Gothic Lolitas

This chapter explores the trend for young adults in Hong Kong and South East Asia to dress up in themed costumes as Gothic Lolitas (Goth-Lolis – gosurori) assuming the persona of characters from Japanese comic books (manga) and animated cartoons (anime). It will explore the underlying reasons why individuals pursue this Goth-Loli dress-up activity and the Gothic inspired cross cultural, literary and historical influences that have guided them and their followers. Interviews were conducted in this ethnographic study with a selection of Gothic Lolitas in Hong Kong and Tokyo who regularly dress up in costume, both in private domestic spaces and public places or at organized themed events. Findings suggest that dressing up as a Gothic Lolita is multi-vocal, transcultural experience representing different things to different participants beset with contradictions. This practice depends on the participants’ demographic and psychographic profiles, including the reaffirmation of youth identity, and the escape from a known reality into a controlled fantasy existence. Gothic Lolitas appear to be attempting to recapture a cute childhood innocence, and a visible, often mediated adherence to a defined and reassuring Gothic inspired sub-cultural or neo-style tribal collective in the Asian context based on transnational aesthetic, material and ideological borrowings.