Ancient Chinese game of Mahjong gaining new interest in U.S.

FLOSSMOOR, Ill. — Around Vivian Zimmerman’s kitchen table, the tiles move swiftly.

Bams and dots get discarded while dragons and jokers are scooped up.

As seasoned veterans, the four mahjong players and longtime friends at her table can converse energetically while strategizing their next move.

Zimmerman has been playing the game of luck and skill for 38 years.

“A group of about 10 of us women were pregnant at the time. We weren’t working and we were looking for something to do, so we started playing mahjong,” she said.

She loved it so much, she’s kept the playing card from each year (the card changes each year). She recently began teaching the game in her suburban home south of Chicago.

Said to have originated in China centuries ago, mahjong has stood the test of time. It is the No. 1 game in that country today, said Larry Unger, vice president of the National Mah Jongg League in New York.

Though it has been played in the United States since the turn of the 20th century, it recently has experienced a rebirth, Unger said.

The league, which develops each year’s official playing card, mailed out the 2015 cards in time for the April 1 start of the new season.

Interest in mahjong has risen steadily for the past decade, Unger said, but more aggressively in the past few years.

“We’re getting a lot of young people in their 20s and 30s who want to play,” he said. “We say it’s as if we lost one generation 25 years ago and are now gaining a new one.”

Unger estimates there are half-million players in the United States today, most of them women.

“Internationally, it’s mostly men, though it’s hard to give a number. Millions play across China alone,” he said.

Teri Gaby, of Flossmoor, recently was in China.

“I saw people playing this game everywhere — in parks, on the subway,” she said.

Here in the United States, the clickety clack of tiles being rearranged is heard not only in private homes but on cruise ships, in retirement communities and at local libraries — wherever people can gather around a table for a period of time. Though the American version of the game is different from the one the Chinese play, the premise is the same.

Unger attributes the renewed American interest in mahjong to several things: It’s fun, it’s tactile, it draws attention and, mostly, it builds community.

“People are always looking for ways to connect, to come together,” he said. “Mahjong is definitely a comforting thing. It’s a pleasure, really.”

A lot of people, he said, make it a reason to get together regularly.

“Plus, as we get older, we need to find ways to stimulate our brains,” Zimmerman said. “This is stimulating and fun.”

And if you opt to place a small wager on each game — the card suggests values such as 25 cents — you can leave with a few bucks.

Meanwhile, on a different day inside the Tinley Park Public Library, in Chicago’s south suburbs, a dozen women crowd around two tables while longtime players teach newbies the intricacies of strategy.

“It’s kind of like playing cards, only with tiles,” said Nancy Chevlin. “You have to look for patterns.”

Natalie Sims first played last year during a trip to Florida. Gloria Obradovich has a friend in California who plays frequently.

“Before I go out to visit her, I want to know this,” Obradovich said.

As Chevlin and Helene Kaplan explained the rules — a joker can only enhance a suit of at least two tiles — the newcomers asked questions and shared their own stories.

Chevlin said she was introduced to the game when she was first married 57 years ago and living in an ethnic neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side.

“Everybody played mahjong,” she said. “It’s been in my blood ever since.”

Chevlin now plays with seven other women at a friend’s house in Tinley Park every other Wednesday.

The women play while they learn. After several minutes, Marguerite Falloon, of Orland Park, wins or “mahjongs.”

Falloon has been playing for three years.

“It’s not real easy to learn, but if you like numbers and cards, it’s a lot of fun,” she said. “You just have to keep at it.”

Jan Haffner, a retired banker, recently learned the game while she was on vacation in Florida.

“I like this because it’s challenging,” she said. “It makes you think. You have to pay attention to what you’re looking at, combining colors and suits.”

Last year, she called the Tinley library to see if it offered any playing time or space.

Library spokeswoman Sue Bailey said Haffner was hardly alone in that request.

“We’ve been getting requests for a place to play and someone to teach it,” she said.

Bailey had difficulty finding a teacher so she offered an open house-type gathering.

Mary Johnson, head of public services at the Palos Heights Public Library, has had a similar dilemma — lots of requests to play but no one to teach it.

“There is interest out there,” she said. “But we need teachers.”

Chevlin said the game is so popular on the North Side of Chicago that players can find each year’s playing card at local stores. In the south suburbs, most players order each year’s card online.

Back at Zimmerman’s house, the four players, all educators, take turns discarding and swapping tiles across the playing field, while they build their patterns.

Thirty minutes in and Carmel Alterson, of Flossmoor, announces “mahjong.”

She shows the others how the winning pattern on her rack matches one of the many on the playing card.

The women cheer and get the set ready for another round.

The get-togethers are as much about relationship building as they are about winning, said Alterson, who moved to the United States from London many years ago.

“That’s really what it’s about,” she said. “Getting together and having a good time.”