Note! Click on photos to view in full size.
Tis a sad thing to see a robust Irishman turn into a little old Jewish grandmother schlepping around with a mahjong set. One of the hazards of retirement is a susceptibility to new and strange interests which led to my curious cultural metamorphosis from a robust Irishman to a Jewish grandmother! Hold on, not so fast…as Irishman go, I am not very robust, and fat chance that I will ever be as smart as a Jewish grandmother. They know a lot more than how to make a curative chicken soup. If you don’t think so, check out the complicated hands on a National Mah Jongg League score card! They don’t call mahjong the game of 1000 intelligences because it is simple. Yet oddly enough, it can be simple enough to keep a dumb old Irish bastard entertained for hours.
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"Sextant, you nice boy. Quit chasing the shiksas and come
play some mahjong." |
Until about two months ago I had only heard of mahjong in two contexts: 1) from Jewish kids talking about their grandmothers when I was growing up, and 2) a shareware computer solitaire game from the early 90s. The suburban neighborhood in which I grew up back in the 50s and 60s had many Jewish families. The kids would talk about their grandmothers and aunts playing mahjong. These kids seemed to be in awe of the game, but were never allowed to participate. One kid was routinely banished from the house when his mother’s female relatives would come for their mahjong party nights. It seems that the old girls didn’t want my buddy fingering up the tiles and interrupting the game. That sounds terrible to modern sensibilities, but back in the 50s kids were often banished from house. There was so damned many of us—most being the products of failed contraception rather than the carefully planned bundles of genetic perfection who will be play dated, extracurricular activity-ed, coached on their SATs, and groomed into this perfect statement of excellence of both the parent's genetic fitness and parenting skills, and for whom anything less than acceptance at Harvard would be considered a major catastrophe. Yeah we were just kids, allowed to be kids, with our own social norms and justice. It was a different, safer time back then with a neighborhood full of watchful mothers, like Ann that lived at the bottom of the street, that kept us from killing each other and
having strip tease shows. My mother had her card parties, and I had better not be hanging around other than to use the bathroom “and don’t pee on the seat, damn it”. The thing that amazed all of us kids regardless of what games our mothers and their female cohorts played was how they could conduct the game with their jaws flapping non stop. The cacophony from these cackling hens was enough to drive kids and husbands the hell out of the house. The odd thing about all this mahjong that was going on in the neighborhood was that while I heard about it, never once did I ever see anyone actually playing it. I had no idea what the game was other than it was something like a card game but played with tiles—and, weirdly, the mental image I had was the ceramic things glued on to the bathroom wall!
From 1970 until maybe 1992 there was a hiatus in the word mahjong filtering into my dim witted brain. Then I ran into a shareware solitaire game for DOS computers. The object of the game was to eliminate 144 tiles piled up in a pyramid by pairs. There are four of each tile which means that you have two pairs of each type of tile to eliminate (for instance 4 norths, 4 red dragons, 4 flowers). Cool game. Then from the early 90s to the beginning of July this year, there was another mahjong hiatus for me.
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| Mahjong Solitaire For The Kindle |
I was fiddling around Amazon and I found a
Kindle Mahjong Solitaire game for 99 cents. Well I remembered liking the shareware game so I bought it. Then I showed it to my wife and she wanted a version for her Nintendo DS. So we start playing Mahjong Solitaire. Then my wife asked me if there was a way we could play this together, and I told her about the Jewish kid’s grandmothers playing it. So we looked up mahjong on
Wikipedia. Wow! Look at this! This seems pretty neat, but it has nothing to do with the solitaire game. Mahjong is very similar to the card game rummy, but is played with tiles using a variety of Chinese characters instead of cards. Not only is it the game of Jewish grandmothers in the
US, it is a gambling game of
Asian street thugs, and a popular family game through out
Asia.
So then we started reading about how to play the game. It requires four players. Well that almost killed it for us, we wanted something that just the two of us could play. But for some reason I become intrigued with the game—it must be my inner Jewish grandmother. So I kept reading about it. Well the first thing you have to decide is what version you want to play. There has to be a zillion different versions—none Irish! Well yeah I am an Irishman but also a Yank so I guess I want to play the American version. Suddenly things get very murky. The American version uses complicated hands that change every year. You have to have a National Mah Jongg League score card which are published annually. The NMJL must have a team of effective copy write lawyers, because without a card or an authorized book to teach you, you are not going to learn American mahjong. There is very little information on American rules on the internet. Oh yeah and you have to have four players. Ah to hell with it, let’s just play
Rummikub dear. Truth be known, I don’t really like Rummikub, my wife is a master and she slaughters me every time we play. Despite this running batch of disappointments, I kept snooping around on the Internet and then I ran into a website by a guy named Tom Sloper. The one thing I gathered rather quickly from Tom’s site is that Mahjong can be extremely difficult and confusing to learn. Then I ran into Frequently Asked Question Number 10 at the Sloperama:
Paraphrasing quite a bit, and tossing out wall construction, here are even simpler rules:
- Set out all your mahjong tiles and remove the jokers and flowers.
- Turn the tiles face down and mix them up.
- Push the tiles into a pile. Leave room for another pile of discards.
- Everyone take 13 tiles for their hand. Keep your hand concealed..
- The object of the game is to get four melds of either three of kind (7,7,7 or N, N, N) or a three tile strait, consecutive numerical run (6,7,8) all of the same suit and a final matching pair. The 4 melds make 12 tiles, and the pair make 14. You win with no discard.
- Each player picks up a tile from the pile one at time in turn and either discards it face up, or if it can be used to help make the standard winning hand above keeps it and discards another tile face up.
- Other players can claim a discard for their hand but only if it completes a meld (which must be shown) or a completed hand. If no one wants the discarded tile, the next player picks up from the pile.
- The hand is over when the first person yells mahjong and shows a proper winning hand.
- Scoring: Everyone bows their head toward the winner and reverently says OOOOHHHHH!. Alternate Complex Scoring. On a sheet of paper write down the winners name and a hash mark. At the end of the game the person with most hash marks next to their name gets to keep the score sheet.
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| Yellow Mountain Import's Mahjong Cards, $7 on Amazon |
Don't forget these are the very simple rules and much has been left out, but they will get you started. All rightey! I can handle that, and why do you need four players? "Ok dear let’s buy a mahjong set." We looked on Amazon. Holy mackerel. $85!!! I don’t think so. We might play this once and never look at it again. Well here is a travel set for $20. Well what if we do like it and the damn travel set is too chintzy? We have blown ¼ of the price on a set we don’t want. Even at that $20 is a lot of money to spend on a game that you may hate. Whoa! Look at this…
Yellow Mountain Import's Mahjong Cards for $7. They are just like standard playing cards except that there is a lot of them and they are printed in the mahjong suites. They are the same as the tiles but are cards. And guess what? That is all you need to play mahjong.
So we ordered the cards and a book on Mahjong from Amazon. Me being cheap of course, I threw in another book to get the order over $25 to use the super saver shipping that saves you shipping and handling costs, but your stuff comes via a slow boat from China. Well that turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise because while we were waiting for the cards, I found several websites that explained Old Hong Kong Style scoring.
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| My Score Sheet. Click to see full size. |
So I made up a spread sheet (not for the calculations but just as a form) that made it easy to keep score for two rounds of play. Technically a game in Old Hong Kong mahjong is four rounds of four hands for 16 hands total. Sorry but we can’t sit through that much mahjong. We have found one round of four hands or perhaps two rounds which is 8 hands to be a nice game, so this score sheet works great for us.
We finally got our cards. With only two of us playing, using my home score sheet, we had a blast. We played two nights in a row and decided we wanted a real set. Well I had been looking at sets and decided to go with
Yellow Mountain Imports American set from Amazon for $85. A big factor in that decision was again we could get the super saver discount and save about $16 on shipping.
Edit 10/14/11: Apparently Yellow Mountain Imports and Amazon must have parted company. This set is still available at Amazon but it is not eligible for the super saver shipping.
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| Yellow Mountain Imports American Set In A Red Wood Case |
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| The artwork ain't great. See the all the tiles at Amazon. |
One thing to realize when buying a mahjong set, you can use an American set (152 tiles minimum-- with jokers) for both American play which requires the jokers, and traditional Chinese play by removing the jokers and extra tiles. A traditional Chinese set (144 tiles--no jokers) can not be used to play American style. As such I would recommend Americans to buy the American style sets, even if the intent is to play traditional Chinese. You never know where your interest may go.
We also bought a mahjong table cover from Yellow Mountain Imports. It is sort of like a thin carpet with a grippy rubber backing. It is beautiful, protects your table top and your tiles, and gives your game some class. $20 at Amazon or Yellow Mountain Imports website. It comes in 4 different colors, but we like red the best.
We received the set and were wowed. The case and racks are simply beautiful. The tiles have a very nice weight and feel to them. The art work is nothing to write home about, but overall it is a very nice set and certainly worth $85.
Well in the process of looking at mahjong sets, I made the fateful mistake of looking on Ebay. Terrible, terrible, terrible mistake. I fell in love with the old vintage Bakelite / Catalin plastic sets from the 1920s through the 1960s.
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| Vintage Butterscotch Bakelite / Catalin Tiles |
Unlike the modern sets which are predominately white acrylic or melamine the older sets are a yellow / orange color best described as butterscotch and are made of either Bakelite or Catalin plastic. The art work on these tiles are stunning. I just fell in love with these old sets and had to have one. Hmmmm! Easier said then done. I think I am about 20 years too late.
A woman named Amy Tan wrote a book called
The Joy Luck Club in 1989. It was about a mahjong club and was actually written in the style of the 16 hands to a game. The book engendered a movie and that engendered a renewed interest in mahjong. I can’t find the reference now but somewhere I read that a movie (not sure if it was Joy Luck Club) featured women wearing bracelets made out of mahjong tiles. So now you have two different types of market demand pressures on old mahjong sets, collectors and crafts people who buy up sets to make jewelry. I will be very honest, the latter really pisses me off. You want to make jewelry, fine, buy up modern replacement tile sets for $21. Don’t buy a lovely old Ten Flowers, Met, or Tyl sets and destroy the tiles for stupid bracelets that will end up in the trash in less than 5 years when the dictates of fashion move on to some other silly bullshit fad. Yeah I am pissed.
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| The Dots From My Vintage Set |
Well I tried bidding of about 5 different older classic sets. I lost every one of the bids, I wasn’t even in the ball park. So I could either up the money that I was willing to spend or down grade my tastes. Well I down graded my tastes and got a lovely, not that old of a set for a little over $100. It is not one of what I would consider the classics, but it is a nice set and I am quite pleased with it, and pleased with the cash that is still in my pocket. Comparing some of the other sales I have seen, I did good. One set, even newer than mine, and I think worth less, got into a bidders war and finished out at well over $300. That is just pure crazy. People end up paying huge prices for attractive joker stickers. The sellers have to be laughing all the way to the bank.
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| The Bamboo With Perched Pheasant # 1 |
I look at my vintage set with something that borders reverence and sadness. It belongs to a dead person, probably a very nice long gone Jewish grandmother. These vintage sets end up in estate sales, and prudent Ebay sellers buy them up and sell them probably at a huge markup. It seems sad to me that no one in the family wants grandma’s old dumb mahjong set, and they end up in the hands of a stranger like me, or worse a crafter that will turn the tiles into tacky looking bracelets and necklaces. I sit at my table and handle the tiles and admire the artwork. I get a little sad when I think of the games that this set must have experienced. The laughter, the excitement of a great hand, the chit chat and gossip, and just plain fellowship of people getting together a half century ago and enjoying each others company to clatter of tiles echos through my mind. This sitting here, touching some poor Soul’s possessions does not seem right. It almost seems a violation, a breach of trust.
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| The Dragons |
No one in the entire damned family wanted her game? How sad! On the other hand, I have her set now. I am going to clean it up, oil the flippies and the case latches. Repair the detached lining in the case. Get a set of vintage betting coins, and replace the missing flower tiles. I will re-sticker the extra joker tiles. It won’t merely set it in a closet untouched or unloved. My wife and I will play with it on special occasions but for the most part we will use our new set. Wearing the paint off the impressed characters on the tiles is not a huge concern on the new set. We can buy a complete set of replacement tiles for $21. The vintage set will be kept as an heirloom…an heirloom that I don’t deserve—its not mine, and I don’t really have any right to it.
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| Rare green faux alligator case |
Every once in a blue moon I will take out the set, handle the pieces, and let my imagination roam to some far off game with funny little ladies setting about a table drinking pepsi and talking about bar mitzvahs. And I, a not so robust Irishman will be linked to a kindly old Jewish grandmother through 152 pieces of butterscotch plastic. And probably 20 to 30 years hence, we never know these things, some seller will be pitching on Ebay…”Extremely rare, mahjong set from an estate sale. At least 70 years old. Rare green faux alligator case with a not often seen white plastic handle. 152 butterscotch bakelite tiles in excellent condition, 5 bakelite racks with no missing flippies. Dice and bettor.” Perhaps tis not such a sad thing at all for an Irishman to revere an old Jewish grandmother.
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Flippies? What the hell are Flippies?
These are flippies, in various states of
flippiness. Flip them vertical to install and
remove betting coins. Flip then horizontal
to hold the coins down. They are frequently
missing or broken on vintage sets. Modern
sets use cheap plastic caps. |
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| New Set's Wall Of Tiles On The YMI Table Cover |
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Modern Racks, No Flippies--Just Cheap Plastic Caps
Holding Down Some Really Cheap Betting Coins. |
Books:
If you want to learn American Mah-Jongg, Sandberg's book below comes highly recommended. It includes a National Mah Jong League score card from 2004, which is fine for learning and playing the game. If you want to be current, you will need the NMJL for 2011 (or what ever year in the future) score card in addition to Sandberg's book. Cards are available at NMJL link below or Amazon. If you want to learn both American and Chinese Official rules, get Sloper's book. If you simply want to play a simple casual game of traditional mahjong with the minimal emphasis on fancy hands, don't bother with either book, go to the Hong Kong Mahjong Rules and Scoring link below.
Beginners Guide To American Mah Jongg: How To Play The Game & Win. By Elaine Sandberg
The Red Dragon & The West Wind: The Winning Guide to Official Chinese & American Mah-Jongg. By Tom Sloper
Links:
Note: Some of the links below may offer on-line Mahjong games. I know nothing about these games and offer no recommendations either way. I would advise caution regarding any on line game. My interest in mahjong is limited to non-computer play.
Lest you think me guilty of ethnic stereotyping, here is a museum display commemorating mahjong’s contribution to American Jewish heritage.
Project Mah Jongg
Hong Kong Mahjong Rules And Scoring:
Mahjong Time, Hong Kong Mahjong Rules
American style mah jongg resources, score cards, replacement tiles, and new sets:
National Mah Jongg League
Wright Patterson Rules. Mahjong can be as big as a country like China or the US or as small as an officer's spouse's club on an air force base in Ohio.
Wright Patterson Officer's Spouse's Club, Mah Jongg.
For a vast collection of information on mahjong try the Sloperama Mah Jongg FAQ. Be patient, the site is a hodge podge that looks like a tornado hit it, but jewels are hidden within:
Sloperama, Mah Jongg FAQ.
Excellent resource for identifying vintage sets, vast assortment of joker stickers, and replacement tiles. Be sure to click on the Collector Weekly interview, very interesting.
CHarli.org, All Things Mah Jong
Another good resource for identification of vintage sets and vintage set sales:
Mah Jong Mah Jong.com
Reasonably priced modern sets with good quality and accessories. NOTE! YMI is a seller on Amazon. But not all the products are available on Amazon. Check Amazon first for a product, you may get free shipping (super saver) or more reasonable shipping. YMI shipping from this website is pricey.
Yellow Mountain Imports, Mahjong
Mahjong For The Cheap: If you don't mind keeping your tiles in a shoe box, raiding the monopoly set for dice, and not using racks, you can be mahjonging for $21.00 + S&H. All you get is the tiles, and really other than dice (available every where for next to nothing) it is all you need. Use the Hong Kong rules in the link above and you are all set.
Yellow Mountain Imports At Amazon: Replacement Tiles
Mahjong For The Very Cheap: Want to mahjong for a third of the cost of the tiles above go with Yellow Mountain Imports Mahjong Cards for $7.00 (same as pictured above). Very portable.
Yellow Mountain Imports At Amazon, Mahjong Playing Cards
Mahjong sets, tiles, accessories. The have a really cool set of enameled betting coins that I was to get for the new set:
Where The Winds Blow
EDIT 9-19-11: Here is a great resource for identifying old sets. See the museum. You can also order missing tiles from this site. See the tile replacement catalog:
Mahjongtiles.com
Image Credits:
Japanese Mahjong Wizards.
My Hawaiian Home, Wordless Wednesdays, Mahjong
Ladies Playing Mahjong:
The Kitschy Collector Home of C. Diane Zweig.
Kindle Mahjong Solitaire:
Amazon.com, Mahjong Solitaire
YMI Cards & Mahjong Set:
Yellow Mountain Imports At Amazon.com
All others: Me
