Tank Man
cour-age noun
-mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty.
-the ability to do something that frightens one. strength in the face of pain or grief.
A young man calmly walks out into the street. Does he know that this act of bravery will resonate for decades? Does he understand that he will be a symbol for millions in the fight against Chinese totalitarian oppression? We still do not even have confirmation of his real identity. The British Tabloid, Sunday Express, reports his name is Wang Weilin. They say he was, at the time of the event, a 19 year old archaeology student but this still has never been verified. For this article I will refer to him by this name.
The year is 1989. Wang Weilin calmly walks out into the street. Right into the path of a line of Type 59 tanks of the 27th Group Army. The army had been called in to quell 6 weeks of rioting in Beijing. The motivation for the riots was the death and subsequent funeral for political activist, Hu Yaobang. Large scale protests against the government ensued.
At first protestors were given 1 hour to leave. When that time was up the military opened fire with automatic weapons. Snipers fired on the crowds from rooftops. Even the wounded were not spared as troops bayoneted them as they lay in the street. Students who linked arms in solidarity were run over by armored personnel carriers. It seems no one would be spared this day. Not with the expected visit of Mikael Gorbachev. China would not be embarrassed in front of the world.
At some point, Wang Weilin calmly walks out into the street. He is young, tall and holding two plastic shopping bags full of food or clothing from a store. He walks right up and stands in the path of the lead tank. The tank attempts to turn right to go around him and he steps to the side to remain in its path. The tank tries left but Wang calmly steps to the right to stay in front of the tank. One man all alone in the face of certain death. On this day he was dubbed "Tank Man" and immortalized in history.
We do not know what happened to this man. Some believe he is hiding in China or maybe he somehow escaped to Taiwan. Some say he was executed but Communist official documents do not list him among the dead. Nor do they have any knowledge of his arrest. It is my fervent hope that he is still alive and living his best life.
The remarkable act of bravery and courage is another example of an act that inspires us all. Do we have what it takes to stand up to oppression? Do we have what it takes to stand down a line of tanks or protest an unfair regime? Even if it could mean imprisonment and even death? With that, will we let Trump and his cronies rewrite the narrative of this country from the welcoming haven that it has been to a restricted paranoid land that he wants it to be? The simplicity of our lives is that we do not have to take to the streets to make this happen. We just have to get off our butts and vote. So do that and make your voice heard.
The next article will be about dissident artist Badiucao. And I will finish this article with a poignant quote from him about "Tank Man"
"Tank Man is the ghost haunting the CCCP the most...It shows that any ordinary people or person, could have the courage to stand in front of the most powerful object"
