Reasons Why American Mahjong is Having “a Moment” in Greensboro

Mahjong has been around for hundreds of years and American Mahjong is in its 89th year, so why does it feel like it's never been more popular?

It’s no coincidence that mahjong is gaining in popularity in a time when the world is barreling faster and faster towards AI and automation. Screen addiction is at an all-time high and attention spans are dwindling as a result. Only a few years out of the isolation of the pandemic, it can feel easier to stay home and scroll than find any sort of community.

Enter mahjong.

Mahjong is analog. It’s tactile. It demands your focus. From the moment you sit down at the mahjong table, you are fully absorbed - your hands are busy building walls or shuffling, your brain gets a shot of dopamine from the beautiful tiles and tablescape, and you heart gets to relax just a little in the safety of your friends. (Does this mean you don’t want to absolutely dominate those friends in the game? It does not).

Yes, you can play mahjong online, and I actually recommend that you utilize online play for practice when you first learn- https://www.ilovemahj.com is my favorite site. But while online play is an amazing tool, part of the joy of the game is arranging the tiles, racking them and hearing the clink of tile against wood, the thunk as a tile is discarded.

Mahjong gives us the excuse of having to come together in person. Dinner and drinks are great, but meals out add up and can feel frivolous compared to the list of laundry and organizing that awaits you at home. Book club is excellent, but realistically can only happen once a month, at most, and then you have the burden of having to actually read the book (or feeling like you should). Mahjong is a reason to get your friends out of the group text and in person on a regular basis.

You can dish over mahjong, you can drink wine or have snacks, but the one thing that you cannot do while you play is be on your phone. There is simply too much to see, to hear, and to consider during a game to check your texts or scroll social media. And because you’re focused on which tiles to pass in the Charleston or whether enough 6 craks have been discarded that you need to pivot away from your current hand, you have to put down your mental load. During a game of mahjong, your brain is too busy on the exposures, discards, and possible tiles you could call to worry about your child’s spirit week outfits, work emails, or meal planning. Will it all be there when the game ends? Of course, this is mahjong, not magic. But for the length of the game, your shoulders relax, your breathing slows, and you get to just be. Until you’re only one tile away, that is, and then your adrenaline kicks into over-drive hoping for that win.

I started teaching mahjong because once I got a hit of the mental rush of a game, I knew I needed more. While I play as often as I can- socially, in leagues, competitively- teaching allows me to nerd out about the rules of American mahjong. (I’m an attorney, so understanding rules and when they apply- or don’t- is kind of my thing). You can find my events most often at Martin’s Mercantile in Summerfield or Blue Nest Mercantile in Greensboro, or you can find me around town teaching groups of friends at private events. Check my events calendar or send me a message- mahjong is waiting for you.