In javascript you can easily create objects and Arrays like so:
var aObject = { foo:\'bla\', bar:2 };
var anArray = [\'foo\', \'bar\', 2];
There was a proposal to implement this array syntax. But it was declined.
Update The shortened syntax for arrays has been rediscussed, accepted, and is now on the way be released with PHP 5.4.
But there still is no shorthand for objects. You will probably need to explicitly cast to object:
$obj = (object) ['foo'=>'bla', 'bar'=>2];