Feyannie Hung

Fern Helfand
VISA 110
6 April 2016
Looking for an Icon Charlie Cole
On June 4th, 1989, Charlie Cole witnessed the moment that Chinese people will never
forget, the Tiananmen Square Protests. Charlie Cole is an American based photographer born
in 1955 in Texas, and according to his website, he is now working in Indonesia as an
independent photographer. He is famous for taking photographs of the historical moment in
China in 1989. He also won the World Press Photo that same year. The Tiananmen Square
Protests were held by the colleges students who were against governments actions toward
unemployed issues, official corruption, freedom of talking and political association. Chinas
government decided to use armies to cope with their own rare people who had a high
education. Chinas government does not have other search engines such as Google or Yahoo
but only Baidu; therefore, they took control to release every kind of information to their
citizens (Chen). The interesting thing is, since the Chinese government banned all the
resources about the Tiananmen Square Protests, not many citizens know about this historical
moment and picture until they go aboard. Nowadays, the Chinese government still bans any
information about the Tiananmen Square Protests in their textbooks or any kind of
government official sources. In the photo, there is a student with a white shirt standing in
front of tanks. I think this photo is a well known icon because of the students bravery to
stand in front of the power of government. Although the tank didn't run over the student, at
that day, more than thousands of students died under the tanks of the protest. In my opinion,
showing your own thoughts in front of authority needs courage and persistence. This
photograph proves that it is worth it to be an icon.

Work Cited
Chen, XiaoYa. "June 4th: The Tiananmen Square Protests" National Taiwan Normal
University Press. Web. 04 Apr. 2016. http://hep.ccic.ntnu.edu.tw/browse2.php?s=672
Cole, Charlie. Charlie Cole Photography Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
http://charliecole.photoshelter.com
United News Editors. 1989, the Tiananmen Square Protests United News Publisher. Web.
04 Apr. 2016.
http://ebook.taaze.tw/middle/Library/TCLibrary.php?ISBN=9570800364