Exploring Media: Tank Man

This is tank man, a young anonymous protestor from China. The images of tank man standing in front of a long column of Chinese Type 59 tanks preventing their advance became overnight international phenomena. It has recently been featured in Life Magazines, “100 Photographs that Changed the World”. Almost nothing is known publicly about tank man’s identity, after all these years it remains a mystery. Some people believe he was picked up by Chinese secret police and summarily executed. This entire incident greatly embarrassed the Chinese government. It brought attention to the human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese. To this day China censors the fact that this event occurred. An internet search for Tiananmen Square or tank man in the Chinese version of Google reveals no results pertaining to the incident.

Tank man is an incredible example of one man standing up to overwhelming state power during the student protests that took place in Beijing 1989. The Chinese government had called in the military to disperse the crowds and put an end to the pro democracy demonstrations. A riot broke out in Tiananmen Square where hundreds of students died. The catalyst for these demonstrations was the death of the death of pro-market and pro-democracy intellectual, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to pay tribute to. The protests themselves were unorganized; however, their motivations were generally clear and unified calling for democratic change and economic reform within the Chinese government.

This one photo of tank man standing defiantly up to the corrupt one party state of China perhaps did more to advance the cause of freedom and social justice than did the thousands of other protestors combined during that time in Beijing. This, if nothing else conveys the power and significance of the printed photograph and how one snapshot can come to represent and encapsulate an entire social movement.