Abstract
Much has been said about the Chinese students' protest and the occupation of Tiananmen Square in 1989. A considerable number of scholarly works on the significance and influence of the event have been produced in different areas of study including history, political sciences, international relations, sinology, anthropology, literary criticism, and so forth.1 Some of these studies pay attention to the symbolic dimension of the student movement and give detailed analysis of important symbols such as the statue Goddess of Democracy. This article, based on direct observation of those events and on indirect material, deals with two of the major symbols of the movement, the statue Goddess of Democracy erected in Tiananmen Square during the protest, and a youth standing in the way of a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square during the crackdown. Because of the striking nature of both of these symbols, their influence has extended far beyond their spatial and temporal existence.