Tank Man (also known as Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel ) is the nickname of an unknown man standing in front of the tank column on June 5 1989, the morning after the Chinese military suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force. When the main tank maneuvered to pass the man, he repeatedly shifted his position to block the path the tank tried around him. The incident was filmed and viewed all over the world. There are only a few sources that capture the incident on tape.
More than 29 years after the incident, there is no reliable information about the identity or fate of the man; The story of what happened to the tank crew is also unknown. At least one witness has stated that "Tank Man" was not the only person who opposed the tanks during the protests. Shao Jiang, who is a student leader, said: "I saw many people standing up, blocking the tanks." Tank Man is unique because he is the only one photographed and recorded on video.
Video Tank Man
Incident
The incident took place on the northern edge of Tiananmen Square, along Chang'an Road, on June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese government's crackdown on Tiananmen protests. The man was standing in the middle of a wide street, right on the path of a column approaching Type 59 tank. Stuart Franklin, on duty for TIME magazine, told the New York Times, "At some point, shots were released and tanks were taken to the road leading to us, leaving Tiananmen Square behind, blocked by a protester alone." He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, and he held two shopping bags. When the tanks stopped, he pointed at the tanks with one of the bags. In response, the main tank tried to move the man, but the man repeatedly stepped into the tank track to show non-violent action. After repeatedly trying to get around rather than crush the man, the main tank stopped the engine, and the armored vehicle behind him seemed to follow. There was a short pause with the man and the tanks reached a quiet silence.
Having succeeded in bringing the column to a halt, the man climbed into the tapered main hull of the tank and, after pausing briefly in the driver's hook, appeared in an incident video tape to summon ports on the tank tower. He then climbed onto the tower and seemed to have a brief conversation with the crew members in the shooter's hold. After ending the conversation, the man came down from the tank. The tank commander briefly emerged from the hold, and the tanks restarted their engines, ready to continue. At that moment, the man, still standing within a meter or two from the side of the main tank, jumped in front of the vehicle once more and quickly rebuilt the deadlock of the tank.
The videotape showed the two blue figures pulling the man away and disappearing with him into the crowd nearby; the tanks continued their journey. Witnesses are not sure who pulled him aside. Charlie Cole, who was there for Newsweek, said it was the Chinese government PSB (police), while Jan Wong, who was there for The Globe and Mail, thought that the people who pulled him away were the audiences concerned. In April 1998, Time included "Unknown Rebels" in the feature titled "Time 100: The Most Important Person in the Century". In November 2016, Time included a photo of Jeff Widener in "Time 100: The Most Influential Picture of All Time".
Maps Tank Man
Identity and destiny
Little is known of the identity of the man or of the main tank commander. Shortly after the incident, the English tabloid Sunday Express named it as Wang Weilin ( ??? ), a 19-year-old student who was later accused of "political hooliganism" and "tried to subvert the members of the People's Liberation Army." However, this claim has been rejected by internal documents of the Chinese Communist Party, which reported they could not find the man, according to the Hong Kong-based Center for Human Rights Information. A member of the party was quoted as saying, "We can not find him, we get his name from the journalists, we have checked by computer but can not find it among the dead or among those in jail." Many theories have sprung up about the identity of men and their current existence.
There are several conflicting stories about what happened to him after the demonstration. In a speech to President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn, former deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon, reported that he was executed 14 days later; another source said he was executed by firing squads a few months after the Tiananmen Square protests. In the Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that he believes from his interaction with the government press that they "do not know who he is" and that he still lives somewhere on the ground. Another theory is that he fled to Taiwan and continued to work there as an archaeologist at the National Palace Museum. This was first reported by the Yonhap news agency in South Korea.
The Government of the People's Republic of China has made several statements about the incident or the people involved. In a 1990 interview with Barbara Walters, CPC Secretary-General at the time, Jiang Zemin was asked what happened to the man. Jiang first declared (through an interpreter), "I can not be sure whether the youth you mentioned was arrested or not," and then replied in English, "I do not think I ever killed" [ sic ]. The government also argues that the incident proved the country's "humanitarian" military.
In a 2000 interview with Mike Wallace, Jiang Zemin said, "He was never arrested." He then stated, "I do not know where he is now." He also stressed that the tank stopped and did not degrade the young man.
International notability and censorship
Internationally, the image of a single person in front of a tank has symbolized events on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and is widely regarded as one of the most iconic images in the 20th century.
A PBS interview on six experts noted that the memory of Tiananmen Square protests seems to have faded in China, especially among young Chinese people, due to government censorship. The images of protests on the Internet have been censored in China. When the undergraduate student at Peking University, who was at the center of the incident, shown a copy of an iconic photo 16 years later, they were "completely confused." One student said that the picture was "a work of art." This was recorded in the frontline documentary "The Tank Man" he whispered to the student next to him "89," which led the interviewer to suspect that the student might have hidden his knowledge of the event.
It has been argued that the "Unknown Rebels", if alive, never made himself known for he was unaware of his international recognition for the Chinese media's oppression of events related to government protests.
On and after the events in the square, PSB treats members of the international press roughly, seizing and destroying all the films they can find, and forcing the signing of acts of infringement such as photography during martial law, which can be punished by long prison terms.
Photography version
Five photographers (one of whom did not share material for 20 years) managed to capture an event in a film that was later seized by PSB. On June 4, 2009, the fifth photographer released a scene shot taken from the ground.
The widest coverage of the event and one of the most famous photos of the show that appeared in Time magazine and Life magazine was documented by Stuart Franklin. He was on the same balcony as Charlie Cole, and his movie rolls were smuggled out of the country by a French student, hidden in a tea box.
The most-used photo of the event was taken by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press, from a sixth-floor balcony at the Beijing Hotel, about half a mile (800 meters) from the scene. Widener was injured and suffered the flu. Images taken using Nikon FE2 camera through lens Nikkor 400mm 5.6 ED-IF and TC-301 teleconverter. With Widener running out of film, a friend (by the name of Kirk) is hastily acquiring a roll of Fuji 100 ASA-colored film, enabling him to make a shot. Although he worries that his shots are not good, his image is syndicated to many newspapers around the world and is said to have appeared on the front page of all European documents. He was also nominated for a Pulitzer prize but did not win. Nevertheless, his photograph has been widely recognized as one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century.
Charlie Cole, working for Newsweek and on the same balcony as Stuart Franklin, hides a roll of films containing Tank Man in the Beijing Hotel toilet, sacrificing unused movie rolls and undeveloped images of wounded protesters after PSB raided his room, demolished two film rolls and forced him to sign recognition of photography during martial law, an offense that could be imprisoned. Cole can take the scroll and send it to Newsweek . He was awarded World Press Photo of the Year in 1990 and the picture was featured in the Life "100 Photos That Changed the World" in 2003.
On June 4, 2009, in connection with the 20th anniversary of the protest, Associated Press reporter Terril Jones revealed the photograph he took showed the Tank Man from the ground, a different angle from all known photos of the Human Tank. Jones writes that he did not realize what he got up to a month later when printing his photographs.
Arthur Tsang Hin Wah from Reuters took some photos from Beijing's 1111 Hotel room, but only the Tank Man image that climbed the selected tank. Just hours later a photograph of the man standing in front of the tank was finally chosen. When the staff saw Widener's work, they re-examined Tsang's negatives to see if it was the same time as Widener's. On March 20, 2013, in an interview by the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA), Wah told the story and added more details. He told the HKPPA that on the night of June 3, 1989, he was beaten by students while taking photos and bleeding. A "foreigner" photographer who accompanied him suddenly said, "I will not die for your country," and left. Wow back to the hotel. When he decides to get out again, public security stops him, so he stays in his room, stands by the window and finally watches the Tank Man and takes some pictures of the show.
In addition to photography, scene video footage is recorded and shipped worldwide. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) broadcaster Willie Phua, CNN cameraman Jonathan Schaer and NBC camera cameraman Tony Wasserman are the only television cameramen to capture the scene. ABC Correspondent Max Uechtritz and Peter Cave are reporters who report from the balcony.
After seeing Chinese tanks destroy vehicles and people on June 3, many journalists and photographers believe that the protests have reached its peak, causing many people to leave the area before the "tank man" incident took place.
Legacy
In the novel of Tom Clancy 2000 The Bear and the Dragon, Chinese authorities arrested and executed the Tank Man, then charged the surviving family for the cost of a revolver issued to shoot him behind his head.
Similar scenes are depicted in music videos for Club Foot (2004) by British rock band Kasabian.
The fictional version of the fate of Tank Man and a soldier in the tank is told in the drama Lucy Kirkwood 2013 Chimerica , which premiered at the Almeida Theater from 20 May 2013 to 6 July 2013.
On June 4, 2013, Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog, blocked terms that were English translation of "today", "tonight", "June 4", and "big yellow duck". If this is searched, a message appears stating that, in accordance with relevant laws, laws and policies, search results can not be displayed. Censorship occurs because a photoshopped version of Tank Man, where a rubber duck replaces a tank, has circulated around Twitter - a reference to the Florentijn Hofman Rubber Duck statue, which was then floating in Hong Kong. Port of Victoria Kong.
See also
- Chinese democracy movement
- History of the People's Republic of China
- Human Rights in the People's Republic of China
- List of peace activists
- August Landmesser
References
Note
Further reading
- Four June: True Story, Tian'anmen Paper/Zhongguo Liusi Zhenxiang Volume 1-2 (Chinese Edition) , Zhang Liang, ISBN 962-8744-36-4.
- Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now , Jan Wong, Doubleday, 1997, paperback trade, 416 pages, ISBNÃ, 0-385-48232-9 (Contains, in addition to autobiographical material broad, an eyewitness account of Tiananmen crushing and the estimated base of the casualty.)
- The Tiananmen Papers, China's Leadership Decision to Use the Power Against Their Individuals - In Their Own Words, Compiled by Zhang Liang, Edited by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Links, with cover by Orville Schell, PublicAffairs, New York, 2001, hardback, 514 pages, ISBNÃ, 1-58648-012-X (The full review and synopsis of The Tiananmen in Foreign Affairs journal can be found in the Review and its synopsis in the journal Abroad .)
External links
- Tank Man incident raw video (CNN on YouTube)
- "Behind the scenes: The Man of Tiananmen Tank" ( New York Times ), with links to videos about the incident.
- Photos of Stuart Franklin in Life magazine 100 photos that change the world.
- (in Chinese) Professor reveals Wang Weilin's heroism still in the world, dajiyuan.com. Retrieved 1 June 2006.
- The PBS Forward documentary "The Tank Man", 2006, The program can be viewed online. Last Obtained 29 July 2008.
- Time 100: Unknown Rebels, Time , 1999
- Photos that define slaughter, BBC
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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