For those not around when that happened, i remember it this way, after 20 years of booze, weed & hookers:
The student protest was extremely peaceful and organized. There were student delegations that would report up to student representatives, educatio delegation, housing delegation, for example. The representatives were negotiating with Party people. It was unclear at the time if the Party people were indicative of the top brass. But there was a worldwide feeling something good and right might be changing in China. If I recall correctly this went on for weeks, so the implications were setting in.
Then it all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
What the video & still represent is not 1 man facing a line of tanks. It a culmination of a generation of students frustrated enough but clever enough to find a way to negotiate a change and when the Army came in they knew they failed. The world knew they failed. The question was how badly that failure was. There were a few days when nothing happened after this video. Then it happened all at once. And the rest as they say is History – repression, violence, killing, abductions, lost family members, and rewriting history.
Like the Velvet Revolutions of the Middle East, it was a short time of hope for a better future, for the students & for their nation.
That feeling stays & that feeling is what China wants their populace to forget - and you forget by meming this historic picture without context.
P.S I don’t know if the man was ever found out, but I hope he stays anonymous.
I like calling id xD