Rushdie's story and Agamben's book (Remnants of Auschwitz) have inspired me to think about my memory of the Tiananmen Incident happened in 1989. Though I was not in Beijing at that time, there were similar movements in my city to support students in Beijing. I have read quite a few books written by Chinese expariates and westerners concerning or documenting that incident. I have read a short article written by the AP photographer Jeff Widener who shot the famous the Tank Man on June 4, 1989 in Beijing. Last year PBS produced a Frontline program The Tank Man. It was beyond my imaganization the impact this one image produced. I wish I had taken more pictures in 1989. All the readings, images I have seen so far have enriched my memory of the incident and my understanding of the incident.
No one knows where the tank man is now, who he is, where he has been. The Chinese President told 20/20 host Barbar Walter that the tank man was not killed. One British newspaper claimed that the tank man is living in Britain now, but without showing his picture, without hearing his voice, no one believes. He lives without an inditity. If he is going to bear the witness of the Tiananmen Incident, will people believe him? I doubt he realized what he did in 1989 could produce such an impact. I am also wondering whether he himself is able to conceptualize what he did without being "coached' in front of video camera now. For some reason I still believe he acted out of a passing whim.
Since the Iraq war started, ABC has been following an Iragi doctor who is trying his best to save as many lives as possible in Baghdad. Once the war is over, if that does happen, his testimony will be very powerful because many people have already known who he is and what he is trying to do.
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I'm not sure knowing who or where the tank man is would be a good thing. One of the ideas of being the Musselman (bearing witness) is that the Musselman can't also be witness. So, if the tank man was to reemerge and embrace that identity--the bearing witness would seem to me to cease and become just another person's moment where he recounts (as witness). As such, the tank man would lose some of his importance--moving from one who bore witness to just witness.
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