The tiles that bind: How mahjong is bringing generations together

The clacking of mahjong tiles signals the Lunar New Year as much as firecrackers, red envelopes or rice cakes. But what if you never learned the rules of the game from your elders or don’t come from a mahjong-playing tradition?

The pace is fast, the rules are complicated, and the players are often competitive, but it’s more accessible than ever to try your hand. People around the Bay Area are gravitating toward mahjong at brewpubs, bookstores and other public spaces to learn this age-old pastime, which developed in China in the 19th century and spread around the globe in the 20th.

At a recent event at Local Economy in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood, nearly 40 people — mostly women ranging from their 20s to their 80s — gathered for a tutorial and game night led by Oakland-based Nicole Wong, founder of The Mahjong Project, who has been organizing mahjong events.

Some, like 30-year-old Karen Hsu, grew up playing the game of tiles during holidays.
Still, the Fremont-native wants to learn more about the traditions and to find out if other styles were different from the Taiwanese variety her father taught her. And she brought a friend, 31-year-old Alliana Madrid, a complete newbie.

“I never heard of it. I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico, so this was never in my field,” says Madrid, adding, “Now I’m hooked!”

Jessica Waggoner grew up watching her grandmother in Florida play with other older women.

“They always had a group going. I was not allowed. I was a child,” Waggoner says. “It was like the adults were playing. They were serious. And also, it was a sisterhood thing. They had their generation, and I wasn’t of their generation. They weren’t teaching us either.”

Across different ages and cultural backgrounds, a common theme emerges. Whether in Hong Kong, New York or Boca Raton, many mahjong aficionados didn’t pass the skills down to their children or grandchildren.

But it’s never too late to learn. In her 80s, Yvonne Leong — with her salt-and-pepper bob, wire-rimmed glasses and puffer jacket — looks like she could be the mother or grandmother of many of her tablemates. She, too, is relatively new to the game.

Leong admits it took her a long time to come around. Her reasons for attending the game night sound like those of women decades younger: Mahjong was something her elders didn’t share with her.

She recalls her childhood impressions of the game, saying,  “I didn’t like the clacking, the noise and that they’re not paying attention to me. And I didn’t like the fact that we had to sit all day long.”

Leong credits her daughter, with whom she lives in Marin County, for encouraging her to learn how to play. The pair started by attending a game night at Mamahuhu restaurant in San Francisco’s Richmond District.

“At that time, I was ready to settle down, and I think it’s time to learn,” Leong says, explaining that she picked up the basics from fellow players. “They weren’t teachers, but they were playing with us, and she was really inspirational. So the two of us learned together.”

Now, Leong is known as a regular at local mahjong gatherings around San Francisco and Oakland. While she considers herself an intermediate player, others regard her as an expert. She breaks from the interview when a novice player asks her, “So you should ‘pung!’ right?”

“She can’t pick it. She can’t take it,” Leong advises her tablemate.

Something that once was a symbol of generational gatekeeping has now become a way of keeping herself mentally fit.

“I love it. I think that I’m now at the point that I need to stimulate my brain, and I think it’s such a good exercise to get my brain working. And I just love it. I say that I’m addicted, and we’re not paying for money, and it’s just great for my brain,” gushes Leong.

Anecdotes like these are the reason Wong felt compelled to start documenting mahjong traditions. She knew she already had some insights into the game that were rare among her millennial peers.

After graduating from college in 2009, Wong spent a month living with her grandparents, who were part of the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand, where she was born before immigrating to Southern California as a child.

Wong and her grandparents would regularly break out the tiles every Sunday. However, she suspected that her personal experience was just the tip of the iceberg.

“What my family plays is referred to by Mahjong experts as a classical Chinese style, or old style, is what my parents called it,” Wong explains. “It’s like an older style of playing.”

Sometimes compared to the card game rummy, mahjong is played by four people, who vie to collect certain groupings of tiles over the course of four rounds, called “winds.” Games can take all night to complete, and historically cash is often been at stake.

Then, after the competitive mahjong maneuvering in the 2018 hit movie “Crazy Rich Asians” brought the game to pop culture consciousness, Wong began organizing local mahjong gatherings in the Bay Area, leading her to write a book, “Mahjong: House Rules From Across the Asian Diaspora” (Hardie Grant Books, $25), published in 2025.

Participants often come from various backgrounds, playing different styles of mahjong, such as Taiwanese, Filipino, Singaporean and American (commonly associated with Jewish communities), which — unlike other the styles — uses a card that is issued annually to set the winning hands for each year. The American mahjong cards can be ordered online through The Mahjong Line or the National Mah Jongg League, a New York organization which has been meeting annually since the 1930s.

One woman, Kimberly Chin of Oakland, has brought a cracked leather case filled bearing a faded label from a shop in New York Chinatown. Inside, it’s filled with yellowing tiles and strangely, empty prescription medicine bottles. The set belonged to her grandmother, although as a youngster Chin was rarely invited to the table.

“I think I played maybe once or twice to kind of learn, but I was not fast enough to play with my grandmother,” Chin recalls. “She did not really have the patience, so she wanted to play with people who knew how to play and were fast. And she would even yell at my aunts for not playing fast enough.”

And with many people celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Horse on the lunar calendar soon, there are signs of the game in many places, including libraries and office breakrooms. Mahjong sets and plush pillows shaped like tiles have been spotted at Bay Area Costco stores.

“For my family, I think it’s associated with holidays, but that’s when our families are together, so over Thanksgiving or Christmas, those are probably the biggest ones, or if we go on vacation together, or something like Lunar New Year,” Wong says.

The Year of the Fire Horse comes galloping in on Feb. 17, ushering in fresh starts and rapid change, a perfect time to this age-old game.

“We are on our phones a lot, and it’s an opportunity to not be on your phone and to be doing something very tactile and very sensory,” Wong says. “There’s something to it that I think people are missing. And so it feels good.”

Details: Learn more about Nicole Wong and The Mahjong Project at themahjongproject.com.

Where to play mahjong in the Bay Area

The Mahjong Project, Oakland and San Francisco: Nicole Wong’s group host regular pop-ups. The next two are scheduled for 3-8 p.m. March 1 at the Lantern Festival at Oakland Chinatown’s Pacific Renaissance Plaza, 388 Ninth St., and March 5 at “ThursDates at OMCA” at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland; themahjongproject.com/events.

San Jose Public Library: “Mahjong for Beginners,” a class teaching Chinese Mahjong to seniors, takes place 1-2:30 p.m. March 3 at Berryessa Branch Library, 3355 Noble Ave., San Jose: sjpl.bibliocommons.com/events/.

Match Point Brewing, Albany: The brewery’s “Lunar New Year Celebration” with mahjong takes place Feb. 15 and 16 at 745 San Pablo Ave., Albany; matchpointbrewing.com/events/.

Secret Mahjong Society, San Jose and San Francisco: The next event takes place at 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at Aura Kitchen & Bar, 389 First St., San Jose; follow the group on Instagram for future events, instagram.com/smahjongs.

13 Orphans, Oakland: This mahjong den and speakeasy located in Baba’s House snack shop is open 6-10 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays at 410 15th St., Oakland; thisisbabashouse.com/pages/13-orphans.

Ferry Building, San Francisco: “Mahjong Meetup” takes place 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays inside the Ferry Building, across from Delica, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco; ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/events.

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco: The Mahjong Movement’s “Mahjong at the Museum” — featuring teachers, background music and snacks including Pocky, hawthorn berry, and White Rabbit sweets — takes place every 10 a.m.-4 p.m. every second Sunday at the museum’s Bogart Court; instagram.com/mahjongmovement. The new “Mahjong & Mocktails” series takes place 5-8 p.m. Thursdays, including Feb. 19 and Feb. 26, at the Bogart and Bowes courts, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco. Museum admission ranges from $14-$20; calendar.asianart.org.