4

American Subcultures Never Die; They Just Retire To Japan

Japan has no shortage of unique subcultures, ranging from people who dress like dolls, all the way to people who dress like other, more disturbing dolls. But there's plenty of America in that mix: Take, for example, Chicano Rap, coming at you straight from Tokyo (by way of East L.A., by way of Mexico). It all started when record label owner Shin Miyata became fascinated with everyone's sixth favorite '70s cop show, CHiPs, and the Chicano culture depicted therein. The subculture has since grown into a veritable phenomenon, complete with lowriders, black-and-white tattoos, and seriously on-point makeup.

MoNa a.k.a. Sad Girl, MoNa a.k.a. Sad Girl

3

European "American Parties" Feature Red Solo Cups And A Million Calories

If Instagram is any indication, "American Parties" have taken Europe by storm, presumably landing at Normandy before sweeping south and to the east.

la_novia_manitas/Instagram, estherpascual82/Instagram, malicafrassine/Instagram

2

Germans Have A Strange Obsession With Playing Indian

Adult Germans have an inexplicable obsession with playing Cowboys and Indians. Well, with the "Indians" part, anyway.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0628-0006-001 / Grubitzsch (geb. Raphael), Waltraud / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Actually, digging into it a bit, it may be more explicable than we first thought: When American soldiers liberated Berlin at the end of World War II, they were surprised to find that, just like the kids back home, German children loved to play at a romanticized version of the American Old West. This was largely due to the work of German author Karl May, who drew upon his vast experience of having once read The Last Of The Mohicans to pen a series of novels recounting the thrilling adventures of Old Shatterhand, a German immigrant to America who travels the plains with an Apache leader known as Winnetou.

Those books, in turn, inspired an immensely popular series of 1960s films, and that's how you wind up with countless Germans -- who already have a "thing" for nudity -- citing authenticity as an excuse to barely cover their dongs with miniscule strips of leather.

Foto: Michael Lucan, Lizenz: CC-BY 3.0

1

Brazil Has An Annual Festival Honoring The American Confederacy

If you're a shitty person looking to flee the consequences of your own shittiness, look no further than South America. You might think we're referring to its notorious infestation of Nazi war criminals, but they were just following in the grand tradition of defeated racists before them ...

Reuters

Eighty years before the Nazis fled to the sun and fun of Brazil, at least 10,000 Civil War Confederates did the same. Today, their descendants, known as the Confederados, honor their Southern American roots every April at the Festa Confederada in -- no shit -- Americana, Brazil.

In direct contrast to literally everything you'd rightfully assume about it, the "Confederate Party" is actually a multi-ethnic celebration, where people of every skin color gather to eat fried chicken, dress in period-appropriate clothing, square dance, and remain entirely oblivious to the bigoted roots of the culture they're celebrating.

Reuters

If anything, the celebration is actively anti-hate, with festival organizers instituting a gate check where burly bouncers filter out anyone displaying the SS, the swastika, the KKK insignia, or any other imagery commonly associated with white supremacy ... the obvious exception being, you know, all the rebel flags.

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Also check out 5 Bizarre Subcultures Way Crazier Than Anything From Japan and 5 Insane Subcultures That Might Become The Next Hipster.

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