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Tank Man, photographed by Jeff Widener from the Associated Press, became known internationally, except in China itself. The picture is composed of a man, referred to by some as a University Student named Wang Weilin, standing in the path of 4 tanks and stopping the tanks from reaching Tiananmen Square, where protests by Chinese students the day before were broken up by violent actions of the Chinese Governments. The incident happened in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The photograph taken by Widener became one of the most well known pictures of this event; some photographs were taken away by Chinese officials. This photograph did not have many stylistic details but more of a historical and social context. The photograph was well taken to emphasize both the man and the number of tanks outnumbering him. If the shot was taken and included more tanks, the emphasis on Tank Man would be smaller. This photograph is a great shot of the scene to emphasize the important parts of the event. Tank Man stood in the middle of the road to stop the line of about 10 tanks or so (behind the four tanks, not pictured). The tanks tried to maneuver their way to avoid Tank Man, but Tank Man kept taking steps to block the way the tanks was going. The tanks stopped their engines and Tank Man climbed on the tank and talked to several open ports of the tanks. He went off the tank and made one final leap to block the tanks and was taken away. No one really knows where he went, if he was taken away by the secret police, or if he was taken away by other concerned civilians. The Chinese government could not present him after this event was publicly known.This piece of photograph shows the force a man can have to support his political beliefs (Iyer). Tank Man was featured by Time as one of the 100 Most important people of the Century in 1998. The technology of media allows people like Tank Man to be transformed from a nobody into a voice of the people that gives him somewhat of a power to influence others (Tank Man).

This photograph is now censored in China. A documentary by Frontline stated that Google images has censored photos of Tank Man. Google images results of “Tiananmen Square” in the USA show many pages of pictures of Tank Man while Google images in China shows a few pages of pictures of tourists and none consisting Tank Man nor the Massacre. In the same documentary, Beijing students were shown the photograph of Tank Man. They claimed that they have no idea about the pictures. One of them thought it was a parade, another thought it was a military ceremony. One of the students called it artwork, but before whispered “89.” The Chinese government might be limiting the knowledge the students have about 1989 or the student concealing what he knows about 1989 (Tank Man).

Tank Man was a representation of the violent actions taken by the Chinese Government during the Protests. The government used tanks and militants against civilian protesters. The actions of the Chinese Government were unnecessary and should have been controlled by other ways other than violence and deaths could have been essentially avoided. Tank Man was believed to be promoting anti-violence against the Chinese governments because he just leaped in front of the tanks and did not attack the tanks or the operator of the tanks a single bit. The photograph itself shows how the tanks, somewhat a symbol of violence and war, were going and fighting against civilians.


Iyer, Pico. “The Unknown Rebel.” April 13, 1998. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988169-2,00.html.

Wikipedia. “Tank Man.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_man.

Wong, Jan. The Tank Man. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/themes/tankman.html