New Year's Day Mah Jongg Party

We welcomed the new year with a Mah Jongg Marathon!  Twelve players gathered at my house for Mah Jongg, wine, and a potluck lunch.
Lately, we've been playing the Chinese version of Mah Jongg, which differs from the American version, the most significant way being no use of the National Mah Jongg League's card of acceptable winning hands. 

Our Chinese Mah Jongg maven is Iris, who is from Hong Kong. She contacted me after she read an article about our efforts to start a public Mah Jongg players group in our local newspaper (see link).
http://www.journalnet.com/news/local/article_659edbac-c734-11df-b644-001cc4c03286.html

Prior to the party, I had fun setting up the tables and making cards that identified places for beginning, middle-skilled, and advanced players. The kitchen was where the beginners sat.

Sabrina coaches beginners Alicia, Donna, and Connie.

Alicia was our youngest "Baby Bird."

Iris, Penelope, Michelle, and Joann got down to business quickly at the advanced players' table in the piano room.

Iris counts fan at the experts' table.

The living room was ready for the middle-skilled players: Betty, Janet, Maggie, and anyone else who was nervous about the speed with which the advanced group played.

 

Two other differences between Chinese and American Mah Jongg are that no Jokers are used in the Chinese version and the scoring of hands is more complex. Despite this, our consensus is that the Chinese version is better, or at least, less stressful to play.


Mah Jongg is definitely experiencing a revival here in the U.S., and people in China are taking note of that fact. In September, I was interviewed by a journalist in China, who sent me a copy of her newspaper article:

When Iris translated the article for me, I learned that the headline reads, "Old Woman Learns Mah Jongg."  This made me laugh, even though an extra 5 years were added to my age--maybe to make me appear even older than I already am?  However, I didn't mind, because I do love the game!

[To see other posts about Mah Jongg, go to the March 2010 archive of this blog.]