We do the same thing:

  (make :a 1 :b 2 :c 3)

which macroexpands into a plist in CL and {a:1, b:2, c:3} in JS. I've grown to like this idiom a lot. Yeah, you have to type OBJ or MAKE or whatever but in return you get something that integrates completely smoothly with the rest of the language.

Y'know, I'm not sure. Next time I need to use a hash, I'll create something like that and see how it feels.