It was a typical Wednesday afternoon on Duke’s campus in North Carolina. Students milled about carrying overloaded backpacks and buses came and went, carrying from one campus to another.

However, around 6 pm, the silence was punctured by a large crowd of Chinese protesters who had gathered on the main quadrangle, carrying Chinese flags and signs that read “We love China,” while assertively chanting and singing patriotic songs – the first indications that that afternoon would be anything but typical.

Shortly after 7pm, Duke junior Adam Weiss arrived shirtless and bearing a Tibetan flag, leading a small group of Tibet-supporters. They were swarmed en masse by the Chinese protesters, encompassing the group and blocking their passage to the Duke Chapel – where the Tibet candlelight vigil was scheduled to take place – forcefully shaking signs and waving Chinese flags around them.

What was intended to be a peaceful vigil developed into a full-scale protest. Crowds congregated and splintered into smaller groups during verbal disputes. Though several of these individual arguments came precariously close to violence, protesters resorted to screaming words such as “liar,” “killer,” and “communist” at one another with pointed fingers.

Hundreds of fliers littered the area, vying for either side, and supporters of the Chinese cause adamantly chanted, “One world, one dream, one China,” as the two groups came face-to-face at a confrontational stance outside the Chapel.

“Do not mix politics with Olympic Games,” crowds of Chinese supporters yelled.

“All we want is peace,” Tibetan proponents repeatedly chanted in response. Each statement was received with simultaneous roars of approval and cries of disagreement, adding to the sense of disarray.

Onlookers, drawn to the protest by the noise, stood behind the large groups, astounded at the spectacle. Other spectators hung outside windows of buildings surrounding the Chapel, trying to work out what was going on.

The protest lasted for several hours and only concluded after dark, as the crowd dissipated with the promise that a panel discussion would be held for open negotiation.

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