Chimerica alludes to a real historical photograph, of a man standing in front of a line of tanks near Tiananmen Square on June 5th, 1989, the day after the CCP cracked down on the protestors. The man's name is unknown and he is referred to as the Tank Man. His standoff lasted several minutes; the anonymous man continued to block the tanks as they attempted to move around him and he even climbed the tank at one point to talk to the driver. Eventually, other protesters pulled the man away from the tanks; his identity is unknown to this day.
Jeff Widener was an American photographer with the Associated Press covering protests in Beijing. Injured and ill, he took the photograph of the Tank Man from his room in the Beijing Hotel, initially annoyed that the man would "mess up the composition" of his shot. Ultimately, he smuggled the film out of Beijing by having a friend hide them in his underwear, as China had blocked all American news outlets from broadcasting in Beijing. International news outlets spread the photograph, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
The Tiananmen Square Massacre, called "The June Fourth Incident" (六四事件) in Chinese, is a highly sensitive topic and rarely discussed in China. Posts referencing the incident are generally removed from the Chinese internet.
