Tiananmen Square: It Was 20 Years Ago Today

I did appreciate learning more about the four different photographers who captured 'tank man' on that historic day — the still-anonymous Chinese gentleman who stepped in front of the tanks that were on their way to wreak more carnage among the Tiananmen Square demonstrators.

Still, something also bothered me about their accounts, and about the rather reverent way the Times writes about the photojournalists in question. Commenter Jack Rice puts his finger on it, though he's harsher than I would've been:

Typical of today's journalists, too shiftless and incompetent to do the job of tracking down the nominal subject of the story — the real hero. So the story is no longer about the tank man and his heroism but about the self-annointed heroes who covered him. Congratulations, boys, yet another paean to your favorite subjects — yourselves. Hey, it’s the maxim for today's media types — Why just report the news when you can star in it?

It might very well be impossible to find out what happened to tank man. But even a fruitless quest might make for a fascinating, ominous story about Chinese secrecy and the unrepentant dictatorship that's still in place twenty years on.

Anyway, while mentioning the Tiananmen Square slaughter has consistently been off-limits in China — the event is effectively whitewashed from the country's recent history — people in other parts of the world can and do commemorate the bloodbath. Here's a photo of a massive pro-democracy vigil in Hong Kong, of all places, courtesy of the BBC website:

Comments

[Lee]

I think I read an interview with that guy a few years ago.

At least I'm pretty sure I did. Maybe it was an Onion story....

He was coming home from work and saw the tanks coming down the street. Knowing what was going on he knew that tanks would make matters far worse. So he stepped in front of them to stop them. He expected to get run over but yet he could not stand by.

Did a quick Google search, but nothing hit. I'll keep trying.

[Lucy]

Erm, Lee, if you had actually read that interview it would be a huge deal. ID'ing Tank Man would be front page news.

As to the original post, I don't mind hearing about journalists in war zones, it's always fascinating, but in the case of Tank Man, the image far overpowers any anecdote of journalistic excitement. I wouldn't want Tank Man to the the only story of Tienanmen Square, that would be unfair to everyone else and to the man as a human being, but you cannot deny the power of the image.

The photographers suggest that the cops took him away, but is this none? To me they look like fellow students, nervous about his safety. Or maybe I am just projecting hopes.