Wednesday, June 20th, 2007...7:01 am
The two doors of China : The man who stood against the tanks
To mark the 18th anniversary for the 1989 events, the Israeli Channel 8 aired an interesting documentary on the story of the man who was filmed opposing the tanks taking over Beijing.
[...] Since that event the China economy has grown by over 9% annually, today it’s the world’s 4th largest economic superpower. “China is the story of the 21 century and its roots are in that square” the film says. “You’re in a room with two doors - one political, the other economic, if you open the political door - you’re in trouble, if you open the other - it will pay off”, says one of the speakers. To the Chinese middle-class, that with time grew to include over 200 million Chinese, it paid off - but that’s just a small percentage of the Chinese population. [...]
This is the first time that I’ve seen a movie about this issue screened on Israeli TV. I remember talking to a Chinese in Israel a year ago about a week after his arrival to Israel, and that with great hesitation he told me about the events of 1989. When I told him I know about it and that’s it’s world famous, he was quite surprised. Discussing it with him it seemed that although people in China might not discuss this in the open - some still talk about it with their family and friends, and some are eager to face the effects of those events on their cultural & historical heritage. I wonder when, if ever, this will be possible to do in China.
The movie, to those interested, is available on Google Video.
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