fishermen, scribes, etc. Though “ordinary,” these people are honored via tiles in Chinese mah jongg. These tiles are worth more in scoring—perhaps a metaphor for a belief in the high worth and value due to every one of us, regardless of our station in life.
Every tile in the mah jongg set has its own symbolism, reflecting the culture, ideals, and spiritual values of a world in which we all participate. These few examples give you an idea of the serious matters the tiles represent. So when you play mah jongg, remember, you are not just playing with arbitrary tiles, but with many symbolic metaphors of life.
Now, a big warm welcome! We’re off to a challenging, exciting adventure in the world of American mah jongg!
Let’s turn our attention to these “metaphors of life,” the first stop on our voyage.
Unraveling the Mystery of the Tiles
When you make your first Mah Jongg, your heart races, your palms sweat, you breathe fast, and your stomach churns. The thrill of victory! A winning smile from ear to ear! It’s a great feeling.
I know you are anxious to play and I don’t blame you. And I know you have many questions. How do you get tiles? Do other players see your tiles? How do you play? How do you make combinations? These are all great questions and if I answered, “You get your tiles from the Wall,” you’d ask “What’s the Wall?”
In order to understand the answers to your questions, you need to first understand the basics of the game—the tiles, how to interpret the Card of Hands, why it is important in the game, how to start a hand, how to select a hand from the card, how to do the Charleston (the what?) and then after all that, how to put everything together to actually play the game and win! As we go from chapter to chapter you will see that the answers to all your questions will be revealed. So let’s put them aside for now and turn our attention to the first fundamental you need to understand the game. There is a summary and a quiz at the end of this chapter that will help you with the material you’ve just learned.
Let’s begin by focusing on the tiles, their functions, and their uses in the game. One thing to note is that while traditional mah jongg sets contain thicker, heavier tiles, the beginner’s set of tiles that accompany this book are instead made of card stock.
In American mah jongg there are five different categories of tiles: Suit tiles, Dragon tiles, Wind tiles, Flower tiles, and Joker tiles—152 tiles in all.
The first group of tiles is called Suits.
Mah jongg has three Suits: Dots, Bams and Craks. Each Suit has tiles numbered 1 through 9. There are four tiles of each number, for a total of 36 tiles in each Suit. All together, there are 108 Suit tiles: 4 x 9 = 36 tiles per Suit, x 3 Suits = 108.
DOTS
The first Suit is called Dot. These are easy to identify because they are images of dots, or circles, or balls. Each Dot tile has a number stamped in the upper left-hand corner, indicating the number of dots on the tile. There is one dot on the 1-Dot, two dots on the 2-Dot and so on, up to 9-Dot. There are four tiles of each numeral—totaling 36 tiles in all.
Dots
| Find one set of Dots (1–9) and place them in front of you. |
BAMS
The next Suit is called Bam (short for bamboo). This Suit is also easy to distinguish because the tiles are predominately green and the images represent bamboo twigs. Like the Dots, these tiles also have numbers stamped in the upper left-hand corner, from 1 to 9, and there are four tiles of each numeral, 36 in all.
But in this Suit, the 1-Bam tile is an image of a bird, not an image of bamboo twigs. It is usually some design variation of a peacock or a crane. In some older sets, the image might be a soaring bird or a sparrow perched on a bamboo stalk. It’s important to recognize that the 1-Bam tile is totally different from the rest of the Bam Suit, as you can see here:
Bams
| Find one set of Bams (1–9) and place them next to the Dot Suit. |
CRAKS
The third Suit is called Crak. It is distinguished by a red Chinese character (which means wan; see page 7) stamped on the bottom half of the tile. You will find the numbers, 1 to 9, stamped on the top part of these tiles as well. Also, on the top half of the tile is the Chinese character for the number that each tile represents. As with the Dots and Bams, there are four tiles of each number, 36 in all.
Craks
| Place one set of Craks (1–9) in front of you, next to the Dots and Bams. |
That takes care of the three Suits: Dots, Bams, and Craks.
The next category of tiles is called Dragons. There are three groups of Dragons: Red Dragons, Green Dragons and Soap Dragons. They are stamped with a dragon-like figure, but often, in older sets, Chinese characters are used to represent the Dragons. Again, there are four tiles of each Dragon, 12 in all.
The Red Dragon is red and it is called Red.
The Green Dragon is green, called Green.
Dragons
The third Dragon used to be called White, because it was a blank tile, symbolically representing the unknown. In some older sets from the 1930s, Whites had a “P” for po, which means white in Chinese, engraved in the upper left-hand corner. It is still a mostly blank tile but now has a small blue border. Today, in American mah jongg, this Dragon is called Soap. (Why? Research hasn’t turned up a definitive answer.) It might be easier to remember if you think of it as a bar of soap.
MATCHING DRAGONS
Even though Dragon tiles are a distinct entity, each Dragon is associated with or matches a different Suit. This phenomenon is called matching Dragon. The Red Dragon matches Crak because of the red symbol on the bottom half of the tile. The Green Dragon
