Unknown Rebel or Tank Man - a conditional name, under which a man who decided to go out with stringers against a column of tanks became known, and thereby to restrain this column alone within half an hour. This action unfolded during the student riots in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. His best-known photograph was taken by Jeff Widner, an Associated Press employee, from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel. It depicts a man standing without a weapon (only a string bag) in front of a column of tanks Type 59.
Relevance
A photograph depicting a simple Asian student with a string bag coming out against a column of severe armored vehicles, which contrasted his fragile body with all the surrounding reality, flew around the world. This man in the Western media has become a symbol of the struggle against the totalitarian state machine. The picture was printed in hundreds of newspapers and magazines all over the world, got into TV news. In April 1998, the magazine "Time" included "Unknown rebel" in the list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Strangely enough, in China itself, the picture was perceived in a completely different way than in the West - there it was considered proof that the authorities are loyal more than ever, did a great favor and did not move the arrogant man.
Personality and further destiny
Nobody still does not know exactly about the person's personality in the photo, nor about his future fate. Probably, the "rebel" is Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old (at that time) student of one of Beijing's universities. There are several hypotheses about his future fate. A person from the entourage of President Nixon's assistant said that the person from the photo was executed 14 days after the events. Following other sources, the man was shot in Tiananmen Square in a few months. Someone claims that the person is alive, and now is hiding in China. Also, an anonymous professor from Hong Kong said that the man was hiding in China for 3 years and 9 months after the incident, and then moved to Taiwan. The world-wide fame of the Unknown rebel, has bypassed China side. Even the students of Peking University, who was at the center of events, do not know about this incident. When they were shown a photograph, many considered that it was staged, "artwork". In 2010, Google caused a break in the template, ignoring the censorship imposed by the Chinese government and stopping filtering search results. Residents of the Celestial became available materials about the student unrest in 1989 and, in particular, the sabzhevy picture and its history. This, by the way, explains why the Unknown rebel, if he is certainly alive, has not yet reached a connection with the press, and in general did not say anything about himself: he does not even suspect his own fame, and what his figure matters.
Courage or dementia? No, this is a real example of fearlessness that has become known to the whole world!
