Perhaps few pictures better sum up the spirit of this blog than the famous one taken 20 years ago on Tiananmen square, involving a Beijing pedestrian who stopped a column of tanks. Much has been said about the picture, so I would just like to emphasize a few small points. First, the fact that the man in question was involved in something as ordinary as shopping. This suggests a very unplanned, impromptu form of resistance, rather than something more organized. Second, something which is perhaps not as much commented as his personal courage, namely the fact that the tanks did not simply over run him, even though there is no doubt that they had done so with many individuals only a few hours before. To me, this is what makes the picture most powerful. What went through that tank commander's mind? Fear of doing in broad daylight what seemed much easier to do in the height of the night? Actually seeing one's potential victim in the white of the eye? Fear of international cameras? Surprise at the persistence of resolve despite the constant intimidation? It is as if the tank were a bit embarrassed about what it was doing, as if the window of oportunity for crass violence had passed, and as if this was, in the end, not worth it. It is as if, quite simply, one man could defeat a column of tanks.
The New York Times has a fascinating account of how the picture was taken by the journalists who were there, and did their own bit of defiance to get the film out of Beijing.
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