What WOULD Tiananmen Tank Man Do?
Aug. 12th, 2008 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaI have always loved that one shot of him standing in front of the tanks. The first time I saw the picture was in a magazine, and my dad explained to me why it was significant. And I didn't quite grasp it - it was cool and really brave, but it was only when I was much older, much more capable of appreciating the enormity of his actions, that it hit me how incredible this moment must have been.
I never realized that there was actually a video clip of this moment. I never knew, until now, that not only did he confront these tanks - when they tried to drive around him, he moved in front of them. The tank moved around him again, and he moved in front of it again. He waved them away. He got up and spoke to the driver. Then he got back down, and blocked the tank one more time, before he was hustled away by other onlookers.
He was so anonymous that no one knows who he is even until today. No one knows his name, except maybe those who knew him then. He probably wasn't even trying to be heroic; just someone who was sick and tired of all the violence going on in his country, heartsick from the student protests that ended in sheer violence the day before, frustrated and on his way home from grocery shopping or on the way to work.
Maybe it was stupid. Maybe he would have run away if the tank had seriously tried to run him over. But you know what? It would DEFINITELY have been stupid if the tank had run him over. Because then it would have shown the cowardice of the tank driver, in the giant tank, running over a helpless person.
But he wasn't so helpless after all, I suppose....
I never realized that there was actually a video clip of this moment. I never knew, until now, that not only did he confront these tanks - when they tried to drive around him, he moved in front of them. The tank moved around him again, and he moved in front of it again. He waved them away. He got up and spoke to the driver. Then he got back down, and blocked the tank one more time, before he was hustled away by other onlookers.
He was so anonymous that no one knows who he is even until today. No one knows his name, except maybe those who knew him then. He probably wasn't even trying to be heroic; just someone who was sick and tired of all the violence going on in his country, heartsick from the student protests that ended in sheer violence the day before, frustrated and on his way home from grocery shopping or on the way to work.
Maybe it was stupid. Maybe he would have run away if the tank had seriously tried to run him over. But you know what? It would DEFINITELY have been stupid if the tank had run him over. Because then it would have shown the cowardice of the tank driver, in the giant tank, running over a helpless person.
But he wasn't so helpless after all, I suppose....
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-13 12:29 pm (UTC)