Tiananmen Tank Man

The Simpsons travelled to Beijing and Selma Bouvier, Homer Simpson's sister-in-law, was facing down a tank with a big red star. If one is unable to associate the images with the Tiananmen Massacre, there are two possibilities: either one has been living outside China and has never been exposed to news media since 1989, or one is living in China.

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And thanks to Google China's self-censorship which targets, inter alia, the "Three Ts" (Tiananmen, Taiwan independence and Tibet independence), the "Tiananmen Tank Man" has once again become cartoonist's darling.

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"I think [Jeff Widener's 'Tiananmen Tank Man' photo (below)] has cost China more in public image than any other single image in modern times," Richard Baum, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, told the Smithsonian Magazine.

Heaven knows if the Tank Man will someday replace Chairman Mao's giant portrait as the symbol of Tiananmen Square. (Or has he?)

The Tiananmen Tank Man on the cover of the Time Magazine, June 1989.

Comments

[Delbert W Allegood]

Please see my blog on http://npublici.blogspot.com/ The people of China are not forgotten. Please do not publish my E-mail.Del Allegood

[pto2k]

Maybe it is hard to associate the images with a *Massacre* because the tank is NOT running over that guy?

[Letters from China]

Suffice it to say, there is a difference between mirror and association.

The fact that the destiny of the Tank Man remains mysterious actually makes him even more legendary. Now he is neither "yet another casualty" nor Chinese dissident in exile.

[low]

I heard someone commented that the person standing infront of the tank in Tian An Men believed PLA will always protect the people and will not harm the innocent. Sure enough the military was delay for eight hour because of this belief. Ask any iraqi or any activist see whether they dare to stand infront of the so call coalision forces in such a situation.

[Letters from China]

In 1989, people assembled in Tiananmen Square demanding for anti-corruption reforms. We all know what their People's Government and their People's Army have done to them.

In 2003, Washington and her poodles invaded Iraq.

Can one seriously draw analogies between the two "military operations"?

[Jason]

The Simpsons when they usually take a big subject such as this they tend to respect the situation and the people.

[7-11]

no matter what that guy's beliefs of PLA are, pulling off an act as such in reality requires a hell lot of moral courage

[Knitting factory]

I believe him of incredible courage to stand over there,but perhaps the big part of reason why he did so attributed to his ultimately disappointment toward his government,after seeing a surreal massacre over night.

[Watwatwat]

Fangpi! How come one lives in China and doesn't know this ? Don't you think Chinese are all deaf, it's only they can't speak under the oppression of Chinese Communist Party!

[wocen]

in fact many young people dont know about this~~ cause most of chinese are very stupid. only the people who live in core of big city like beijing know about this~~ im so sad many people dead for young chinese, but young chinese still dont know them~~ and young chinese sing the same song every day the song is

[Teyla Dionne]

I think the reason some young people do not know about this is because of the communist government wanting to keep it on the down low that one man could make that much of an impact... think was 1000 could do!

[Mac]

The censorship from the Communist gov't is yet to be unveiled to the latest generation of Chinese. Go to google and look under language tools. Change pages to China and mysteriously no results pop up for "tianamen square" "Tank man" "1989 killings" or "1989 tank;" though there are many on the U.S. website. The chinese gov't controls the economy still. It controls the media... It controls information, knowledge, and the people.

[Cato]

lol, I like how the Time magazine was only too keen to portray a global revolution against communism out of it. Very circumspect and neutral!

[milan]

i think what happened on this day was dicsusting i think the people who are responsible for it should of just heard what the people had to say and to do that they would have to of not killed all those people i think that they are sick to of done that and to take all those people away from there familys

[milan]

i think what happened on this day was dicsusting i think the people who are responsible for it should of just heard what the people had to say and to do that they would have to of not killed all those people i think that they are sick to of done that and to take all those people away from there familys

[xprogram]

The tank man is my hero!

[LXT]

People in China know about this, but the government has been able to convince most people that the students were bandits or victims of corrupt officials (who are now being punished), thus relieving the CCP of any blame.

[ZHC]

But no matter what the people there were protesting against, they were still an uprising that brought unrest to the country and had to be subdued.Also, if the Chinese government had not taken such strong action, more of such thing would come up, bringing further unrest to the country.

[manfei]

Interestingly, people in China are broadly aware of this image. It was used by the propaganda machine in China to show how little force the military used, that they would stop tanks for just one man. In the west we see the individual resisting the state, in China they see the benevolent peoples liberation army's soft side. One picture can be seen from many sides...

HEY!!! THE CHINESE ARE NOT FRIGGEN STUPID!!

lol... dumbass chinaman.. why dont you all stand up to your government lol, REVOLT!! REVOLUTION!!!, get off your lazt chink ass and start an uprising!! stupid lazy monkeys.. u got a billion people. i dont think it would be that hard>.<

oh and btw... YES!! CHINESE ARE REALLLLLY STUPID!! THE HILLBILLYS ARE THE WORST, THEY ACTUALLY THINK THEY HAVE DEMOCRACY IN THE RURAL AREAS NOW THAT THEY CAN ELECT A LOCAL POLITICIAN... SADLY THOUGH THEY ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE CCCP.. HAHAHAHA YEAH REALLLY HOPELESS PEOPLE... I HAVENT EVEN STATED ON THE WIDENING GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR.. TAIWAN 4EVER!! FUCK THE MAINLAND FUCK THE CCCP FUCK SOCIALIST WAR CRIMINALS!! FUCK YOU!

The world needs to wipe out some of these monkeys.. they are beginning to pose a serious international threat with their mass reproduction.. billion people, fuck me.. too much. breeding like rabbits.. fucking animals. invest a few quarters in a box of condoms and do the world a favour. you know your socialist party encourages you to ;)

[Dianna K. Goneau Inkster]

Google McGuinty or Inkster on the K-CAP website. See the sound of democracy talking.

Google "Workfare""human rights" or "Quixote's horse" and click on "workfare" to read about one Ontario man's decade long fight to have his human rights respected.

What happened in that square started a meltdown of Moaist stupidity. China cannot be ruled in the same way as the western nations. Before World war 2 it was run by so called ,Barons, who were corrupt and cruel. The poverty was extreme. Unfortunately it took Moa to stop it except he was a fanatic who was as bad in one direction as the pre war despots were in another.The cultural revolution was a joke from Hell and thank God they climbed out of it. now China's doors are open, the Chinese enjoy both worlds. Give the Chinese government time to adjust, they have done a lot so far, it may not seem much to the West but think back 20 years or longer and see how individual small businesses wouls have had difficulty in dealing with weterners outsidide of China. China has now tasted wealth, stge by stage they will release their strangle hold of further freedoms. China is big and one thing they dont need is state security turning into anarchy in the outer provices so that crime syndicates can form and then they will be back to the 1920's. Time is what is needed freedom will come if that freedom is respected. After all here in England a woman who has a 9 year old hyper active child was told that if she locked her door she would be prosecuted for entraping him illegally. Three times he ran into the main road and nearly caused two accidents with vehicles and on the third himself to be killed. Southampton Social Services made this statement yet they dont have the powers of reserection. How about that as a social abuse to a resp[onsible parent from a state ngoing wrong. Bet the Chinese dont have that sort of stupidity to put up with eminating from their civil service. be gratefull to the students for opening the eyes of the world by lay off China at the moment we all have to many skeletons in our own cupboards. We are not without sin, for example there are innocent people in prison here, two of which are going through human rights appeals having been falsely accused of peodophilia but the process to release them is slow and covered with red tape to protect the authority in the wrong. the real offenders are still free.