I have a confession: I’ve only “played” mahjong once, and I put that word in quotation marks because we didn’t even finish a whole game. I was in my late 30s, and my white mother-in-law was trying to teach me. Mahjong was not a part of my childhood — my parents don’t even know how to play. Their families equated the game with gambling, which was frowned upon in their households.
But over the last year, the desire to try again resurfaced. I always thought the game was intriguing, and learning to play feels like an avenue to my Chinese culture, even if the game has no personal ties. Turns out I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Adults in their early 20s through early 40s are among the trending demographic learning to play mahjong for the first time, along with “people who are getting more curious about their cultural heritage, specifically for the Asian diaspora,” says Nicole Wong, the author of “Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora,” who is based in Oakland, California. “There is this exciting thing happening where it’s becoming more common for people to care about their heritage and want to know about their identity — and not just in an academic way, but in a way of life, like going to pop-ups that are Asian American–inspired, or going to specialty stores that stock Asian goods.”
She also has noticed a resurgence in mahjong since the pandemic, in the wake of anti-Asian violence, and as people are looking for a more structured, purposeful form of socializing.
Wong learned to play when she spent a month post-college with her grandparents in New Zealand. The weekly games were “serious business at Ma and Yeah Yeah’s house,” Wong wrote in her book. “As we played, other sides of my grandparents’ personalities emerged — their cheekiness, their competitive rapport, their smug pride in winning a hand — that cracked a little window into their younger days.”
Upon returning to the States, Wong began playing with…
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