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Thread: Mahjong

  1. #1
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    Mahjong

    I bought a Mahjong set today. It turns out it is Hong Kong Old Style Mahjong (no bonus tiles). My friend Helen and I are trying to get two more people to join us for a game tonight.
    Simon McNeil
    ___________________________________________

    Be on the lookout for the Black Trillium, a post-apocalyptic wuxia novel released by Brain Lag Publishing available in all major online booksellers now.
    Visit me at Simon McNeil - the Blog for thoughts on books and stuff.

  2. #2
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    So it turns out that I'm pretty good at this game... for a rank amateur anyway. The people I was playing with were:

    1: Helen who played a long time ago but forgot the rules and has trouble reading Chinese numbers.

    2: A friend of ours who had watched family members play before but had never played himself.

    3: A student of ours who had played a little with her friends.

    So not world-class competition by any means but I still rocked them.
    Simon McNeil
    ___________________________________________

    Be on the lookout for the Black Trillium, a post-apocalyptic wuxia novel released by Brain Lag Publishing available in all major online booksellers now.
    Visit me at Simon McNeil - the Blog for thoughts on books and stuff.

  3. #3
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    Played since I was about five. Reckon that's why I can remember kanji relatively easily compared to many other gaijin. Generally do OK, and some of my happiest memories are from playing as a kid at my grandmother's house with an antique ivory and bamboo set.

    Incidentally the sets I grew up with have two sets of bonus tiles (pretties) and the set I just got for my birthday from my gf has too, but that seems to be short of tiles so I think I should Google the Japanese rules (it didn't come with any!)!

  4. #4
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    Other than bonus tiles there should be:

    4 sets of 4 - winds
    3 sets of 4 - "dragons" (white, red, green)
    4 each 1-9 Characters, bamboo, dots
    Simon McNeil
    ___________________________________________

    Be on the lookout for the Black Trillium, a post-apocalyptic wuxia novel released by Brain Lag Publishing available in all major online booksellers now.
    Visit me at Simon McNeil - the Blog for thoughts on books and stuff.

  5. #5
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    I played for the first time the other night with Mat. Highly recommend this game to anyone, it's great fun!

    Mat, we must have a mahjong night sometime soon after I get back.

  6. #6
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    If you guys ever get over here to Shanxi... say for a throwdown in September... we'll have to play a game of Mahjong. Baji Omar do you play?
    Simon McNeil
    ___________________________________________

    Be on the lookout for the Black Trillium, a post-apocalyptic wuxia novel released by Brain Lag Publishing available in all major online booksellers now.
    Visit me at Simon McNeil - the Blog for thoughts on books and stuff.

  7. #7
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    Get your mahj on!

    Seems like this gets some attention every once in a while in American pop culture. Here it comes again...
    Mah-jongg catching on with young set
    Kellie Ell, Special to The Chronicle
    Monday, October 24, 2011

    Game night in Sara Linden's Potrero Hill apartment starts off with food and wine.

    "But not too much wine," Linden says with a shy smile. "Or else you won't win."

    There is talk of work and books until Linden declares, "It's time to get your mahj on!"

    A few minutes later, the group is gathered around the dining room table, paired in teams of twos with their poker faces on. The only sound is the plastic tile pieces being passed between players.

    "I've got dots and cracks," says real estate broker Keith Brown, as everyone chuckles. "Consecutive crack. Now that's a party!"

    Linden, 32, quickly gets down to the task of teaching nine participants the ancient Chinese game of mah-jongg. In addition to Brown, the group includes lawyers, nurses and a photographer.

    After dreaming for five years of turning mah-jongg into a full-time business, last spring Linden took the leap and is now "building a tribe" of young people who play.

    Not just for grandma

    "It's catching on," Linden says of what she calls the new Gen X mahj renaissance. "It's an excuse to unplug, see your friends once a month. I'm trying to convince people that mah-jongg is not just for their grandma."

    Linden, a Scottsdale, Ariz., native who wears a mah-jongg-tile bracelet, picked up the game as a teenager after reading "The Joy Luck Club" and received her first mah-jongg set as a college graduation present. For the past decade, the former medical sales rep has been traveling the country, playing the game and teaching others along the way. Recently, about 25 players from her Mahj Club, both young and old, had their first Mahj-a-thon to raise funds for a local charity.

    Mah-jongg (the spelling varies depending on the country and culture) is similar to gin rummy, but uses up to 152 domino-size tiles instead of cards. Four players get thirteen tiles each and take turns picking and discarding tiles until a player obtains the 14th tile needed to establish a specific hand.

    The table game originated in China, and while there is no clear document of when, records show it probably dates as far back as Confucius. Mah-jongg started to spread to other countries near the turn of the 20th century as Westerners in China began to export the game.

    It became especially popular during the 1920s in Jewish families, probably because many lived on Manhattan's Lower East Side next to Chinatown. In 1937, a group of Jewish women in New York created the National Mah Jongg League, helping to standardize the game and interweave the two cultures. Today, the league is made up of more than 350,000 members. In 1999, the American Mah-jongg Association was formed, hosting tournaments all over North America.

    Linden is one of many spreading mah-jongg fever in the Bay Area. In the East Bay, Toby Salk hosts weekly multigenerational classes for beginners in a North Berkeley cottage. Sometimes, Linden stops by to help with instruction - or just to play.

    The duo met after Linden saw a flyer advertising Salk's classes at Afikomen, a contemporary Judaic gift shop in Berkeley.

    "I was expecting my grandma," says Salk, of the first time they met. "Some short, older Jewish woman. Then I met her," she says mimicking how her jaw fell open. "I think it's always been thought of as an old Jewish lady game. But that's changing."

    Show-and-tell

    On a recent Wednesday night, as neophytes ranging in age from 29 to 85 shuffle into the cottage, Salk does a show-and-tell of the mah-jongg sets she's collected throughout the years.

    "This is ridiculous fun!" says Robin Brooks, 58, a psychotherapist in Oakland's Rockridge, who describes herself as an "L.A. Jew." Adopted and raised Jewish, she says mah-jongg is a "playful kind of way to connect with others without the religion, politics and mishegoss."

    In the era of Facebook friends, mah-jongg offers an opportunity for face-to-face meetings - and combat.

    "There are a million different rules," depending on the personal style of who is playing and where, according to Salk. The New York native insists you don't have to know the Chinese characters on the tiles to play, and those Internet mah-jongg games have "nothing to do with what we're doing."

    Despite the fact that everyone in her family played, Salk didn't learn until her late 20s, after moving west 35 years ago. Her 95-year-old mother still plays. Three years ago, after being laid off from a "very serious corporate job" as the director of creative services for the Sharper Image stores, she decided to pursue teaching mah-jongg as a profession.
    'Hard hands'

    At the end of the lesson, Salk packs up her car with her mahj sets. "You've got to be sharp on the table. You have to keep up. I like playing very fast, going for the hard hands." And she's off, in her white Mazda mini-convertible.

    On Wednesday afternoons, Linden can be found in the halls of San Francisco's Jewish Community Center, where there's a lot of "shushing" if anyone dares speak too loud. With change purses out and playing cards set firmly on the table, these women are here for some serious mahj action.

    Linden, who is practicing for an upcoming tournament in Las Vegas, is by far the youngest at the table. Some of the women are pushing 90, but they've scolded Linden more than once for being too slow.

    "It keeps you on your feet. It keeps you crazy," Linden says. Apparently, her time with the veterans is paying off. "I've been keeping up with the bubbies at the temple. Now I can hang."

    Learn to play: Find Sara Linden's San Francisco Mahj Club classes and events on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail sara@mahjclub.com. For Toby Salk's classes, go to bit.ly/nx5XQz.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by SimonM View Post
    I bought a Mahjong set today. It turns out it is Hong Kong Old Style Mahjong (no bonus tiles). My friend Helen and I are trying to get two more people to join us for a game tonight.
    Mahjong is chinese for swinging?
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  9. #9
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    ttt 4 2015!

    Wife ‘killed friend who got husband addicted to mahjong’
    Source: Shanghai Daily | March 2, 2015, Monday

    A 47-YEAR-OLD woman has been prosecuted for allegedly fatally stabbing her husband’s gambling buddy, People’s Procuratorate of Pudong New Area announced over the weekend.

    The woman, surnamed Zhang, is said to have blamed the victim, surnamed Ren, for getting her husband addicted to mahjong, and for covering up for him when she would try to get her husband to come back home. According to prosecutors, Zhang stabbed Ren in his left armpit on October 23 last year, after he refused to help her find her husband.
    Wonder how the husband feels about this. You think he still plays?
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #10
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    another random ttt for this thread

    I keep thinking I need to do some sort of article on mahjong, but have never been able to make a solid tie to martial arts.

    I remember playing it a lot with at family gatherings when I was a child, so perhaps it's a personal sentimental attachment.

    'Gambler who lost at mahjong killed winner’
    By Ke Jiayun | May 5, 2015, Tuesday

    A GAMBLER beat a man to death with a brick and stole back money he had earlier lost to him, prosecutors in Songjiang District claimed yesterday.

    The accused, an unemployed man surnamed Shen, has been arrested for murder and robbery.

    According to prosecutors, Shen withdrew 2,000 yuan (US$322) on September 11 last year to gamble on mahjong but lost most of the cash.

    Shen is said to have followed a man, surnamed Wu, who had won the money from him and asked for a lift on his moped.

    Wu gave him a lift but on the journey Shen attacked him, striking him repeatedly on the head, it is claimed.

    Shen allegedly took 2,000 yuan and a gold chain from Wu’s body, before dumping the body, along with Wu’s cellphone and moped, in a river.

    After having a bath at home, Shen left his bloodstained clothes in a garbage site, it is claimed.

    Wu’s body was soon discovered and police targeted Shen as the suspect after studying surveillance video.

    Initially, Shen denied involvement but confessed when police found his blood on the brick and discovered his bloodstained clothes, according to prosecutors.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  11. #11
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    hand carving Mahjong tiles

    When people talk about being 'traditional', well, this is tradition incarnate.

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    When people talk about being 'traditional', well, this is tradition incarnate.
    Dang... tile carving sifu!

  13. #13
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    Mahjong dumplings

    They will bring you good fortune! Food lover makes dumplings that look like mahjong tiles

    One man in China has put a creative spin on a traditional dessert dumplings eaten in winter
    The food is typically enjoyed on the Lantern Festival at the end of Lunar New Year for good luck
    Game lovers joked that people might eat the real mahjong tiles by mistake if they play while eating

    By TIFFANY LO FOR MAILONLINE
    PUBLISHED: 06:29 EST, 10 February 2017 | UPDATED: 06:30 EST, 10 February 2017

    Food plays an important part in Chinese culture and different dishes are dedicated to different festivals.

    A man from east China has put a creative spin on the traditional Chinese dessert dumplings, which are eaten on the last day of Lunar New Year celebrations in hope of good fortune.

    Web users have been amazed by the pictures of his lucky food which are shaped after mahjong tiles, a popular game in China usually played by four people.


    Tasteful game! A man in China has shared pictures of innovative dumplings which look like tiles of a traditional game


    Vivid: The mahjong dumplings (right) look so real that people have joked that game players might mix the two by mistake


    Got a sweet tooth? The dumplings are filled with red bean paste, like the ordinary sweet dumplings found in Chinese stores

    According to People’s Daily Online, the images have attracted great attention on the Chinese social media because the Lantern Festival, the occasion to eat these dumplings, will fall on this Saturday.

    Lantern Festival, also known as Yuan Xiao Jie, is an event characterised by its iconic red Chinese lanterns. The festival marks the first full moon in a Lunar New Year.

    Traditionally, the festival also signals the end of a two-week-long Lunar New Year celebrations.

    Normally, sweet dumplings eaten on the day are shaped like a ball, a reminiscent of the roundness of a full moon. The sweet dumplings are made of glutinous rice flour with various fillings such as sesame paste and red bean paste.

    The food lover's mahjong dumplings, however, are decorated with dots, strokes and Chinese characters, just like the tiles used in the game.


    Quick and easy: Shaped in a mold, the sweet dumplings can be made with glutinous rice flour, jam and red bean paste


    Mahjong lovers commented on social media that these colourful dumplings might bring extra luck to the diners


    Time to make your own! Mahjong dumplings can be made easily at home, with a simple recipe and few equipment

    Mahjong lovers joked that the sweet dumplings will bring them luck. However, some are concerned that people might eat the real mahjong tiles by mistake if they have the food while playing the game.

    Web user 'New Hao' said: 'What if people play pranks on the others and they eat the real tiles?'

    According to China Daily, mahjong dumpling first appeared in China in 2015 at a one hotpot restaurant, called 'BaShu LongMen' in Shanghai. The dumplings come in a portion of four, available in peanut paste and black sesame paste and cost six yuan (70p) per bowl.

    STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE: HOW TO MAKE MAHJONG DUMPLINGS
    Ingredients: Mahjong tiles baking mold, food colouring or jam, glutinous rice flour and red bean paste

    Mix glutinous rice flour and water to make a dough
    Reshape the dough to a long stick and cut them into small pieces
    Take a small piece of dough, flatten it with hands and place the red bean paste in the middle
    Place the mixture into a mahjong tiles baking mold
    Decorate the characters with food colouring or jam using an icing decorating pen
    144 tiles in a set. That's a lot of dumplings if they make them all.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  14. #14
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    Next article will be about lead and chromium based pigments in the ink on those dumplings.

  15. #15
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    Another facebook vid

    Trending in China

    March 29 at 6:09am ·
    ..
    Playing Mahjong turns out to be a sport. #VideofromChina
    You'll have to follow the link to see what this is all about.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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