Exploration Four: Lydia Freudenberg

In April of 1989 thousand of Chinese university students began to peacefully protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China; the students were demanding democracy instead of their current communist government state.  After the death of communist chairmen Hun Yaobang, more protesters, including workers, intellectuals, civil servants joined and the government became annoyed. Their protest soon reached the media, and soon the United States and Europe had an interest in the humongous protest. But on May 20th Chinese government announced and were determined that they were going to take back Tiananmen Square. On June 3rd and into June 4th, the 200,000 Chinese soldiers began open fire killing over 1000 protesters. The protester tired to fight back as much as they could by burning tanks and fighting off or with soldiers.
What I found incredibly interesting is how things escalated so dramatically. One moment the protestors are peacefully protesting in a public square and the next, an immense amount of Chinese soldiers come fleeing in shooting tanks and killing their own citizens. And on top of all the destruction of lives and the city of Beijing, the rest of China seemed to not know what even happened! They were censored from the media coverage and the horrible massacre. It just really shows how corrupt their government was and how it  lead to the extreme hesitation of trust in their civilians.
http://mashable.com/2014/06/04/tiananmen-square-massacre-photos/ (Some really good pictures)
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/tiananmen.html

I liked this photo because it shows how dedicated the protestors are, and brave. Having to go up against a Communist government, that's crazy. And this wasn't a small protest either, look at how many people there are and and how they're being peaceful, even with their words.
http://galleryhip.com/tiananmen-square-1989.html

I love this photo. Something about how the man is reaching up and showing his dedication. How he is strong, but wants peace and understanding. I'm assuming this is before the massacre, but if it was taken afterwards, it would that much more powerful.
http://www.newsreality.com/post/tiananmen-square-massacre-pictures-one-of-the-journalists-behind-the-tank-man-image