‘Tank Man’ statue rises in California desert park as democracy activists and Tiananmen survivors gather to mourn and remember
- Chinese sculptor Chen Weiming is a driving force behind annual anniversary events as well as the park, which he bought with fellow activists in 2015
- The US ‘is the world’s original example of the struggle for freedom and democracy’, says Chen, explaining the American symbolism throughout the ceremony
For an event marking a dark moment of modern Chinese history, there were a striking number of American flags.
One of them was wrapped tightly around the star of the show, a 2,000-pound statue of “Tank Man,” the unknown Beijing resident captured in the most iconic photo of the time, single-handedly staring down a column of tanks, grocery bags in hand.
On Monday, around 300 people descended on Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo, California, a 36-acre strip of sand and sagebrush on the south side of the I-15 freeway halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, for the unveiling of the Tank Man sculpture in front of a replica tank, hastily built in just 10 days. The delivery of an actual tank, ordered online from Europe, was delayed for unexplained reasons.
Attendees came from as far as Toronto and as close as Yermo itself, which sent, among others, two community board members, two recently crowned beauty queens and a descendant of the native American Lakota chief Crazy Horse, who is also commemorated in the park with a 15-foot statue.
The sculptor Chen Weiming, a Chinese New Zealander, was one of the driving forces behind the anniversary event and the park, which he bought with fellow democracy activists in 2015 for US$300,000.
