So it’s the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre today. I remember when this happened, back when I was living with my head up my arse. I was at Curtin University and the next morning I wondered why all these Asian people had banners and signs and various displays up around the place out the front of the library and bookstore. I’d heard of Chinese student protests a couple years earlier and thought this might be another one so I dismissed it and got on with shoving my head further up my colon. It took me a couple days to actually work out what had happened: thousands of Chinese students had been killed by PLA soldiers for protesting. To this day, I am not exactly sure what they were protesting about. The Wikipedia article mentions mourning a pro-market, pro-democracy, anti-corruption official. At least, that’s how it started out. It ended with 3000 people dead, and many thousands more wounded.

My memory of it is best summed up by the vision of the “Tank Man”, who stood in front of a line of tanks thereby bringing them to a halt. When the lead tank tried to drive around him he moved in front it. He climbed up onto the turret and spoke with the driver. He was later taken away by police and likely executed as his identity has never been disclosed and nobody has ever claimed to be that man. Whoever he was, he had balls of hardened steel. It makes me reflect and wonder what I would be willing to stand in front of a column of tanks to defend should I ever be called to do so.