Mah-Jong (#163; Topic I)

A report in Washington Post 5/26/06, on a group of 6th graders at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington VA playing Mah-Jong during lunch hour, complete with two photographs, is most interesting -- and brings back fond memories. Introduced by their teacher, Sandy Tevelin, at the beginning of each scholastic year, some classes did not seem to care for it, while other classes, including this year's, enjoy it so much that they readily give up their lunch block of 35 minutes to play it. Good for them. While westerners consider Mah-Jong a difficult game to learn, it is not so. In any case, once Mah-Jong rules are learned -- which takes but an hour or two at the most -- one can play the game the rest of one's life; it is, thus, a most cost-effective investment of time, and Ms. Tevelin is entirely correct in stressing this point. In China, youngsters (about the age of Ms. Tevelin's pupils, 10 or 11) learn the game most likely through osmosis -- one can learn how to play by simply observing how grown-ups play. Learning Mah-Jong is a simple 4-step process: (1) differentiate among five suits (A = Amounts; B = Bushels; C = Containers -- each with designs showing numbers 1 through 9; collectively, basic suits; Primes and Winds -- collectively, super suits); (2) undestand the difference between 3 of a sequence (e.g., 4-5-6) and 3 of a kind (7-7-7); (3) appreciate that a 3-of-a-sequence can be formed only with basic suits (since only basic suits have designs showing numbers 1 through 9), and that a 3-of-a-kind can be formed with the use of any of the five suits; and (4) know that a winning hand consists of 4 sets each composed of either a 3-of-a-sequence or a 3-of-a-kind plus a pair (any 2-of-a-kind). That's it. If one can follow (1) through (4) above, one is ready to play. No memorization is needed -- Mah-Jong rules are both simple and unchanging. (The WP story talks about "memorizing", suggesting that the rules being taught by Ms. Tevelin are by the American Mah-Jong Association, which (1) sets rules for play among its members, (2) changes these rules annually, and (3) summarizes these rules on a card for sale at around $10 per card.) I regret to say that these rules are unrecognizable to people from China. I first saw such a game in the 1960s, on the beach of an oceanfront hotel in Miami Beach (I was attending a conference). To set the record straight, I had to wait three decades -- after my retirement, with time on my hands, I wrote The Happy Game of Mah-Jong, published in 1994. Being authentic, it is doing well, thank you.