The original image is Tank Man secretly taken by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press on 5 June 1989. The picture shows a solitary man standing in front of a column of halted tanks leaving the Tiananmen Square after they have brutally suppressed the protest there. I mixed the original image with a photograph taken by Anthony Wallace of Getty Image last year in Hong Kong, where police officers opened fire to protesters. I blended two images because I want to stop the unrestricted violence perpetuated by police forces to innocent civilians and the situation was utterly similar: people organized a peaceful rally at first, and the government refused to respond to people’s grievances. Then demonstrators lost patience and turned the movement into violent protests. Eventually, governments quelled the protesters via force and terminated the campaign arbitrarily.
As for me, I do not advocate any kind of violence from any party. Moreover, police officers and soldiers should be particularly reflective of the employment of violence as they bear arms. Abusing weapons on their hands would beget horrific consequences, like innumerable casualties and severe traumas among civilians.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” The ramifications of these two bloody crackdowns are still lingering. Nevertheless, the Chinese government has not taken significant steps to constrain the abusive violence from police forces when dealing with public gatherings petitioning for political reforms.
Therefore, I hope, when police officers or soldiers point their gun to civilians someday again, there would be another group of them with equivalent power to destroy it. As such, I blended two pictures and made the imagery of “violence against violence” to express my anger and helplessness.
Xiangyuan Chi 