Banned in China. Still around today and GROWING!

Mahjong was born before Monopoly, survived more wars and crises than Baseball, and is more well-traveled than Scrabble. According to The Today Show, “Mahjong” was the most searched word on Facebook for the summer of 2025, yet the historical roots of Mahjong are not widely known. 

The captivating history of Mahjong begins in the mid-1800s during China's turbulent Qing Dynasty. Born from a fusion of older games like Madiao, Mahjong emerged during a period of national crisis - following the Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion. As China's treaty ports opened under foreign pressure, the game spread like wildfire through these commercial hubs. Travelers carried Mahjong to every province, where it was embraced by people from all walks of life, from wealthy merchants to working-class women.

Despite its popularity, Mahjong faced harsh criticism from Confucian scholars who viewed it as a symbol of moral decay. The game's reputation became so controversial that the newly formed People's Republic of China banned it outright in 1949. Yet Mahjong proved resilient - women continued playing in secret, and intellectuals like Wu Han famously used the clattering tiles to mask political discussions during Nationalist surveillance.

The game's journey to America began in the 1920s when entrepreneurs and tourists brought Mahjong sets back from China. The exotic game quickly became a National craze, particularly among two groups: Chinese immigrants who found comfort in this piece of their heritage, and Jewish American women who embraced it as a social pastime. Department stores sold expensive sets, and newspapers ran daily Mahjong columns. But by the 1930s, the fad began to fade as the Great Depression shifted priorities.

This is when Mahjong's remarkable American transformation began. In 1937, a group of women led by the dynamic duo of Viola Cecil and Dorothy Meyerson founded the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) with an ambitious goal: to reinvent Mahjong for American players. They dramatically simplified the complex scoring systems and created standardized rules that made the game faster and more accessible. Meyerson, a brilliant marketer, traveled the country teaching her "streamlined" version in department stores and even appeared on early television demonstrations.

The NMJL's changes went far beyond rules - they fundamentally altered the game's physical form. American manufacturers began producing plastic tiles instead of the traditional bone-and-bamboo sets. The new tiles were cheaper, more durable, and featured design elements that catered to American tastes while maintaining some Chinese motifs. This material shift mirrored the game's cultural transformation - still exotic enough to be intriguing, but now undeniably American.

Jewish communities in particular embraced this new version of Mahjong. The game became a cultural touchstone for Jewish women moving to postwar suburbs, providing both social connection and a sense of identity. Weekly Mahjong games turned into important community rituals, complete with special recipes and traditions. The NMJL's membership numbers swelled into the hundreds of thousands by the 1960s.

Today, Mahjong continues to evolve while maintaining its core appeal. In China, it's once again legal, and remains wildly popular among all generations. In America, younger players are rediscovering the game both as a way to connect with their heritage and as a refreshingly analog social activity in our digital age. From the mahjong parlor scenes in Crazy Rich Asians to retirement communities in Florida, the clatter of tiles continues to bring people together.

At The Mahj Club, we honor this rich history while putting our own modern spin on the game. Whether you're drawn to Mahjong's strategic depth, its social aspects, or its fascinating cultural journey, we invite you to become part of its ongoing story. After all, as Dorothy Meyerson proved, Mahjong's greatest strength is its ability to adapt while maintaining its essential spirit of connection and enjoyment.

Ready to start your mahjong journey? Join us for a lesson and experience this timeless game for yourself!