Mahjong is one of the first English language books to break down classic Chinese Mahjong.
Readers learn game setup, rules, common hands, strategy, and scoring through beautiful illustrations and photography, but the book also showcases mahjong culture, past and present, through essays and vignettes on the history, design elements, and communities that have been built around mahjong – and how to build your own.
A bonus essay breaks down the mahjong hands in the pivotal scene from the 2018 hit film Crazy Rich Asians, and the author’s own family history and anecdotes are sprinkled throughout to tell a story of diaspora through mahjong (one that’s full of common shared experiences with the clacking of tiles as its soundtrack).
With Mahjong as your guide, date your inherited or thrifted sets, identify the version you learned to play, refresh your memory of the rules or learn them for the first time, and start to write your own house rules – just don’t forget the snacks.
About the Author
Nicole Wong is a writer and audio producer based in Oakland, California. She started The Mahjong Project in 2019 - part instructional guide, part oral history project, to document her family's house rules and place them in the broader history and diaspora of the game itself.