Joe Schofield
Joe is the primary protagonist of the play. A foreign correspondent, he took the iconic picture of the Tank Man during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Now in his early forties, Joe struggles to create socially relevant photography. To retain his cultural relevance, Joe attempts to find the anonymous Tank Man for a follow-up story, crossing ethical and legal boundaries by violently interrogating sources and blackmailing Senator Dubieckie for information. In his obsession, Joe ignores his relationship with Zhang Lin, who turns out to be the real Tank Man, and sabotages his relationship with Tess, the mother of his child.
Zhang Lin
Zhang Lin is an English teacher and Joe's primary contact in China. Zhang Lin lost his wife, Liuli, and their unborn child during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Liuli's ghost haunts him, and he records his memories of her and the protests. Zhang Lin grows increasingly despondent and angry with the Chinese government after his neighbor, Ming Xiaoli, dies of a respiratory illness caused by exposure to smog in Beijing. Trying to live up to his secret reputation as the Tank Man, Zhang Lin writes articles and holds protests criticizing the Party. Zhang Lin is tortured and arrested; he gives his brother, Zhang Wei, his recordings to pass on to Joe.
Tessa Kendrick
Tessa Kendrick is an English marketing consultant who meets Joe and Mel on an assignment in China. Tess and Joe begin a sexual and then romantic relationship. Working for powerful clients, Tess is disillusioned by corruption in politics and social justice. However, after learning more about the Tank Man photograph and Chinese politics, she joins anti-capitalist protests while pregnant with Joe's child.
Mel Stanwyck
Mel is Joe's colleague who accompanies him in his investigation to find the Tank Man. Mel is misogynistic, cynical, and self-absorbed, though he redeems himself slightly at the end of the play, having sustained an injury reporting in Syria.
Frank Hadley
Frank Hadley is Joe's editor. He is a morally questionable character, as he frequents strip clubs and censors his journalists. He also platforms a nationalistic attitude. However, Frank takes a few redeeming actions; he hires Mary Chang, sponsors her green card, and is pressured to make enough money to cover his child's medical bills.
Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei is Zhang Lin's elder brother. Both brothers joined the student protests in 1989, but after, Zhang Wei got a job at a plastics factory, eventually becoming the manager. Zhang Wei sends his son, Benny, to Harvard and gives up his political activism, unwilling to threaten his family's social standing. Zhang Wei criticizes his brother for acting "like a little boy." Zhang Wei eventually moves to America with Benny, unable to maintain a job after Zhang Lin's public protests.
Liuli
Luili was Zhang Lin's pregnant wife who was killed during the Tiananmen Square protests. Before meeting Zhang Lin, Liuli worked at a store that sold appliances; she snuck into his apartment in the refrigerator he purchased. Liuli's bloodstained ghost appears frequently in Zhang Lin's scenes.
Mary Chang
Mary Chang is a young Chinese woman who previously worked at a newspaper in China. Because of censorship laws in place since her childhood, Mary was fired after she unwittingly published a memorial for victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Mary then came to America; without options, she began to work at a strip club, where she met Frank and told him about Feng Meihui, the woman who ordered the memorial ad.
Ming Xiaoli
Ming Xiaoli is Zhang Lin's elderly neighbor who dies of "Beijing Lung," a respiratory infection caused by urban smog. Ming Xiaoli also appears to suffer from dementia, confusing her dreams with memories and recalling her time posing for "Party Posters."
Maria Dubiecki
Maria Dubiecki is a senator in her fifties, affiliated with the Democratic Party, and a likely appointee in President Obama's cabinet. She refuses to give Joe protected information about donor Jimmy Wang and ends her longstanding relationship with Frank's newspaper after Joe blackmails her.
Feng Meihui
Feng Meihui is a middle-aged woman who ordered the memorial ad in a Beijing newspaper. She runs a legitimate "fish stall" in Chinatown, but her primary income comes from helping smuggle Chinese immigrants into the United States. Meihui agrees to talk to Mel and Joe for money to help pay her daughter's college tuition and gives them a lead to follow: Jimmy Wang, a man who Meihui brought to the United States immediately after the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Wang Pengsi (Jimmy Wang)
Wang Pengsi is an undocumented immigrant who left China following the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Joe mistakenly believes Pengsi is the Tank Man since Pengsi gave money to a memorial ad for the "Unsung Hero" of the 1989 protests. However, Pengsi donated for his brother, Wang Pengfei, who drove the tank Zhang Lin stood against.
Doreen
Doreen is Frank's secretary. In an antiquated power dynamic, Frank orders Doreen to perform menial tasks, like fetching him coffee. However, Doreen contributes to the paper's research by cross-checking Wang Pengfei's death records.
Paul Kramer
Paul is a former foreign correspondent for The Herald. While reporting on China in 1989 and the 1990s, an article about the Tank Man's death was published under his name, though Paul didn't write it. Overwhelmed with caring for his infant daughter, Paul is no longer interested in reporting.
David Barker
David Barker is Senator Maria Dubiecki's young administrative assistant. After Joe blackmails Senator Dubiecki, David trades Jimmy Wang's address for the incriminating photographs.
Benny
Benny is Zhang Wei's son who studies at Harvard. Joe promises to help Benny adjust to life in America but never calls him and misses their meeting. After graduation, Benny takes a job at an oil company, which he believes is "like the devil" but the only way to get a green card.
