Censorship

Since the students’ attempted resistance on Tiananmen Square in 1989, China has blocked all mentions of the incident 30 years since it has occurred. While hundreds of people were killed in a gruesome act directed by the Chinese government, the historic event is ignored by young citizens today. Their reasoning to why they are ignorant on such an important topic can be summed up with one university student in 2009, “If the government tells us as Chinese citizens, we should not know about something and shouldn’t be searching material, we should be responsible and obey.” The well-known photo of ‘Tank Man’ around the world of a young, ordinary man with groceries waving off tanks from Tiananmen Square is nowhere to be seen in China, where the photo is blocked. However, in the United States, you could look up ‘Tank Man’ right now on any search engine and instead, find multiple variations of the original image.

People gather in Hong Kong in remembrance of the Tiananmen Square Massacre 30 years later on June 4th, a photo likely blocked in China. Source: The New York Times