Article By Patrick ball

Inspired by... the Unknown Rebel

Who was he?He was one of the most courageous people of the twentieth century, but his identity remains a mystery.

In 1989, for seven weeks, thousands of Chinese people swamped Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, with peaceful protests for democracy. They created their own tiny little country, complete with radio station, newspaper, and a statue of the "Goddess of Democracy".
There were three thousand hunger strikers. Originally the Government was at a loss for what to do about it, but eventually they decided to crack down on the protestors, and sent soldiers and tanks into Tiananmen Square on the 4th of June 1989. Hundreds died in the ensuing massacres.

Undoubtedly the most famous image from the time is a piece of footage from the 5th of June; the Unknown Rebel's minutes of worldwide fame. A lone figure, carrying what appeared to be his shopping, stood in front of a column of eighteen tanks on Chang An Da Dao ("Avenue of Everlasting Peace,") stopping them in their tracks.
When the lead tank swerved to the right, the Unknown Rebel moved left to block it; when the tank swerved left, he moved right. Then he clambered up onto the lead tank, and spoke with the driver. No one knows for certain what he said. Theories range from "Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you, " to a plain old "Go away." When he got off the tank the crowd quickly hid him in their ranks, hoping that the government hadn't seen who he was; if they had, he would surely die.

Like everything else about him, his fate is unknown. The entire thing was broadcast on TV all over the world by the next day, and was the front page of dozens of newspapers.

He was in the world's eye for nothing more than half an hour, but the image is still famous as a symbol of bravery and defiance. Recently, the Unknown Rebel featured alongside Che Guevara, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Bruce Lee and dozens more in the American magazine Time's list of the top one hundred most important people of the 20th Century.

One of the leaders of the democracy movement said that there were two heroes in the picture: the Unknown Rebel, but also the tank driver who refused to obey the orders to simply run him over.

I admire the Unknown Rebel, whose moment of fame was five months before my birth, for many reasons. Most importantly among them is his courage; to stand in front of eighteen rumbling behemoths like that - any one of which could have crushed every bone in his body - must take some guts, to say the least.
Even after the immediate threat of the tank was over, there was still the constant threat of what the often-brutal Chinese Government would do if it caught up with him. Secondly, is the fact that he was just an ordinary person, who did an extraordinary thing; he showed what an ordinary person could achieve if they wanted to: change the world.