The first thing you notice about mahjong is how beautiful it is. The tiles are colorful pieces of art, often made of bamboo, ivory or bone and depicting exquisite images that reveal your hand.
Mahjong is also a musical game. In Chinese it is “the game of the sparrows,” in reference to the chime that fills the room as players shuffle and clink their tiles together in the course of play.
It’s a complex game, one that originated in China in the 19th century based on older tile games. Four players sit around a table, competing against each other to collect and discard tiles to build a winning hand. With 144 tiles to manage, the player needs a deep understanding of rules and strategy to come out on top…