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-Drop into any mahjong meetup and the first thing
you'll notice is the sound.
[tiles clacking and shuffling]
The clickety-clack of the tiles being shuffled, which
can mean only one thing: a game of mahjong
is about to start.
-Arrange things based on family and based on numerical sequence.
That's how I like to do it.
-The goal of the rummy-like game is to build a winning hand by
drawing and discarding tiles.
Winning hands vary depending on the style being played,
but all include groupings of sets and a pair.
- How are you guys doing?
How's the game going?
- This evening, the action is at Kilig,
a Filipino restaurant in the Chinatown
International District.
- It is Mahjong Monday, and this is probably
my third time to be here.
- I was like, "Who's winning?"
- For the past year, owner Melissa Miranda
has been holding the bimonthly gatherings
and filling the restaurant with mostly Asian
or Asian American Millennials and Gen Zers.
-This is my first time playing mahjong, and
I'm on a winning streak.
Yeah, about to be three.
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-Mahjong, it turns out, is attracting a whole
new legion of fans who are embracing the
200-year-old game.
In the U.S., online searches for mahjong clubs are up
almost 4,500% since last year.
The crowded at Kilig play mostly Filipino or Hong
Kong-style mahjong, and for many, it's a cultural thing.
-My family used to play mahjong for all of
the family gatherings, and the noise you hear of the
tiles is something that me and my cousins grew up with.
I don't know, it's just something that's
very nostalgic for me.
-Growing up, I used to watch my aunties and my mom play mahjong,
and they would let the kids watch, but we didn't play.
-Mahjong started in China in the 1800s.
-An American businessman brought it to the United
States in the 1920s, and it went rogue.
It became very popular quite quickly,
but what ended up happening is people were playing
with different rules, different versions.
So in 1937, the National Mahjong League was developed.
A group of women in Manhattan got together and decided to
standardize the game, and they came up with this card.
In order to win American Mahjong, which is played with a
card, not just tiles, you have to fulfill one of the
hands on the card, and then you Mahj, you win.
-Okay, I got Mahj!
-Oh my God!
-Woohoo!
-There are over 40 varieties
of mahjong played globally.
But American mahjong, along with classic Chinese and
Japanese Riichi mahjong, are the main versions
played in the U.S.
Seattle Riichi Mahjong Club meets weekly at various locations
in Seattle and Bellevue.
Today's noon meetup is at Stoup Brewery on Capitol Hill.
-A lot of mahjongs, they're like just kind of you play
the hand and then you're done.
But Japanese, we have points which keep track of like
how well you're doing.
So the games will be longer than a single hand.
There'll be multiple hands.
So there's a bit of a further layer of competition to try to
be first at the end of the game.
-Japanese Riichi is one of the fastest growing variants of
the game in the U.S.
today, having captured the younger,
more competitive and gaming-oriented demographic.
-First time playing Japanese Mahjong, I just wanted
to kind of experience new things and meet new people.
-We saw the meetup for this particular mahjong community
and we wanted to be around like a younger group,
so we decided to learn Japanese Mahjong.
- I think it's a socialization thing.
I mean, all these kids on their devices all the time,
noses in their phones.
So I think it's a really good way for people
to meet other people, be social, use their brains.
- I think it's so fun.
I think it promotes community and strategic thinking,
and it's really like hands-on, just super fun.
- Oh, I love it when I win.
Luckily it happens a lot, yeah.
- It's easy enough to still have a conversation
and socialize, but it's also challenging enough
to still be kind of mentally stimulating and fun.
So that's what I like about it.
- The ancient game of mahjong is the same as it's
been for centuries.
The tiles, the shuffle, the wall, the draw and discard.
And now more people than ever are coming to the table.
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-Watch CityStream Tuesday nights at 7
on the Seattle Channel or find us anytime online
at SeattleChannel.org.
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