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May 4, 2021 · May 4, 2021 3:22 PM EDT. M ah-jongg, a game in which players match or sequence sets of tiles, is often referred to as China’s “national pastime.”. However, its rise as a globally beloved ...
- Cady Lang
- Overview
- Understanding mahjong’s customs
- A Chinese game’s complicated American story
- Who plays mahjong today?
The story behind this game will surprise you—it’s not as old as you’d think, and its American roots are just as strong as its Chinese ones.
Women play mahjong at the Silver Gull Beach Club in Queens, New York. The game has become a mainstay in communities including Jewish women, Black American women, and now Asian American millennials and Gen Zers.
Few parlor games have left a larger global imprint than mahjong, which is at once a mainstay at immigrant family gatherings, a safe haven for outcast communities, and a source of political consternation. During the mid-20th century, it became so associated with capitalist corruption that China banned it for more than 40 years.
Though it was created in the “Middle Kingdom,” the beloved game took root around the world. In the U.S., it exploded during a high point of anti-Chinese sentiment. The longest recorded contest was held in Russia, lasting more than 33 hours.
Mahjong is a four-player game that, like poker or gin rummy, operates on the interplay between chance and skill. Chinese icons are visible in tiles’ “suits,” which include bamboos and circles, which represent ancient Chinese currency; arrows or “dragons,” which symbolize the ancient art of archery; and flowers, which represent the four Confucian plants, including chrysanthemum and orchid.
There are more than 40 iterations of the game across the world, according to Annelise Heinz, author of the bestselling Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture. She says the material connection and core tile design keep it recognizable.
The rhythms of mahjong are especially conducive to building community, Heinz says. Whereas the shuffling of cards in between poker games takes mere seconds, mahjong players must sit through extended pauses to reset tiles after every round. The interval of respite encourages conversation.
Mahjong-related superstitions abound, as expected in a game where luck is paramount to victory. It’s taboo to tap a player on the shoulder lest it derails a winning streak. Players on a losing streak might opt for a bathroom break to “wash away” bad luck. Other beliefs are culturally specific. Books, for example, are banned from the table because the Chinese word for “book” is phonetically identical to that for “lose.” The four tiles bearing the Chinese character for ‘west’ (西) should not be discarded in succession at the start of a game, as the proximity of “four” and “west” may portend death for all involved.
The research of Keis Ohtsuka, a senior lecturer in psychology at Australia’s Victoria University, focuses on gambling cognition in mahjong. Interestingly, he’s found that mahjong players who subscribe to superstitious beliefs are more prone to gambling addiction.
“Mahjong relies more on luck than skill compared to poker,” he says. “Asserting that traditional beliefs in luck and fate may be the basis of one’s destiny predisposes players to gambling.”
Mahjong was developed in Southern China in the mid-1800s toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, one of many male-dominated gambling games that emerged at the time, says Heinz. The word “mahjong” means “sparrow” in southern Chinese dialects, referring to the bird-like clacking sound the tiles make during reshuffling. It’s widely believed to be derived from the ancient Chinese card game madiao.
“There’s a certain level of adaptability inherent in mahjong,” Heinz says, “Poker tends to always be a gambling game; Bridge almost never so. It’s unusual for a game to be played for very, very high stakes or for pennies, or even no money at all.”
In the early 1920s, American businessman Joseph P. Babcock brought the game to the U.S., where it became an “enormous national fad” that Heinz says reflected the country’s shifting gender and cultural norms. Dubbed “the game of a hundred intelligences” and “the gift of heaven,” the first imported mahjong sets quickly sold out at Abercrombie & Fitch in New York City.
Left: Four women play mahjong at Tidal Basin Bathing Beach, in Washington D.C., 1924.
Photograph By Universal History Archive/ Getty
Right: Women play mahjong at a home in Glen Head, New York, 1965.
Over the past century in the US, mahjong has morphed into a staple that extends far beyond the Chinese diaspora. Heinz says the game has served as a crucial community building exercise for many marginalized groups of people, including African American clubwomen in the urban North and Midwest, suburban Jewish women (who formed the National Mah Jongg League in 1937) and incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II. While the fad among white Americans evaporated by the end of the “roaring twenties”, the game remains a favorite pastime among Chinese and Jewish families.
More recently, the record-shattering 2018 romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, which features a pivotal mahjong scene, brought the game back into popular culture, fueling interest among Asian American millennials and Gen Zers.
Mahjong’s lasting popularity, Heinz says, speaks to rapid cultural changes that have unfolded over the past century.
“It also offers a kind of hopeful vision of positive identity building and community building that this game can be a part of into the future,” she says.
The History of Mahjong. No one really knows when the game began, but most think it started in China during the 1300s as a card game, similar to rummy, played by four people sitting around a table. People in China loved card games, but this one was a great favorite. The game probably was somewhat similar to what the goals are today: putting ...
May 6, 2021 · Mahjong, a game of skill and luck played by four people using domino-like engraved tiles, emerged in China in the 1800s, and in the 1920s it briefly sparked a global fad. By the mid-20th century ...
This was the earliest version of Mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned Mahjong while living in China. His rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the Mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned. [38]
Nov 16, 2023 · The East Meets West Journey: Mahjongg traces its roots back to China during the Qing Dynasty, with legends suggesting its creation by Confucius himself. The game made its way to the United States in the early 20th century, thanks to the efforts of Joseph P. Babcock, an American expatriate who learned the game in Shanghai and introduced it to the Western world upon his return.
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May 12, 2021 · Mahjong came to America from China in the early 1920s. It was marketed as an ancient Chinese game, but it was actually created in the mid to late 1800s.After World War II, the game became popular ...
