Mahjong's growing popularity brings people together

A game that was developed in 19th century China is experiencing a huge growth in popularity, including in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The Local caught up with resident Penny Milligan recently with several other women who meet at her home for a weekly afternoon of mahjong.

Milligan learned how to play 15 years ago “from a sweet lady in Florida,” and she loves the social aspect of the game. “You get to sit with some nice ladies for a few hours, and the tactile nature of the tiles is also very interesting. It's a game of skill and it's a game of luck, but mostly I think it's a social game played by people who want to get together in a situation that's perhaps not too serious.”

American Mahjong is played by four players with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols. The goal of the game is to get 14 tiles into four sets and one pair.

The women at the weekly mahjong game play for “pride and money,” laughed Trish Spagnol. Tobi Brockway, a player at another table, said her mother has played mahjong for 75 years. “I told her I would never play mahjong,” she said, “and then I moved here!” It was a pleasure playing the game with her mother after all, she added.

When Milligan was president of the NOTL Social Club she taught members how to play. She knows the game is played in many homes around town, and says often players set up in the cafe at the community centre. Milligan is hosting a tournament in August with five or six tables.

She uses an electronic mahjong table which sorts and deals all of the tiles “so you can play many more games than what you normally might play,” she said. “We have some younger players, we have some older players and we have players that have been playing for a long time.”

Milligan mentioned that sometimes games like this can go through a period “where they kind of die a little bit in terms of popularity, but you know, I'm kind of an apostle for both mahjong and bridge to get people interested in playing,” she says, and also connecting people so they can enjoy the game and enjoy the fellowship.

“We got a little boost to our mahjong community the other day,” she said, when actor Julia Roberts mentioned on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert that she plays a weekly mahjong game. Roberts described the game’s concept as creating “order out of chaos based on random drawing of tiles. It’s sort of like life,” she added. “We try to make a little bit of order out of the chaos of life with random acts of wisdom and kindness.”

“That kind of gave us street cred,” said Milligan, “because now we know cool people, apart from us, play mahjong.”