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♪♪

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-Drop into any mahjong
meetup and the first thing

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you'll notice is the sound.

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[tiles clacking and shuffling]

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The clickety-clack of the
tiles being shuffled, which

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can mean only one thing:
a game of mahjong

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is about to start.

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-Arrange things based on family and
based on numerical sequence.

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That's how I like to do it.

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-The goal of the rummy-like game
is to build a winning hand by

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drawing and discarding tiles.

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Winning hands vary depending
on the style being played,

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but all include groupings
of sets and a pair.

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- How are you guys doing?

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How's the game going?

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- This evening, the
action is at Kilig,

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a Filipino restaurant
in the Chinatown

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International District.

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- It is Mahjong Monday,
and this is probably

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my third time to be here.

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- I was like, "Who's winning?"

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- For the past year,
owner Melissa Miranda

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has been holding the
bimonthly gatherings

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and filling the restaurant
with mostly Asian

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or Asian American
Millennials and Gen Zers.

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-This is my first time
playing mahjong, and

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I'm on a winning streak.

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Yeah, about to be three.

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♪♪

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-Mahjong, it turns out,
is attracting a whole

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new legion of fans
who are embracing the

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200-year-old game.

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In the U.S., online searches
for mahjong clubs are up

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almost 4,500% since last year.

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The crowded at Kilig play
mostly Filipino or Hong

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Kong-style mahjong, and for
many, it's a cultural thing.

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-My family used to play
mahjong for all of

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the family gatherings, and
the noise you hear of the

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tiles is something that me
and my cousins grew up with.

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I don't know, it's
just something that's

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very nostalgic for me.

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-Growing up, I used to watch my
aunties and my mom play mahjong,

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and they would let the kids
watch, but we didn't play.

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-Mahjong started in
China in the 1800s.

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-An American businessman
brought it to the United

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States in the 1920s,
and it went rogue.

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It became very popular
quite quickly,

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but what ended up happening
is people were playing

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with different rules,
different versions.

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So in 1937, the National
Mahjong League was developed.

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A group of women in Manhattan
got together and decided to

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standardize the game, and
they came up with this card.

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In order to win American
Mahjong, which is played with a

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card, not just tiles, you
have to fulfill one of the

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hands on the card, and
then you Mahj, you win.

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-Okay, I got Mahj!

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-Oh my God!

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-Woohoo! 

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-There are over 40 varieties

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of mahjong played globally.

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But American mahjong, along
with classic Chinese and

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Japanese Riichi mahjong,
are the main versions

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played in the U.S.

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Seattle Riichi Mahjong Club meets
weekly at various locations

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in Seattle and Bellevue.

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Today's noon meetup is at
Stoup Brewery on Capitol Hill.

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-A lot of mahjongs, they're
like just kind of you play

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the hand and then you're done.

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But Japanese, we have points
which keep track of like

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how well you're doing.

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So the games will be
longer than a single hand.

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There'll be multiple hands.

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So there's a bit of a further
layer of competition to try to

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be first at the end of the game.

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-Japanese Riichi is one of the
fastest growing variants of

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the game in the U.S.

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today, having
captured the younger,

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more competitive and
gaming-oriented demographic.

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-First time playing Japanese
Mahjong, I just wanted

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to kind of experience new
things and meet new people.

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-We saw the meetup for this
particular mahjong community

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and we wanted to be around
like a younger group,

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so we decided to learn
Japanese Mahjong.

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- I think it's a
socialization thing.

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I mean, all these kids on
their devices all the time,

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noses in their phones.

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So I think it's a really
good way for people

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to meet other people, be
social, use their brains.

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- I think it's so fun.

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I think it promotes community
and strategic thinking,

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and it's really like
hands-on, just super fun.

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- Oh, I love it when I win.

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Luckily it happens a lot, yeah.

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- It's easy enough to
still have a conversation

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and socialize, but it's
also challenging enough

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to still be kind of mentally
stimulating and fun.

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So that's what I like about it.

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- The ancient game of
mahjong is the same as it's

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been for centuries.

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The tiles, the shuffle, the
wall, the draw and discard.

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And now more people than ever
are coming to the table.

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♪♪

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-Watch CityStream 
Tuesday nights at 7

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on the Seattle Channel
or find us anytime online

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at SeattleChannel.org.

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♪♪