Oriental Observer: 麻将 Mahjong

If you ever come to China, something you'll notice right away is that Chinese people love Mahjong (麻将 má jiàng in Chinese). People sit out on the sidewalks and play for hours. There are whole stores devoted entirely to Mahjong tables--ranging from merely functional to extravagantly ornate. The little retirement center next to my apartment has entire rooms set aside for people to play mahjong in (right next to the Ping-pong rooms). I come from a game playing family and have always been slightly intrigued by mahjong. Over the years, I've made a few halfhearted attempts to learn mahjong and even took a small set of mahjong tiles home with me, but I never really made much progress. Here's why:

1. I could never get the game fully explained to me in English and the English rule book that came with the set of tiles I bought was . . . unclear, to say the least.
2. Chinese people I'd play with were too eager to "help" me play (translation, play for me) so I never knew why I was playing what I was playing.
3. Chinese people are so good at the game, they play at warp-speed. By the time I got my tiles set up, they'd have all played and would be staring at me slightly impatiently while they munched sunflower seeds (also at warp speed). The intimidation was too much.
4. Honestly being able to say, "I don't know how to play." gave me an excuse not to get sucked into inescapable hours of playing for money before and after unexciting obligatory dinners.

But a few weeks ago, a friend invited Katie and me to play Mahjong. The friend speaks excellent English and she agreed to reexplain the game to us and go slowly, letting us pick up on the strategy for ourselves. It was quite enjoyable. Last week, we went to another friend's house and had dinner. After dinner, Katie and I played mahjong with the friend and her mom. I think I can finally say that I've reached a passable playing level.

Katie and I realized that while not knowing how to play mahjong can be a convenient "out" at times, knowing how to play mahjong has a number of benefits. It gives you an instantaneous rapport with all 1.4 billion Chinese people that live here. Just like knowing one or two words of Chinese in the local dialect makes you immediately likable to all locals, when people find out that you, a foreigner, understand and enjoy mahjong, they're ready to be your friend for life. It's also an entertaining way to pass time with Chinese friends who don't speak English since my Chinese chit-chat abilities expire after about 10 minutes. And, last but not least, you get to use fun and forceful Chinese words like "PENG!" and "GANG!" and descriptive phrases like "wash the tiles" (mix them up) and "eat a tile" (use the previous person's discard) and "build the Great Wall" (setting up the tiles before a round).

My goal is to understand Mahjong well enough to teach it to people when I go back to the States. Get ready (dad, mom, Kara, and John) to add Mahjong to our repertoire of family games.

"So, one more time, how do we play?"