Mahjong's magic casts a growing spell

Game attracting more players overseas

After spending most of his life working as a security guard at a state-owned factory, Liang Jianguo took on a role he never imagined.

"I never thought we would host the World Mahjong Championships or that I would travel overseas as a referee," he says.

Liang was head referee at the third World Mahjong Championships in Qianjiang, Chongqing municipality.

On Oct 27 a convoy of police cars shepherding 13 buses carrying the 12 referees, including Liang, and 186 players from 13 countries headed to local government buildings for the championship's opening ceremony.

The 84 overseas players demonstrated their skill and discussed strategy during the championships that also drew 102 domestic competitors.

According to World Mahjong Organization officials, a "steadily growing" number of people outside Asia are also playing the game, and mahjong associations have been organizing national and continental-level tournaments and championships since the 1990s.

"As a healthy, scientific, friendly mind game, mahjong will become more popular and gain wider significance," says Yu Guangyuan, the WMO chairman and a former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in his opening address.

Mahjong has a checkered history in China. Some sources claim the game was devised thousands of years ago by the sage Confucius, while others date its beginnings to the 1880s and 90s. Either way, the game - in which players attempt to collect suits of tiles, similar to Western card games such as bridge or rummy - provokes strong reactions. While devotees praise it as an intellectual pursuit, opponents vilify it as the basest form of gambling.

The perception of a game for unruly gamblers resulted in mahjong being outlawed when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, and it wasn't until the 1980s that it was played openly again. Even now, many view the game with suspicion and enthusiasts are sometimes embarrassed to admit their passion for fear of appearing anti-social.

Western enthusiasm

Pavel Anokhin, a computer programmer from Russia, first heard about mahjong when he read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by the British thriller writer Agatha Christie.

The book, first published in 1926, includes a chapter An Evening at Mahjong, where the game is described as "simple entertainment, very popular in King's Abbot". The characters describe mahjong as a peaceful game, one that won't lead to acrimony with your partners, and discuss whether to shout "Chee" or "Chow" as some Chinese do when picking up discarded tiles.

Intrigued, Anokhin began playing the game himself. "I don't see much difference between mahjong and chess in terms of the level of mental difficulty. I hope more people in Russia will learn the game," says Anokhin. "By playing mahjong, we can learn more about China and its culture," he adds.

Meanwhile, members of the British rock band Pink Floyd were so enamored of the game that they even called one of their songs A Pillow of Winds, a reference to a particular scoring combination.

The European Mahjong Association says more than 500 professional players compete in regular national and intra-continental tournaments, hoping to rise ever higher in the rankings.

The development of mahjong leagues across Europe inspired the associations in Denmark and the Netherlands to propose the establishment of the World Mahjong Organization. Founded in 2005, the WMO has branches in 24 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Almost all the member countries have their own leagues, and four European mahjong championships have been held to date. Moreover, clubs have been mushrooming in major European cities from Amsterdam to Zurich.

Desiree Heemskerk, who organized the Open European Mahjong Championship in 2005 and the Dutch Mahjong Association in 2004, says clubs and tournaments have been opening across the continent since the 1990s.

Europeans taking part in the World Mahjong Championship in Chongqing described the game as a fun mental exercise played simply for enjoyment. For them, gambling does not enter the equation.

Joel Ratsimandresy, a French civil engineer, who took an oath on behalf of all the competitors to play the game in the correct manner, morally and in a spirit of fairness and friendship, may have understated his enthusiasm when he said he is "fond of the game". The 30-year-old plays three times a week, for five hours at a time at clubs in Paris.

Healthy and friendly

Deng Kunming, deputy director of the public security bureau of Qianjiang, who provided security for the opening ceremony of mahjong championship, says the official perception of the game has changed: "After the event, I heard local policemen talking about mahjong's advantages in aiding communication skills. I sensed a change in their attitudes. A healthy mahjong culture in China could also relieve pressure on the police when maintaining social security."

In 1998, the General Administration of Sport of China published the paper Competition Rules of Chinese Mahjong, which prompted many enthusiasts to believe that nationwide leagues might come into existence because an official standard had been established.

However, negative perceptions of the game sparked outrage among the public, many of whom felt the leagues would result in adverse social consequences.

Nowadays, the game is less controversial, although discussions still rage far and wide whenever the media reports the opening of the championships, especially if students from elite institutions such as Tsinghua and Peking universities, are enrolled as competitors.

"The opening-up of China to the outside world has driven the healthy evolution of mahjong over the years. People have rethought the world and their values from a different angle," says Jiang. "However, we still have a long way to go to raise public awareness that mahjong can be a healthy, scientific and friendly mental game."

Chairman Mao Zedong once said the game was one of three treasures China had given the world, the others being Chinese traditional medicine and the classic novel A Dream of Red Mansions.

Both the former sports minister Li Menghua and the former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Yu Guangyuan have stressed the need for promoting mahjong as a force for social good and ensuring that it isn't just seen as a game, like martial arts.

"Anything can be used for good and bad causes and it is up to the government and social groups to direct opinion," says Jiang. "Engaging the younger generation is the key to realizing our goal," he says.

In recent years, a number of competitive clubs have registered with local authorities to promote the game, and young people's participation is "a major force that keeps the clubs running vibrantly".

Business chances

Behind the growing acceptance and popularity, there is a prospective industry that could even match the market value of soccer in China, if unleashed.

The game brought hundreds of players, organizers and entertainers to stay and spend at the most expensive hotel in town, while food and beverage companies set up stalls around the events. More importantly, the local government joined in, too.

Officials from the Qianjiang government have proposed that the WMO should establish a museum and co-found an institute to research Qianjiang's mahjong culture, according to Jiang.

Wu Zhong, head of the Qianjiang district government, says the championships helped to promote tourism in the remote, mountainous southwestern region where infrastructure development has been slow. He points out that highways linking the district with the outside world were only built a few years ago.

He adds that he has no concerns that negative perceptions of the game will tarnish the image of his government: "It's just a game, a leisure pursuit. Healthy culture is a good way of building our brand and encouraging more people to visit Qianjiang."

wanghuazhong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/02/2012 page24)