Dancing alone on a platform in the center of a crowded Hong Kong shopping mall, a bespectacled young man smoothly moves and extends his arms, sometimes adding a step, while keeping time to the rhythm of Super Eurobeat songs.

More than 100 people, mostly teenagers, dance along with Richard Tam, synchronized to his every move. A crowd of shoppers watches the dancers, who appear to be transmitting semaphore, participate in the "para para," a form of Japanese synchronized dancing.

"They look like they're having fun," said Sabrina Siu. "I want to learn this dance.

"I think it is good for relieving stress and maybe for losing weight as well," the 40-year-old secretary shouted over the loud, heavy beat.