In Japanese, gosurori means GothLoli, or Gothic Lolita. At comic book fairs and youth shopping malls in Hong Kong, it is not unusual nowadays to come upon such 'Lolitas', young girls or women dressed in Victorian-style clothing to look like porcelain dolls.
Others put on Japanese schoolgirl uniforms, kimonos or various cartoonish outfits - popularised by famous characters in Japanese manga comics - to simulate the appearance of an under-aged nymph.
Mainstream boutiques and department stores in main Japanese cities were apparently already selling Lolita clothes in 2000. As a youth sub-culture, it must have been entrenched well before then in Japan - so we in Hong Kong are more than half a decade behind.
Local pop star Kelly Chen Wai-lam recently dressed as one at a Halloween bash at Ocean Park. It was rather embarrassing: it doesn't matter how old Chen is, she is clearly past the age limit on posing as a fake Lolita.
It's depressing to think how we are always playing catch-up to the latest in Japanese (sub) culture, from youth fads and high cuisine to underground porn and social pathology.
While Japan's gangsters are busy producing high-quality pornographic VCDs and DVDs, our triads can do nothing better than pirate their Japanese counterparts. If the Japanese porn industry were to collapse today, triad gangsters in Hong Kong would have to go on welfare.
We are even behind when it comes to depression and mass psychology. For years, Japanese media and health-care professionals have been writing and warning about the growing hikikomori phenomenon. Reports are only now surfacing in local papers that we, too, have our own reclusive adolescents and young adults who live in abject isolation and shun all human contact.
