The Unknown Rebel

The Unknown Rebel in all his glory (www.answers.com)

My hero is the Unknown Rebel. I know what you are thinking, how can someone be your hero if you don’t even know their name? But the truth is no one does and that’s what makes him so great and humble. His picture has been all over the Internet, in almost every magazine, and he was even voted one of the top ten most influential people of the century yet he stayed anonymous.

Students protesting at Tiananmen Square (www.historywiz.com)

Before I tell you why he’s my hero I must go into detail about the events that led up to what he did: During the 20th century since 1949 China has been a communist state. Tiananmen Square is a vast square in Beijing where the mausoleum of Mao Zedong is sited. After Mao Zedong had died China fell to Liu Shaoqi then to Deng Xiaoping. Tiananmen started as a mourning party of students for the former secretary general Hu Yaobang but quickly escalated to a hunger strike then the military got involved. Tiananmen Square massacre or in Chinese it's referenced as The June Fourth Incident because it was on June fourth and the other protests that have taken place at Tiananmen are the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the April Fifth Movement of 1976. Deng Xiaoping was the one who initiated the crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters. What started as a mourning party of college students for a fallen politician ended up in an all out massacre. First the students started with a sit-in then turned it into a hunger strike. The police tried to control the more violent protesters but the student crowd now included many rural factory workers and sympathetic police officers. Even though they lacked leadership or a unified cause it was apparent as to what they wanted, they wanted democracy. The gap between the rich and the poor was growing and they wanted another revolution. Deng Xiaoping ordered them to stop, using whatever military means necessary. The protesters were able to hold off the military at first but eventually the Chinese government sent the 27th and 28th Armies from the Peoples Liberation Army; it was widely reported that this resulted in the mass running over of civilians, protesters and even soldiers by tanks. The military was also using live ammunition instead of rubber riot bullets and some insist that they were using armor piercing rounds so they could kill more then one protester. Killing two birds with one stone.

Media people were banned from covering the protests and kicked out of the country. Luckily (or unfortunately) some journalists remained in Beijing to photograph and document the events. One photograph and video clip shows a lone man in a white t-shirt carrying only two red rag flags, standing defiantly in front of a row of tanks that were leaving Tiananmen Square. He reportedly shouted "Why are you here?! You have caused nothing but misery." The tanks tried to drive around him but he side stepped back into their path. Then he did what I think is one of the bravest moves in the history of mankind; he stepped up on the lead tank and went down into the turret to talk with the driver. Surprisingly he got out unscathed and continued to block the tanks. By now there was a whole column (I counted 5) of tanks, and a huge crowd of anxious and awestruck protesters. Eventually seven spectators grabbed him and dragged him back to the crowd of protesters, they feared he would be shot or run over like so many already had been.

A stencil I created for this project (ME)

The Unknown Rebel is my hero because he stood up for what he believed in instead of hiding in the crowd and waiting to be shot at. I am not saying that the protesters were waiting to be shot or hiding but because of implications in the square such as crowd size and lack of media personnel it would have been hard to stand out and make the military and the media notice. It is very lucky that Jeff Widener was there to capture this moment of human struggle. The Unknown Rebel also used his voice instead of his fists or a gun to attract attention and persuade the soldiers to pause and think about what they were doing. At first they chose not to turn back or just run the Rebel over but go around him. This shows the human nature to avoid confrontation and to take the route of least resistance. Eventually the tanks moved out of the Square but even though the hold up was momentary the tank officer probably was dismissed and maybe even arrested (note: I have no proof of this it is just my prediction as to what happened). I first learnt about The Tiananmen incident when I read Jan Wong's book "Red China Blues" which is banned in China. This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn more. The Unknown Rebel is an icon for the Tiananmen Square Incident and Chinas struggle for democracy.The photos of this one man standing in front of the tanks immortalized the Tiananmen Square protest/massacre.

To this date there are many different estimates of the number of lives that were lost. To all of us living in a free democratic country, I'm not saying that democracy is perfect and communism is bad but be grateful for what you/we have.

This is the present Tiananmen Square (www.travelplaces.co.uk)