The images of the Tank Man of Tiananmen are surely one of the most iconic of our modern age. Alone he managed to halt the onrushing tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. I´ve always found this man brave, but I´ve also been thinking of the tank driver who choosed in this instance to save a life. Hopefully, we might in a near future witness an reunion between the two. As of today, the identity and fate of the tank man is unclear:

Few images are more recognizable or more evocative. Known simply as “tank man,” it is one of the most famous photographs in recent history.

Twenty years ago, on June 5, 1989, following weeks of huge protests in Beijing and a crackdown that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, a lone man stepped in front of a column of tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square. The moment instantly became a symbol of the protests as well as a symbol against oppression worldwide — an anonymous act of defiance seared into our collective consciousnesses.

“It all started with a man in a white shirt who walked into the street and raised his right hand no higher than a New Yorker hailing a taxi,” James Barron wrote the following day in The New York Times. The picture appeared on the front page of this newspaper as well as in countless other publications around the world.

To this day, the identity and fate of the man in the picture remain unclear. A riveting documentary, “The Tank Man,” by PBS Frontline in 2006 explored his fate. Yet still no one knows for certain who he is or what exactly happened to him. The image is largely blocked on the Internet in China. Despite its iconic status and historical significance elsewhere, most young people there do not recognize the photograph.

Here is the video footage:

Featured image via Agonistica and photographed by Stuart Franklin.