, carrying two plastic shopping bags, wearing a simple white shirt, walking alone, stood his ground and stopped a column of tanks that just hours earlier had crushed student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

He is known around the world and is a symbol of what one person can do if they stand their ground and have courage, but who was he? Who was this man that on June 5 1989 decided that he had had enough of what was happening and decided he wasn't going to stand for it any more?

He stands alone in front of the tanks, who then try to go around him, but he steps in front of them. He waves his arm as if telling them to get out of his way, then the tanks try to move again. Again he steps in front of them and waves his arm, before finally climbing on top of the tank and looking down at the soldiers inside.

No one knows who he was; his identity has never been revealed.

In this never before published photo, the 'Tank Man' can be seen in the background, carrying his shopping and in just a few moments will cross paths with the tanks.

Terril Jones took the photo when he was working as a reporter in Beijing, but until now he only showed the image to friends. This angle is entirely new to the worlds' eyes and shows a chaotic foreground with the man standing calmly in the background. Mr. Jones described what it was like to be in this position to take this photo 20 years ago.

Adrenaline and the drive to stay close to the action took me back to the street on June 5. I was in front of the Beijing Hotel and I could hear tanks revving up and making their way toward us from Tiananmen. I went closer to the street and looked down Changan Avenue over several rows of parked bicycles when another volley of shots rang out from where the tanks were, and people began ducking, shrieking, stumbling and running toward me. I lifted my camera and squeezed off a single shot before retreating back behind more trees and bushes where hundreds of onlookers were cowering. I didn’t know quite what I had taken other than tanks coming toward me, soldiers on them shooting in my direction, and people fleeing.

The pictures of Tank Man were published around the world, four photographers captured the moment on film from the Beijing Hotel overlooking Changan Avenue.

Pictures of Tank Man's courageous efforts and other information about the crackdown are still officially censored in China. But now, 20 years on, modern technology and the wide reach of social networking sites like Facebook are providing curious students with the information they were previously denied.

Most Chinese youth today do not have much knowledge of what took place 20 years ago and only the relatives of those who died that day remember it as if it was yesterday.

"This is a cruel reality — young people do not know the truth," said Ding Zilin, a retired professor whose 17-year-old son was shot dead that night. "The government hides the truth from children and keeps it as a sort of forbidden zone. It isn't taught in classrooms."

But some Chinese youth have taken to the anonymous world of the internet to discuss what happened that day and try to find out who was this 'Tank Man' and what had happened to him. In the western world very little is known about him and Chinese internet users are scared to even express their opinions about him for fear that they will be tracked down and taken in by police.

"Everyone, be very safety conscious!" a Chinese Twitterer identifying himself as flypig warned. Code words abound; the government censors are known as "river crabs," and the anniversary itself is referred to as "TAM" or "ATM" or "8964."

After climbing on the tanks the man was hauled away by police and absorbed in to the crowd; some think he was executed because nothing further is known about him and his identity has never come to light.

The Sunday Express, shortly after the incident named the man as Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old student but this is not considered to be the truth now.

It is thought that his identity will never be revealed and what happened to him will always remain a mystery, but what he achieved on that day lives on not only in photographs and video, but in the minds of those around the world not ready to foget what happened in Beijing in 1989.

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recommend This comment thread is now closed

sara star

at 09:49 on June 4th, 2009

It is amazing what one person can do!

kate

at 09:51 on June 4th, 2009

This is a great angle on the story. That photograph is so amazing. Tank Man always looked so calm in the famous photograph, but he seems even more calm now that we can see what other people's reactions were in the foreground, how panicked they are.

generaldecay

at 12:11 on June 4th, 2009

Whoever he is, he represents something very courageous in this world.

Paschen

at 14:10 on June 4th, 2009

The Second Prague was Tiananmen Square.

francisrivera

at 15:59 on June 4th, 2009

Interesting... i wonder how he ended up in the end.

martin223

at 14:02 on June 5th, 2009

great person !

mcndjxlefnd (not verified)

at 11:50 on July 10th, 2009

Tank Man is a gay guy going by the name Ricardo who lives in the hills of Oakland in CA. I've partied with him numerous times in San Francisco's Castro district.