For those who may not have seen The Tank Man, I’m posting here as an essential part of Flumesday’s effort to provide the most interesting stories on Tiananmen leading up to the 20th anniversary. The Frontline doc isn’t anything new — it aired in April, 2006 on PBS. But it is, 20 years later, the best source on the history of the “Tank Man,” the brave Chinese man who stopped a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, immortalized in the iconic photograph. This short film reveals the conflicting theories on the fate of the “Tank Man.” Was he executed days after his stunt, or is he hiding in the Mainland, preserving his legacy as the anonymous symbol for the Tiananmen protesters? A must-see.

A new book, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang, to be released Tuesday, documents the dissent from China’s former leader over the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. Zhao Ziyang, China’s leader from 1987 until a month before the massacre, recorded 30 hours of audio before his 2005 death claiming, among other things, that China’s leadership never legitimately voted to establish martial law on May 20, 1989, 2 weeks before the infamous crackdown. Seen as sympathetic to the student protesters and pro-democracy, Zhao’s views on the martial law and crackdown were, and still are, suppressed by the Chinese government and caused the former Premier and Party General Secretary to be banished from public life. Zhao was removed from all of his positions in China’s government following controversial statements in May, 1989 and until his death, was placed under heavily surveillance and house arrest. The new book offers Zhao’s views on the era, translated from secret cassette tapes left to his family and close friends. The Wall Street Journal has a fantastic article on the Zhao memoir and offers some great insight into one of the best kept secrets in Chinese history.

As June 4th draws nearer, many will be looking back twenty years and observing China’s most shameful memory — the government massacre in Tiananmen Square that left hundreds dead. But what many forget, including myself until recently, is that just a week after that bloody Sunday in Beijing, a 17 year-old kid in Paris made a different kind of history for China. That kid was Michael Chang, who defeated Stefan Edberg in a five-set French Open final to became first-ever tennis player of Chinese heritage to win a grand slam title, his first and only. Moreover, Chang became the youngest player ever to capture a Slam, a distinction he still holds today. While Chang was born in New Jersey and is, in fact, American, he has always been a major source of pride in the Chinese tennis world. He was arguably the most popular tennis star in America for a brief period, but his French Open win made him the most popular player in China for well over a decade. The Los Angeles Times did a cool little feature on Chang today that reveals that Chang is married (to a girl 12 years younger I found out on Wikipedia), breeds tropical fish and has a two handicap in golf. But Chang also discusses the role the Tiananmen Square event played in is 1989 French Open victory:

A lot of people forget that Tiananmen Square was going on. The crackdown that happened was on the middle Sunday at the French Open, so if I was not practicing or playing a match, I was glued to the television, watching the events unfold… I often tell people I think it was God’s purpose for me to be able to win the French Open the way it was won because I was able to put a smile on Chinese people’s faces around the world at a time when there wasn’t much to smile about.

I wasn’t old enough to understand Tiananmen Square when it happened, though I do remember my father telling me about it. However, I vividly remember Michael Chang winning the French — an 8-year-old sports nut cares much more about these things. Sadly, Chang’s remarkable achievement won’t be what comes to mind when we think of June, 1989.

With a month to go before the 20-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre or crackdown or whatever you choose to call it, news publications are already beginning to run pieces on the 20 years since the massacre, and what has become of all those bright-eyed students and youths who chose to stand up to the Chinese government. To me, this is going to be the most interesting aspect of the June 4th commemoration — the “where are they nows.” China itself plans to ignore the anniversary and surely, all over the world, we’ll read pieces about how China has changed and positioned itself as a world superpower in the last 20 years, blah blah balh. Because we certainly won’t read about how China’s philosophy toward dissidence and free speech has changed since 1989. It hasn’t. But what has changed, and drastically, is the direction of the lives of those who were imprisoned for their roles in the Beijing protests. And these were some of China’s most promising minds. These stories are what should dominate the news on June 4th, stories of people who are constantly monitored now that they’re free, people who aren’t allowed to publish, speak to the press, earn a living, or travel in or out of China. Twenty years later, those who stood up for democracy, are still paying the price for that decision. I came across a fantastic piece from the AP on the lives of former Tiananmen protesters, how they live in 2009, and how that decision they made 20 years ago has completely altered their lives. Over the next month, I hope to post some good stuff that I read on the Tiananmen anniversary. Here’s a good start:

AP: Ex-Tiananmen convicts still struggling to survive