New Year’s Eve Mahjong game
Photographed in my grandparents’ home
Neihu District, Taipei, Taiwan
February 6, 2008
at flickr
Since Mahjong involves gambling, people were traditionally only allowed to legally play it at New Year’s. Now, it is played more regularly throughout the year, but it’s still tradition to play with family every New Year’s. I photographed this game being played by my mother, my uncle, his wife, and my grandfather before taking my mother’s seat and playing for several hours. My uncle is always the big winner, but it’s still fun to play and learn from everyone. It’s such a complicated game that it really takes years to get good at. I think I started learning 5 years ago, but play very infrequently, so I need all the practice I can get.
I always say this and probably don’t need to say it again, but I will anyway - the real Mahjong is nothing like the computer Mahjong solitaire-like game that you can find and play online. It’s best played with 4 players. My family plays the 13 tile variation, so each player has 13 tiles in their hand (on the table facing them). Really simply, a winning hand looks similar to a winning hand in gin rummy (sets of 3 tiles of the same rank or in a sequence). Each play involves drawing a tile and then discarding one, so your winning play involves you drawing the piece you need, giving your winning hand 14 tiles - four sets of 3 and a pair.
NIKON D200 1/160 sec at f/2.2 85mm ISO:640