Chinese New Year celebration (#337; Topic K)

Yesterday was Lunar New Year's eve; one of our fellow residents, the dean of residents of Chinese ethnicity in our retirement community, invited my wife and me to her unit for a game of Mah-Jong and a pot-luck party -- both are traditional events during the Lunar New Year celebration among relatives and close friends. In China, playing Mah-Jong or other games of chance (technically Mah-Jong, not unlike contract bridge, is not a game of chance) by members of different generations was/is? invariably not done -- except during the 3-day Lunar New Year celebration period. My being invited to play Mah-Jong yesterday reminded me of a scene, some 70 years ago, in Shanghai. One night during the Lunar New Year period, my grandmother played banker in a game known as Pai jiu (with 32 tiles, each showing a different combination of two dice (a few are paired), similar to domino). Betting against her were her grandchildren, none older than 10 -- I was the first son of grandmother's first son, thus, the oldest, and I was probably 9. Throwing the dice to decide the sequence of gathering tiles, she would say: "Let me win H.F.'s bet (my Chinese name)." There are 6 betting positions in Pai jiu -- three outright (comparing one's holding with the banker's holding one-on-one) and three hedged positions (one's bet is on two outright positions; if one of these two positions wins but the other loses, it is a draw; for a better to win, both outright positions must win.) I was a conservative player, usually making hedged bets. (To discourage players making hedged bets, only players making outright bets were allowed to handle the tiles. Thus, I usually stood on the edge of the gaming table.) Thus, in effect, my grandmother was saying her hand would be better than two of the three outright positions. I did not mind her saying so, realizing that, deep in her heart, she cared a great deal about her grandchildren. Indeed, the hong bao (red envelope) she gave to each of her grandchildren would be at least 100 times their individual bets on the gaming table. After an hour or two, the game would be over and we would gather around to have lunch or dinner. A joyful gathering that allowed members of different generations to have a good time together. Oh, these are the good old days. Now, of course, my grandmother was long gone; even my wife, my grandmother's granddaughter-in-law, has become a grandmother herself.