Today’s New York Times has a fascinating feature on the iconic image of “Tank Man,” the unidentified Beijing pedestrian who — 20 years ago this week — calmly stepped in front of a column of Army tanks on Tiananmen Square in protest of the government’s violent crackdown on Chinese citizens protesting state oppression of human rights.
It turns out that four different photographers captured the moment, from slightly different angles, and that their individual stories of how the images ended up in the global news media makes for interesting reading.
Tank Man’s identity has never been established, nor has his fate been determined. The Chinese government remains highly sensitive about the 1989 protests; the Tank Man images are not widely available within China and, as the anniversary of the protests approaches, censors have blocked Twitter and other social media networks.
What’s your take on these images, and the relevance of Tank Man’s defiance means to contemporary audiences?
Tags: "Tank Man, China, human rights, Tiananmen Square
Posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 pm in Commentary, Events, News.
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