Over the years, Japanese schoolgirls have spearheaded an array of trends. They've set the agenda. From tech to fashion, they've been innovators, dictating to the nation what's cool and what's not.
This latest trend is anything but cool. Disgusting? Perhaps. Wasteful? Definitely. Yummy? Well, it does involve cream puffs.
In Japanese, cream puffs are called "chou cream" ("shuukuriimu" or シュークリーム). Generally speaking, most people in Japan dig 'em. Generally speaking, most people everywhere dig 'em. They are tasty!
As LiveDoor News pointed out this week, a new trend is spreading among Japanese schoolgirls. It's called "cream puff face" ("ganmen shuukuriimu" or 顔面シュークリーム). And, you guessed it, it involves smushing a cream puff in someone's face.
This isn't exactly a new trend, as it's possible to find examples of cream puff faces as early as 2007 and 2008. And, yes, this is a spin on the old fashioned pie in the face gag. But in Japan, the trend really started to take off with schoolgirls in 2011. The Japanese mainstream is just catching on now.
Typically, a cream puff face is done on someone's birthday or another event as a surprise. Some kids even prepare trash bags to cover the person who's going to get puffed, so as not to ruin anyone's clothes. How courteous!
As you can see above, it's not only schoolgirls getting puffed, but schoolboys, too.
And then, there's this dude.
While writing this piece, I decided to blur out the teens' eyes that hadn't already been blurred. They're kids. This is stupid. Kids do dumb shit. But, of course, there are those who are looking at this trend and seeing an obvious sexual connotation.
There are those who think the whole trend is wasteful—a similar criticism leveled at the "potato parties" sweeping Japanese McDonald's late last year. In Japan, parents harp on their children to clean their plates and wasting food like this is seen as incredibly disrespectful.
Online in Japan, some commenters are saying the cream puff face is a form of bullying. The whole thing does seem rather humiliating.
But, there are numerous teens who have gotten a cream puff to the face and seem more than happy about the whole experience. On Twitter, one schoolgirl wrote, "Thanks too for the cream puff face. Ditto for the towel. It was a very happy birthday." Another wrote, "I want to do it again," while yet another chimed in, "That was a great memory."
Besides cream puffs, there are also those who use tofu or fermented beans (nattou). Now that sounds like a horrible memory.
女子高生を中心に流行中の「顔面シュークリーム」が話題 [LiveDoor News]
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