FEATURE: Lolita fashion from Japan finds growing fan base in China

SHANGHAI - Japanese Lolita fashion, with its lace-trimmed dresses, ruffled collars and voluminous skirts inspired by Western dolls, is winning over a growing number of young women in China, fueling demand for Japanese brands and helping turn a niche subculture into a growing consumer market.

The style, which emerged in the 1990s in Tokyo's Harajuku, a trendsetting shopping district and center of youth culture, has become one of the defining symbols of Japan's "kawaii," or cute, culture.