"MO-GA" AND "MO-BO"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

"MO-GA" AND "MO-BO"

MODERN GIRLS IN JAPAN When you read in your morning's Herald of diplomatic move and coun-ter-move in lands across the sea, do you ever •wonder how the life of to-day is treating those other peoples? Do you ever think of Japan, for instance, in the torms of her young folk? In Japan " Mo " stands for Modern; "Ga " for Girl. Mo-ga is the Japanese version of Modern Girl! Gone is the flowered kimono from the business girl of Japan, and crowding into the little omnibuses and the tramoars of Tokio is a peculiar and mostly unbecoming crowd of Westernised Orientals. The transition to Mo-ga does not suit the little Japanese girl at all. Her tailor-made skirt is terribly tight and short; her little knitted jumper is cov-

[ " 1 5 Don't do anything, till yon do if; • { and when you've done it, stop ) I doing it. :

: 5 ercd with chromium-plated buttons and buckles. The Honourable-ten-sen storo is indeed well patronised in its own country. The Mo-ga's make-up originates from here, its colours clashing wildly on her muddy skin. She has little feet but thick ankles, and the inevitable silk stockings are badly put on her dumpy legs, wrinkled and crooked. The art of tho suspender is not yet hers. But tho Mo-bo, or Modern Boy, can find no fault with her. Aptly paired with him (he in his purple West-End suit, his brilliant ginger boots, his " Haikara " (high collar), his fawn soft hat, its edges turned up but its top undented), she crushes into the Americanised cinemas of Tokio. He uses devastating scent; so does she—but no matter! They are Mo-ga and Mo-bo, and they dare to stay to the end of the most shocking films—those that portray a thing considered indecent according to Japanese tradition, and at which all the old-fashioned Japanese rise and go —the Kiss I