Mahjong Real Life

[Merilyn Mardis]

Iam six. I am an Australian kid running around a Malaysian house during Chinese New Year, foreign languages ringing in my ears, as the adults clicked and clacked the tiles. When they were finished, the other kids and I would build towers and forts out of Mahjong tiles.

I am twenty-three. My grandfather has passed away, and at the wake there is crying, and laughter, and stories, and drinking, and mahjong. I sit at a table, most of the Chinese going right over my head, and play so long that when I stumble to my hotel, the doors are locked, and the nightwatchman is nowhere to be seen. I head back to my grandmothers house and play more Mahjong, and end up sleeping on the floor.

The game is both collective and collaborative. You work together to shuffle the tiles, to build the walls, to deal and distribute the tiles to one another, to manage the space and make everything accessible.

Approximately half of the cards have Chinese characters. Although some of them are easy to guess, others are difficult. My Anglo-Saxon wife is a competent player, but still needs to consult a Chinese cheat sheet. The cards also reflects Chinese sensibilities: one of the suits is bamboo, and the Jade dragon (the green dragon) lurks.

It goes beyond language though. A Chinese way of thinking is encoded in the tiles. The significant tiles are the four winds: North, South, East and West. But in the Chinese pantheon, East is predominant, and then it moves clockwise around the compass: South, West, and then North. But, balance in all things, for, mysteriously, the game flows counter-clockwise around the table.

Everything in the game is balanced, and as the turn moves around, as the winds rotate, everyone and everything moves with a give and take. My turns impact you, which impact your neighbour. There are times when the cards flow, and times when nothing comes to you at all. There is a delicate dance, a circular balance of yin and yang around the table.

Like the Chinese, Mahjong is frequently adaptable, and there are different flavours and dialects of Mahjong. You can play Mahjong with British expatriates from Hong Kong, in the sweltering heat in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur or Manila. You could join The National Mah Jongg League, an American Jewish organisation, and play in their tournaments. You would play it at weddings, play it at funerals, and definitely at Chinese New Year.

Although the game is the same, it is coloured by different special hands and different scoring. Hong Kong style rules are more flashy and flamboyant. There are more special hands, and the scoring leads you to crafting beautiful and elegant hands that score exponentially. Winner takes all.

My grandmother is ninety-two. She is Madame Chew Gin Kee. In a room where almost everyone has more letters after their name than in their name (our last name is very short), my illiterate, uneducated, grandmother might still be the sharpest person in the room at 92.

With a magnificent set of tiles before me, and eager to press for an even grander finishing hand, I carelessly (and needlessly) throw away a tile that gives the game away to my brother. My grandmother then spends at least ten minutes lecturing me about being too greedy, and how I should have been more careful. She probably thinks I am profligate and irresponsible in real life.

The night before, we had heard about her past, about struggling through difficult jobs and difficult times, working multiple jobs with small children, and raising ten (TEN!) children. These days, she is supported by children and grandchildren who are, by and large, wealthy professionals. She lives with all her worldly cares taken care of. Nevertheless, a lifestyle of earnest endeavour means she can never sit still. She sends away any maid we ever hire. She still wakes at daybreak, and cooks and bakes, mends and makes, scrimps and saves, continuing a lifestyle of frugality, and eschewing extravagance.

Me, I play recklessly. I win big, but lose big. Patience is not, and never will be my strong suit. So I sit, overanalyse, and then shrug and make a gut decision. More often than not, it is a careless move. Nevertheless, my cards are meticulously ordered, because I have systems to keep my life from descending into excessive chaos. In the game, as in life, I try not to leave a trail of destruction.

Mahjong is worth your time. Find a friend who has a Mahjong set, and ask them to teach you how to play. Sit around and drink some tea. Play and talk. Mahjong is an experience, not just a game. Chinese New Year is the best time to experience it.

Today's replay review will be a little different - I'll be walking through one of my own recent games and providing commentary on my own choices and thought processes. You can view the replay for yourself here.

There is a common perception among certain circles that those that primarily (or exclusively) play mahjong on web clients such as Tenhou, Mahjong Soul, or Sega MJ, whether by choice or lack thereof, are somehow of a lesser breed than those who are fortunate enough to be able to play mahjong with real tiles. There are a number of reasons behind this belief, and some of them are even valid to a degree, but ultimately such elitism is completely unwarranted. Here's why - and strap yourself in, this is going to be a long ride.

Today's replay review was requested by eggcage, who was 1-kyuu at the time. The review is brought to you by Corak, Tenhou 7d and runner-up in the Mahjong Soul Catfood Bowl Tournament. You can view the replay yourself here.

What comes to your mind when you think of Buddhism? Bald guys meditating in faraway temples deep in the mountains? Good! That's an image commonly sold in the west. In this series of articles, I'm taking a closer look at the other side - the more grounded one. The practical one. You know, it's not that big of a deal to follow Buddhist guidelines while living in a serene place, isolated from the society (i.e. "everyday problems") and surrounded by people who are bent on doing the same. The true challenge is to work on your mind the Buddhist way in the midst of everyday life (Mahjong games) while dealing with not-so-compassionate and wise people on daily basis (at the tables).

Our next replay review is something a little different - a houou lobby game from starfire, one of our resident 7d players, and brought to you by Niko and Feng, two of our other resident 7d players. In addition to identifying mistakes, this review will also comment on some finer points that our reviewers feel would be beneficial for tokujou players to pay attention to.

Since publishing our first replay review, we've received lots of requests for more! We're really glad to see people jumping on board. However, in order to avoid cluttering up the front page of the site with nothing but replay reviews, future reviews will be published here so watch that space for updates. In the meantime, please feel free to keep requesting reviews through the request form - players of all levels are welcome!

Today we bring you what will hopefully be the first of many Tenhou replay reviews, performed by our expert panel of wonderful volunteers. If you would like feedback on your games, please fill out this form. We welcome replays from players of any level!

The "Rockies," or Blackrock Hurling Club, are used to making history in Cork, at least, and it continued that tradition when it hosted the first-ever international mahjong tournament in Ireland this past weekend.

On the first morning of the tournament, outside on the pitches, an underage hurling championship was taking place. A lone bagpiper led the juvenile teams out. Back at the mahjong tables, the athletes hardly looked up. The room was hushed.

To the untrained eye, mahjong looks complicated. It has a Scrabble feel to it as players go into battle with 132 tiles. The goal is to rack up points across consecutive games. Essentially, mahjong is about playing the long game.

While many people might be familiar with mahjong from the app games on their smartphones, Conor Mullin from Belfast, president of All-Ireland Mahjong, told me that the board game is not at all like the app version, where you simply try to create matching pairs. (Conor said more than one player has turned up in real-life mahjong meetups expecting to play a simple game of matching.)

When I lived in Japan and popped over to Osaka, depending on where I went to eat and drink, I would often see dingy, smoke-filled restaurants where the food and drink were cheap and cheerful, filled with older men battling it out at the mahjong tables. Although it originated in China, the Japanese version, also called riichi mahjong, is the most popular board game in Japan.

"Foreign sports," as anything that wasn't a GAA sport, was once labeled, have a firm home in Blackrock: throughout the winter months, the Cork Renegades baseball team trains at the hurling club. Simon explained that Seiko Hayase, a Renegade who also plays mahjong, helped him land the hurling club as the venue for the first All-Ireland tournament. The club, he said, was very accommodating.

And with that, a timer went off, signaling the end of another game in the morning session, giving players a chance to get up and mingle and get to know each other before they would return to battle over the mahjong table.

The \\\"Rockies,\\\" or Blackrock Hurling Club, are used to making history in Cork, at least, and it continued that tradition when it hosted the first-ever international mahjong tournament in Ireland this past weekend.

\u201CIt\u2019s about skill, but there\u2019s also a great deal of luck involved too,\u201D he told me quietly while keeping an eye on a timer ticking away on a computer. In front of us, a table was laden with crisps, tea, coffee, sparkling and still water. Ahead of them was a long, long day of games.

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