Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game that, as of now, is most related to the scene in Crazy Rich Asians (which we’ll discuss later).
According to the National Mahjong League,
[Mahjong] is a fascinating, rummy-like game played with tiles rather than cards. The game originated in China but its exact origins are shrouded in story and myth. Some claim it was the game of Chinese royalty, played in secret to keep the knowledge to themselves. Others claim it was invented by a Chinese General to amuse his troops during long months of battle. More recent investigations point to early versions of this popular tile game appearing as recently as 150 years ago in China as a variant of card games. Whichever story you choose, there is general agreement that the game we play and love originated in China, and popularized in the United States by Joseph Babcock at the beginning of the 20th century.
For information how how to play the game, I suggest watching this video.
There also a few ways to play the game: 1. Buy a Mahjong Set and play with four friends or use Mahjong 13 Tiles, which is available in the App Store (possibly on google play, if so let me know!)
In the game there are four suits.
Each suit has the numbers one through nine excluding the winds, dragons and bonus tiles.
You can play in Mandarin however we always play in Cantonese.
Starting with the Symbol Suit
一 (1) jat1
二 (2) ji6
三 (3) saam1
四 (4) sei3
五 (5) ng5
六 (6) luk6
七 (7) cat1
八 (8) baat3
九 (9) gau2
Now for the wind tiles:
東 (East) dung1
南 (South) naam4
西 (West) sai1
北 (North) bak1
Dragon Tiles:
中 (middle) zung1
發 (wealth) faat3
The phrases “pung”, “chow”, and “kong” are also used.
Pung: when you have 2 of the same time and someone lays down a third. You say this to take their discarded tile to complete a set.
Chow: when you have 2 of a run (ie 1,2 or 5,6) and someone lays down the last tile for your run (1 or 4, 3 or 7) and you claim it to complete your set you will say this
Kong: when you already have a set of 3 (5,5,5) and you get another of the same tile (5) and you claim it to make a set of four
*all the other tiles we play in English (ex: circle, flower, board)
Now back to the part with Crazy Rich Asians.
***TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DONT WANT MILD SPOILERS***
Towards the end of the movie before Rachel leaves Singapore to return home after her boyfriends mother said she would never be good enough to marry her son, they play a game of Mahjong. As they play, Rachel discusses how she understands where the mother is coming from but also how she is wrong. Towards the end of the monologue, Rachel draws a tile, moves it around, puts in her set, and even spins it in her hand for bit then discards it. After which the mother grabs the tile saying, “pung” and wins the game. After which, all the players lay down their sets and it’s revealed that she discarded the piece she needed to win.
There is a lot more meaning to this scene when you have the context of the game with it.
I hope this has been informational and fun for you to read and learn! If you guys have any more questions about Mahjong let me know on the comments!!!
廣東話 & Me 