Audio slideshow: T1ananm3n Square

The first e-mail in China was sent to Germany in September 1987. The message was "Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner of the world." Ironically enough, the "Great Wall" is now preventing Chinese people from reaching every corner of the world, hehe.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2008-03/17/content_6540460.htm

I forgot that those vehicles and men parading in Red Square in 1967, celebrating the defeat of fascism, were 1,000 miles west in Wenceslaus Square, next year.

Fascinating footage on the Web. "We talked to the drivers. We told them to go home. Their faces were white with fear, they thought they'd be welcome," says one Czexh woman. Others greeted the visitors with Molotov cocktails.

She had to wait until 1990 for everything to change.

About 70 died. A picnic compared to the 1945 up- rising days before the Red Army arrived as heroes, I suppose.

I remember reading a the NYTimes article about the Japanese guy who designed running shoes for marathon runners.

He was having a hard time making comfortable shoes for the Beijing Olympics.

The article suggested that this could be because the streets of Beijing are reinforced to carry the weight of military vehicles.

bodawei, not only that, but the tank man also climbed onto the tank and held a brief conversation with the tank driver!  He was then dragged off the tank, by two other demonstrators, and pulled into the crowd...never to be seen or heard from again.

Here's that photo...you can see tank man (framed by the two trees) waiting patiently.  Such an amazing shot...showing the lone bravery of tank man, while all others flee...

Pete, that photograph you refer to suggests a level of bravery I hadn't recognised before. My previous impression was that the guy had somehow jumped a barrier right near the tank, too close to be an effective target (if you know what I mean.) This latest photo places him directly in front of the tanks for what must have been an agonising five minutes or so. What was he thinking!? Was it the same mindset as those who walked while the firing continued, unable to believe that they were under fire?

Pete, thanks for those great links.  I read an interview with Jeff Widener a few years ago, and I found it amazing how he (and other photographers) had smuggled film out of Beijing.  Like zhenlijiang says, I wonder how many other telling photos would have emerged had they not been seized.

This recently-published photograph is really incredible, given the context of the original "tank man" photos.

Sorry, it looks like I was trying to contrast Russian freedoms with Walmart (a trivial point). Actually, I wanted to contrast the Soviet Union to Russia a few years later. Most of all, I wanted to contrast the fate of the Soviet Union to modern China.

Interesting article in the Financial Times, a few weeks ago, analysing the staying-power of the Chinese government. In particular, it looks at how China learned from the demise of the Soviet Union:

Financial Times

(You need to subscribe to read beyond the first paragraph, but they give you a free trial.)

One wonders what hasn't been filmed in the past.

Yes yes exactly. Or filmed, but the evidence then destroyed/thrown in some vault. Or filmed and shown, but not recognized by us to be the important story that it is. We should always wonder.

Not to downplay the seriousness of what went on 20 years ago, but it bears pointing out that the reason it is seared in foreign consciousness is that CNN filmed it.  One wonders what hasn't been filmed in the past.

Contrasts from history. Red Square, Moscow.

1)Outside Lenin's mausoleum, 1967, a military parade celebrates victory over fascism in WW2. Over 20 million Soviet citizens had died.

2)Outside Lenin's mausoleum, 1997, The Prodigy rouse a crowd of 250,000 with Firestarter. Snarling punk/dance. A year later, Walmart etc. stripped their music from US shelves (too offensive). (Warning to the sensitive: The Prodigy don't always use the Queen's English.)

Freedom isn't a destination.

Zhenlijiang, I did see that changye was just been ironic, but still wanted to point out the importance of knowing your history. That's all! :)

changye, I think your ironic intentions may have been lost on the community on more than one occasion recently--that's what happens when you go AWOL (even with a "celeb" like yourself, apparently people can forget what you're like)!

Changye, I agree with you that people should be "future-oriented", but there's also truth to the saying "History must be known so that it won't be repeated" (or something like that) ...It may be a bit naive, but still true.

Ignoring negative histories is not necessarily a bad thing. People should be "future-oriented" rather than always sticking to the past. In this sense, I very appreciate Chinese people's attitudes toward their unfortunate histories. If only they took the same attitude toward Japan, hehe.

xiaolongg, that's right. It's sickening. There is no forgetting something you don't know to begin with. One of my teachers, mid-twenties, at university in Japan about 4 years now--you couldn't get her interested in the subject (on the day) or sense any emotion (including reluctance to talk about it) at all. We don't know, she just said, even if we did ask no one was going to tell us.

"The hands that build can also pull down and the hands that pull down can also build" would say the optimist.

Nicholas Kristof, who was the NYT's Beijing Bureau chief 20 years ago, was on the Square that night. Here's a telling contemporary quote from his column Wednesday, Bullets over Beijing. 

'One of my Chinese friends explains that if he were to protest loudly, he might be arrested; if he were to protest quietly, it would be a waste of time. “I may as well just spend the time watching a pirated DVD,” he said'.

I'm not sure how accessible this is but www.forget2forget.net is the site for the T4NK M4N tango, what's being called a peace dance. There is a Chinese commentary for the dance reminiscent of the 'just take a step to the left' choreography instructions made famous in Rocky Horror. Now swing those bags around, around, around, around. Hopefully the characters in this 'play' will become as fixed in the collective memory as Riff-raff, Magenta, Columbia and the Transylvanians in their rendition of the Time Warp.

Hi calkins,

As a photographer, you may be interested in these blog entries （especially the second, a previously unreleased picture.) The Lens blog on the New York Times is always worth a visit.

At least Hong Kong was able ("permitted") to commemorate the massacre.

The whole thing started as  Hu Yaobang, a supporter of student rights, was being commemorated. He had just died and the government had a memorial on the square with a big portrait of the man. The students, in an effort to subtly tweak the establishment, came to the square in droves to show their respect (Hu was actually in disrepute with the government at the time). We rode our bikes down from Beida that day and couldn't believe that there were over 500 students congregated. Little did we know that that number would swell to over 2 million the day that Michael Gorbachev would visit some few short weeks later.

It's really sad that the young students of today's beida, the university who's student were part of the backbone of the noble protests, don't even know what happened. I just saw a documentary where 4 beida students were shown a picture of the tank man. And they had know idea of the context!

@daizi

you were there! i've only ever read journals and histories, and of course documentaries featuring the footage smuggled probly by yourself. i vaguely remember news stories at the time.

from my undestanding what began as a student movement in beijing ended up a mass movement enompassing nearly all major centers. the media were shut down to stop it from spreading further. at no time leading up to june 4 did protestors threaten or use violence.

what sticks in my mind the most is not panzer man or firing at people running away or firing on and destroying an ambulance or firing on parents come looking for children, but the indiscriminate straffing of apartment buildings next to the square.

I was there in 1989 as I was attending Beijing University. My wife and I finally got out on June 7, smuggling videotape for ABC, NBC, and CBS news.

There are still Beida friends from whom I've never heard. Unfortunately, the younger generation seems more bent on making money than remembering or commemorating that watershed moment, let alone risking anything for the greater societal good. It's ironic because the relatively greater freedoms they now enjoy are directly attributable to those brave protestors.

I remember an episode of the Simpsons where they went to China.

While they were standing in Tian An Men square I saw a plaque behind them which read in English:

On this spot on June 4, 1989, absolutely nothing happened.

kind of sums up the present situation, don't you think?

Oh， 我弄错了，谢谢解释。希望前面还有另一个 sarcastic 的 post。。。

@dunderklumpen Tvan was being sarcastic. :D

I read that the PRC closed Twitter, several e-mail sites, and some search engines today in honor of the students' sacrifice.

Tvan, 请问, where did you read the "in honor of" part? I've been reading too, but did not come to the same conclusion. My english is not the best though. Maybe I don't understand what "in honor of" means.

@Bodawei  FYI i/1  A/4 e/3  therefore: T4NK M4N :-) Would love to see that... hope to see a video on youtube...oh wait, it's blocked. :p

@calkins

Thanks for the post. A group of artists are commemorating the anniversary this evening in Sydney in an exhibition, including dancing the T2oK M*N tango on the Opera House forecourt. The surprise turning to shock of the Chinese people at the turn of events is still very moving. Young Chinese citizens living in Australia are just as oblivious to parts of their recent history as their compatriots on the Mainland. Even those who have watched the docos seem to flick the patriotism switch and cruise into a world of denial.

@calkins

i think the time has long passed where economic pressure may have made a difference. i don't suspect given the recent world economic crisis that things will change soon.  trade competition will continue to dominate other governments attitudes in their relationship with china.

kim jong ill must be pissed off that his planet hasn't got an extra few hundred million people, if he did he wouldn't have to play with his missile, he could make his country wealthier instead and still keep absolute power because the people will love him so much for their widescreen color tvs, nikes, mobile phones, and bmws.

秀才遇到兵，有理说不清。

Matt,

I can appreciate where you're coming from.  I wouldn't want subscribers in Mainland China to be blocked from the site, and I wouldn't want that to affect Cpod's income in any way.  But, I would hope that Chinesepod would have the b@lls to stand up for the many thousands who sacraficed or risked their lives.

How will things change if people and companies continue to cave to "their" pressures?  Wouldn't losing some internet/study time or some income be worth the sacrafice?

With respect,
Brent

Hi Guys,

            In light of the insane online site/service blocks that are occuring in China, I'm concerned that this post may get us blocked in Mainland China - this would not be doing any of our Mainland Poddies any measure of service. I ask you to please consider this.

Thanks.

Matt

Brave, brave people! I'd like to think (though I'm by no means certain) that I could show half as much courage in similar circumstances.

20 years seems to have passed so quickly...

I read that the PRC closed Twitter, several e-mail sites, and some search engines today in honor of the students' sacrifice. 

I envy the PRC for having such a brave and determined army.

good post calkins

lest we forget all people who have given the supreme sacrifice for freedom. there is a long way to go, no matter where in the world one lives.

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