The game of mahjong. It was never something that piqued my interest and the most experience I had with it was watching Rachel and Eleanor toss some white and green tiles around while watching Crazy Rich Asians. I had spent a good majority of my life never knowing how to play the game, and I was living fine without it. It wasn’t until one of my close family friends came back from her first semester of college last year, requesting to be taught the game of mahjong because everyone else from college already knew how to play it. Little did I know, one person’s curiosity marked the beginning of a new tradition.
Like everyone else, I had high hopes for 2020. I would graduate from high school and embark on a tour through Asian before my hectic college years began. However, that was not the case, and instead of sitting in airport lounges, I spent most of my time sitting in my room. I don’t remember how it started, but after dinner one night, someone pulled out a deck of cards. At first, the games only consisted of the games we learned in elementary school: Spoons, Goldfish, and Egyptian Rat Screw. Not ones to hold back, our parents also taught us card games they played when they were younger, Chinese Poker being one of them. I had only heard of the game before, but this game took more skill than the other card games we were already playing. Winning a game of Chinese Poker felt more satisfying, smiling as you were dealt certain cards and strategizing your moves. It didn’t matter if you were a middle schooler, college freshman or working parent. In the game of Chinese Poker, everyone was just a player and all traces of civility went out the door. During the summer months, every weekend dinner with friends were filled with Chinese Poker games that lasted well into the night.
Playing mahjong never left our minds. While the summer nights were filled with games of “ChiPo,” we decided we needed an upgrade for the winter break. Always the one to splurge, my mom came back from the Asian supermarket one night with a set of mahjong in one hand and a table made especially for mahjong in the other. Our parents claimed they forgot how to play, but as soon as the tiles were set up, their hands automatically started to throw tiles here and there, while screaming “Chi!” and “Pong!” At first, the tiles made no sense to me. I would get confused between the circles, flowers and Chinese characters. My dad would flutter from player to player, telling which tiles to keep and which tiles to throw out. He was basically playing the game all by himself. But, pretty soon, as we all started to understand better and rejoice in the feeling of winning, we forgot all about the card game we learned during the summer and mahjong became our new pastime. Everyone rushed to finish dinner in order to claim one of the four coveted seats around the mahjong table. Every week, both the children and the adults would look forward to the weekends, when we would all gather to play together. (In order to prevent mahjong addiction, which is a real thing, we set a rule to never play on the weekdays.) Now as Lunar New Year is approaching, we already made plans to buy another set of tiles to accommodate everyone and play well into the next day.
Although our annual summer vacations did not happen, we unexpectedly began the start of a new tradition. After dinners, everyone would escape into their own devices, but now, it was rare we respond to our notifications while playing a round of mahjong together. Mahjong also managed to bring all of us closer than before. They used to skip classes to play a round of mahjong with their friends, but now, they spend hours playing mahjong with their children. When there seemed to be more than enough time in the world, now it seems that quarantine was too short. One person’s curiosity and the chance of someone opening a new deck of cards have somehow began a new tradition for us and I have a feeling this new tradition would continue for years to come.
