Non-violence is its own reward

Jun 04, 2009 01:35



Who was Tank Man? The best reckoning, or at least the most widely circulated, is that his name was/is Wang Weilin. He looked for all the world like he was on his way home with a couple of bags of shopping when he just decided to say "No." The name first surfaced a few weeks later in the British Sunday Express (and that claim to his identity was also furthered by Chinese student protest leader Li Lu in his 1990 autobiography Moving the Mountain, which I've read). Some reports say he was executed two weeks later, another that he was executed by firing squad two months later; other unverified claims are that he's still alive and hiding out in mainland China, also that he escaped to Taiwan where he's been working either as an archaeologist or in a museum. In 1998 Time magazine included Tank Man on its list of the 100 most important people of the twentieth century.

I would like to be able to visit a memorial to him at this spot near the Avenue of Eternal Peace in my lifetime, but until that far-off and unlikely day the best tribute to him is the 2006 PBS documentary, at YouTube in 8 parts starting here (and most relevant to the present is part 7).
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