Taiwanese artist designs gun that collects her tears, freezes and shoots it at those who hurt her

Yi Fei Chen built the gun in 2016 and has spent years perfecting it. (Image credit: Ronald Smits/Instagram)

An artist in Taiwan--who designed a gun that collects her tears, freezes them, and then shoots the frozen tears as bullets at whoever upset her--has said that she was inspired by an argument with her teacher over an assignment.

Yi Fei Chen, the creator of the "tear gun", recently shared how she came about to build the tool in 2016. "I had a confrontation with my mentor, an argument, but I didn’t really agree with him. I felt like I couldn’t speak up. I was frustrated and angry. Then the tears came," she said. Even though I was crying, I still felt I couldn't just leave during the conversation. After that, I thought to myself, if this happens again, how can I change the situation?"

Raised in Taiwan and educated in the Netherlands, Chen said she was spurred by the incident to create the device to "shoot" her tears at her mentor. Chen believed arguing with him was not an option because growing up in Taiwan, she was taught that disagreeing with teachers was considered rude.

The tear device was Chen's graduation project and it took her three months to create the first "working product". She has since spent years perfecting the "gun", Chen told Asia One.

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A post shared by Yi Fei Chen (@fei_studio_)

How does the tear gun work?

After collecting tears, the device takes 20 seconds to freeze them and turn them into "bullets". Chen used carbon dioxide, contained in a high-pressure bottle, to freeze the tears that are shot out of the "gun" using a spring mechanism, the publication reported.

Chen also shared that she had to first pitch the idea to the teacher she had the disagreement with before proceeding with the project. And to her surprise, he was very supportive of her idea.

"He was quite happy with the result even though it was something [created] against him," Chen said.