Wang Weilin

I think there are many heroes in the world. Unfortunately, I do not know many heroes, since they are mostly in a virtual world (cartoons, movies), and I do not watch cartoons or movies so often.

But I am going to tell you, something about a true hero from China. In newspapers and magazines they named him the "Tank man or the unknown rebel." There are some facts known about him, but not many. He was a nineteen year old student named Wang Weilin. He became famous in 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests in the People's Republic of China, when he was standing in front of seventeen or more tanks and tried to stop them. Tanks tried to avoid him, but he stepped in front of them, and blocked their way through.

After that, he had a short conversation with one of the drivers. He told the driver, to go away, because they were killing his people, his friends and innocent people. He just wanted peace, and no war at all. It lasted for half an hour, and after that, anxious onlookers pulled him down and the tanks continued on their way.

Jeff Widener(a member of the Associated Press) shot the photo at the Beijing hotel from the sixth floor. "Unknown rebel" was also mentioned in a list of 100 most influential people of the twentieth century in the US magazine, Time.