I like this comment so much i wanted to feature it. In this thread, Jeffrey, who I think lives in beijing, writes about the PBS “Tank Man” web site and its rapid disappearance behind the Great Firewall.
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3 minutes ago (only 3 minutes ago. this time the CCP responded in a very quick way. they have blocked it as fast as flashing lighting) i can view the main page only. although no more pages can be accessed, i am still very great to see the tankman again.
Seeing that indistinct picture of tankman, i can touch his courage, his fearless determination against the tyranny and pursuit of full democracy and freedom. and, more, a little of nostagia in memorizing my childhood(funny? but it’s true).
I was still a very young child at that time when the tiananmen massacre was happening. in that period of time, i had been watching news through my black-white TV. I care for the events happening in Tiananmen square because almost most of my surrounding people care for it. the hunger strike, the emotional public address, the protest, the chaos.. all of them were making me interesting, and all caught my attention. I felt that was the real people power, even though i didn’t understand what means people power. i felt that was the turning point of our mothercountry, although i was so young to understand what was the turning point.
very sooner the crush came, the fire, the tank, the blood,the corpse, the cry,made me uncomfortable. i felt i was betrayed by someone, but could not figure out who is them. I felt misleading, but didn’t know why and how. the propaganda later had been reinforcing the patriotic education by declaring that the tiananmen sqare movement was misled and controlled by a small group of people having the hidden purpose, i believed in their lies. under such misleading, i dislike WanDan,Cai Lin, and many other movement leaders. but somehow i could not forget the tankman because of his courage.
I know i could not express my opinions on this tankman precisely, but in my eyes, he becomes a symbol of that history.
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Jeffrey, I think you’ve expressed your opinions beautifully. The tankman is indeed a symbol of that moment in history, and on a larger level, a symbol of how one ordinary, unknown man can make a mark on the world. Pico Iyer captures Tank Man’s significance in a description that now, 8 years after I first read it, still brings tears to my eyes.
Almost nobody knew his name. Nobody outside his immediate neighborhood had read his words or heard him speak. Nobody knows what happened to him even one hour after his moment in the world’s living rooms. But the man who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square – June 5, 1989 – may have impressed his image on the global memory more vividly, more intimately than even Sun Yat-sen did. Almost certainly he was seen in his moment of self-transcendence by more people than ever laid eyes on Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and James Joyce combined.
The meaning of his moment – it was no more than that – was instantly decipherable in any tongue, to any age: even the billions who cannot read and those who have never heard of Mao Zedong could follow what the “tank man” did. A small, unexceptional figure in slacks and white shirt, carrying what looks to be his shopping, posts himself before an approaching tank, with a line of 17 more tanks behind it. The tank swerves right; he, to block it, moves left. The tank swerves left; he moves right. Then this anonymous bystander clambers up onto the vehicle of war and says something to its driver, which comes down to us as: “Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you.” One lone Everyman standing up to machinery, to force, to all the massed weight of the People’s Republic – the largest nation in the world, comprising more than 1 billion people – while its all powerful leaders remain, as ever, in hiding somewhere within the bowels of the Great Hall of the People.
When it comes to analysing Tiananmen Square, it’s sometimes difficult determining who were the villains and the heroes. Things weren’t always as they seemed, and as you say, Jeffrey, some of the students displayed the same corrupt and power-grabbing tendencies against which they were supposedly protesting. But there is no question about the decency and the heroism of the anonymous Tank Man during his moment of truth, which is why, as long as modern civilization exists, Tank Man will stand out as a universal symbol of courage, and of man’s thirst for freedom.
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By ramon
acturally,Pbs`s urs is accessable in beijing, all of the links.
April 14, 2006 @ 1:28 am | Comment
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By Jeffery
Richard,
I never expect that you would put my comment on your duck’s first page. never. Because i was too busy this morning to beautify my literary grace. as you know, my english is not so good to express my innermost thoughts and feelings precisely. but when i was glancing the picture of tankman on PBS for the first time this monring, i could not help myself to jotting down something.
I was 12 years old in that year. for a boy so young, he was not able to understand what the politic and democracy and freedom mean to him. what he knew is that most of people, his neighbours, his teachers, his elder brothers and sisters, were involved in it—not directly, but care,concern its development. and their concernings affected him.
In his earlier schooling year, he had been instilled with the patriotic education. in mainland, patriotic education equals obey to CCP and goverment. and, when he was watching the news from the TV screen, he saw the spies from Taiwan were caught by the CCTV correspondents’ camera. But the most of his people told him that the news was not true, the students were not so naïve and so low-IQ to be misled by those spies. In contrast, their demands are reasonable and legitimate because their aim is only targeting the corruption and GuanDao(?Ùµ?).
These contradictory views confused the young boy. It??s so hard for him to judge which part is right. In that night, from the TV screen, he saw the most brutal scene, shooting, tank, blood, dead people scattering in the square, fire, hospital, crying??horrifying..Suddenly he felt so feeble as if he lost his ridge, felt so secluded as if he was in another planet. All were turning into calm, and all seems went to normal again.
In the 1990, his elder cousin returned to home from his senior high school with one book ??Don??t forget the national disgrace, let the alarm bell rings forever??. This boy likes reading book, and by chance there were so many stories in the book. There he could find many stories about the 6.4 movement and the darkest side of the leaders of those students. This small book convinced him and he thought that maybe the government??s decision was right. And, he had cried for those soldiers killed by mobs for their sacrifice to this country!
At that time, sometimes he could find some leaflets in his paradise??the back mountain. The seniors told him usually these leaflets were thrown from Taiwan??s planes. on one morning, he picked up one leaflet which printed with one picture??a man stands before a column of tanks! This black-white picture, without any exaggerations, without any detailed explanations, silent, but liking something inside of the leaflet, pressure you, smother you. I have never seen a picture like that, give you power and make you thinking.
So I tried to find more information about that tankman. I knew there definitely has something unknown to us, and something behind him. And thanks to him, he make me developing an independent intellect??believing your own ability??not the big brother. And this will benefit me ever since.
This is why I said ??nostalgia?? for him.
By the way, the tankman has his name. someone said his name is Wan Wei Lin(͵ά?)
April 14, 2006 @ 2:06 am | Comment
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By jeffery
don’t know.
but here, is unaccessible.
by the way, i am not in BeiJing.
April 14, 2006 @ 2:23 am | Comment
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By Lao Lu
Richard and Jeffrey,
Thanks for a nice post on Tiananmen’s Tank Man. He will be engraved in the collective memory of our world, that’s for sure.
I would like to make some comment though on the perspective on the entire historic episode that we witnessed. And it is the names Jeffrey is mentionning that induce me to do so: Wang Dan, Chai Ling, add to them Li Lu, Wu’er Kaixi and some others.
Brave as Tank Man may have been, these people remain for me the real heroes of Tiananmen 1989. Because they have taken charge of a movement that was heading in all directions when it started. I remember the first time the students came out of their dorms to hit the street, I went down from the Foreign Students building in my university and asked a little bit around about what was going on. Nobody I asked really knew, some said it PROBABLY had to do with the death of Hu Yaobang. As it went the protests continued and then you have this bunch of young people trying to give direction to a mass, requesting all sorts of things. They were just students like the others, they surely did not ask to be in the epicentre of a thunderstorm, but when they were, they took the responsibility and the actions this movement so much needed. They have made mistakes, for sure, but I for one will never forget the heroism of this group of people and I hope no one will be misled by the villification of the Chinese Government with respect to these people.
April 14, 2006 @ 5:07 am | Comment
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By India China
The rapid economic emergence of India and China has significantly altered the landscape and context of their cities. Not only does the massive increase in migration mean established cities must grow; it means new cities must be created. The scale of globalization and urbanization in India and China is unprecedented and presents challenges not only for them, but for the United States and the rest of the world.
“Millions of people are migrating between rural environments and urban spaces,” said Benjamin Lee, dean of The New School for Social Research, where he is also professor of anthropology and philosophy. “Currently, half of the world’s 6.5 billion people live in cities, and 30 years from now cities will account for the majority of population growth. This conference on migration puts us at the center of one of the most visible trends today. By initiating this conversation, ICI is helping to determine what the future holds for these emerging cities.”
Heretowithforth… TANKMAN.
April 14, 2006 @ 2:52 pm | Comment
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By OtherLisa
Er…what?
April 14, 2006 @ 6:23 pm | Comment
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By skystreaker
Yeah, India-China, what’s your point?
Jeffery, your essay’s a moving and excellent read, don’t worry about the english – the story still comes through.
I got interested in China and its potential (not economically, that part is clear) in the last two years. I have to say that it hasn’t been easy to find any form of democratic movement for China online at all, not even outside China – only a few sites, many of them very dated. In fact the strongest movement seems to be the Epoch Times, whatever their motives.
I read an article one time that suggested it’s likely Tankman himself now cares more for buying the material goods he’d likely get with China’s economic boom, than the democratization (or de-CCPization) if China. That he (as many in China have) may taken the deal of economic prosperity instead, and couldn’t care less about ending tyranny or having freedom.
What do you guys all think about that? Certainly doesn’t make you feel warm inside.
April 14, 2006 @ 11:11 pm | Comment
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By canrun
As of Saturday evening the web site is still up and running here in China. Just watched the program myself…
April 15, 2006 @ 4:50 am | Comment
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By richard
Jeffrey, thanks again for both the original and the follow-up. Always an honor to see you here. Lao Lu, special thanks for your bird’s-eye view, and as I wrote in my original post on this topic, despite the flaws of the student leaders, they were nevertheless magnificent for the very reasons you cite. This is what I wrote in that post of three years ago:
Canrun, I’ve been told by friends in Beijing that the entire PBS.org url has been blocked. Sometimes these things are sporadic and aren’t countrywide. But I’d be utterly amazed if they allowed the Tank Man site to be accessible in China.
April 15, 2006 @ 7:53 am | Comment
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By canrun
Richard…as of 10 pm Saturday in Guangdong the whole thing is still readily available. I watched it this morning. Very curious that it’s blocked in Beijing and not here…
April 15, 2006 @ 8:33 am | Comment
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By richard
Actually, I am not sure if it’s blocked in Beijing – I’ve heard conflicting things. This site, by the way, was blocked for weeks in China after I posted about the Taishi riots, but only in certain parts of the country – very odd. The Great Firewall is famously erratic, and sometiumes seems to go down altogether. But never for very long.
April 15, 2006 @ 8:53 am | Comment
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By Lao Lu
I promise, this is the one and only (shameless) promotion that I will ever make here for my own (fledgling) blog, but here is, starting out from this thread, an entry I wrote to point out some analogy with another famous image:
http://thecrazyinsect.blogspot.com/2006/04/image-ine.html
Sorry, Richard.
April 15, 2006 @ 4:20 pm | Comment
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By OtherLisa
Lao Lu, congrats on your blog – I will go visit it forthwith!
April 16, 2006 @ 1:00 pm | Comment
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By ludwig
WHILE CHINA DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF THE MASSACRE IN TIAN’ANMIEN SQUARE AND KEEPS THIS INCIDENT HIDDEN FROM THE PEOPLE OF CHINA.
THE WEST SHALL NEVER FORGET AND ONE DAY IT WILL BE REVEALED JUST HOW HORRIBLE THE LEADERSHIP WAS TO ORDER THE MASSACRE.
WHO IS THE MAN WHO HELD UP THE TANKS AT THE IMMEDIATE RISK OF HIS OWN LIFE. WHERE IS HE? WAS HE EXECUTED TOO?
HE IS THE HERO OF THE FREE WORLD AND HE TOO SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN FOR THE HEROISM AND THE GREAT HONOR HE BROUGHT TO THE CAUSE.
IF YOU ARE LIVING PLEASE LEAVE CHINA AND TELL THE WORLD WHO YOU ARE. YOU BROUGHT FREEDOM TO THE WORLD IN WHICH PEOPLE SAID —IT THE TANK MAN CAN STAND IN FRONT OF THE TANKS —-THE WE TOO CAN
DO THE SAME AND GET RID OF OUR OPPRESSORS AND THEY DID,.
April 18, 2006 @ 1:01 am | Comment