When Shen Tong was still a high school kid in 1985, he was already doing his own business on the campus of Peking University, selling books of poems printed underground. He happened upon a student movement that year which left an impression on him. These two experiences seem to foreshadow his later life: participating social movements and conducting business in the arts market.
Shen Tong became a freshman in biology at Peking University in 1986 and quickly became an active student. On the New Year's Day on 1987, he witnessed another student protest at Tiananmen Square. Later, he got himself in trouble in a round of campus protest following a student's death and was stripped his position in the official student union. He ended up organizing his own club "Olympia" to study social issues and cooperating with the "Democracy Salon" organized by his fellow student Wang Dan.
As the death of
Hu Yaobang ignited the 1989 student movement, Shen Tong joined the newly founded Preparatory Committee to lead the movement. But he was never able to find his position there and was always at the bubble of being voted out of it. On April 22, when most students were at Tiananmen Square
participating Hu Yaobang's funeral, he set up a new broadcasting station at his dorm room overlooking at The Triangle, the center of the campus. This station became the media center at Peking University throughout the entire movement.
After the publication of April 26
People's Daily Editorial, Shen Tong was one of the Preparatory Committee members against of a planned protest march. But with the persistence of Wang Dan and others, he joined them at the front of the formation and launched
the most glorious demonstration of the entire movement.
Later after once again being voted off the Preparatory Committee, Shen Tong took Feng Congde's advice and moved on to form a new Dialogue Delegation and became the co-chairman with Xiang Xiaoji. Under their leadership, the delegation adopted a relatively independent and moderate stance and kept its distance from the movement while seeking and preparing for a dialogue with government. On May 6, they submitted their first petition for dialog and was warmly received. However, they never received a positive response, until after students launched a hunger strike.
 |
| On May 6, 1989, Shen Tong (left) and Xiang Xiaoji submitted petition to Chinese government |
With hunger strike underway, Shen Tong and his Dialogue Delegation finally had a series of contacts with government officials such as
Yan Mingfu which culminated into
a formal dialogue. Yet the session failed due to the unyielding stands of the government side and the disruption from the hunger strikers. The Dialogue Delegation dissolved after that and Shen Tong left the movement with deep disappointments. By then he had already received an acceptance letter from the Brandeis University in the US. He applied for and got an approval for visa.
When the army
shot their way toward Tiananmen Square on the night of massacre of June 3, Shen Tong was at his home near Xidan. He rushed onto the street and witnessed a girl being shot dead standing next to him and a young man being executed by a band of soldiers.
After the massacre, Shen Tong quickly left China and arrived in the US with his student visa. He was the first student leader reaching the west and received tremendous attention from the American society and media. Soon, he published his memoir
Almost a Revolution, recounting his young life and his experience during the movement. He also founded a foundation to support Chinese democracy and participated in oversea movements while attending school. In the Fall of 1992, he made a trip back to China to visit dissidents there but
was arrested by the Chinese government. He was expelled out of the country after two months' detention. (Some of the dissidents he met were jailed for more than a year.)
By 2000, Shen Tong had finished his school and left the oversea democracy movement. He founded the VFinity company and became a media entrepreneur. His products, including image technologies and TV programs, had reached markets inside China. He made a few low-profile trips to China under government surveillance and with a promise of never involving in political matters. Later he decided to abandon that market.
His success in business did not fully wipe out his passion for social movement. In 2011, he
plunged into the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in America.
 |
| In 2011, Shen Tong in Occupy Wall Street movement |
At present, Shen Tong is an angle venture capitalist. In late 2014, as a partner in SOSventures, he
co-founded the FOOD-X project, aiming to "
Feeding a Food Movement."
 |
Shen Tong in 2015
|
People of 1989
