Written by Kathy Bradshaw, Photos by Mason Edwards, the Chattanooga Times Free Press
Staff photo by Mason Edwards / Alexa Donnellan (center) laughs with Amy Dodson (left) and Lenee Rogers (right) as she teaches them mahjong.
Dot. Crak. Bam!
That looks like a series of comic book sound effects, but it's actually the three suits in one of the trendiest games out there these days — a game that resembles Yahtzee, rummy, dominoes or chess, depending on who you ask.
It's a game that's knocked bunco (which was mostly forgotten back in 2010 anyway) off the map. They say it's the new bridge. It has the popularity of pickleball with more intellectual stimulation and far less injuries.
It's mahjong, and it's taking over Chattanooga, one tile at a time.
It used to be that people associated mahjong primarily with throngs of little old ladies in South Florida poring over mounds of tiles in the fluorescent-lit game room of some community center. Others might remember the unforgettable mahjong scene in the film "Crazy Rich Asians" and not give it a thought beyond that.
But those days are gone. Mahjong is catching on.
Mahjong for the Masses
"It's fun. It's social. It's really hot right now," says Rana Hill, a local mahjong instructor with The Mahjong Social Chatt."It's having its moment in the sun for sure."
Yes, it seems that everyone's talking mahjong, and the mahjong murmurs are circulating among people of all ages and interests.
"It's a game that transcends generations," says Alexa ("just like the Amazon device") Donnellan of Holy City Mahjong Chattanooga, noting that she's given mahjong lessons to people ranging in age from eight to 85. "I have teenage girls who want to play. I have families who want to play. Kids want to play. It's a game that anybody can play," she says. While she says that the game leans heavily toward the female demographic, there are also plenty of "men who mahj."
Both Donnellan and Hill teach mahjong at various levels and organize mahjong meetups and events. For non-beginner players, she does what's called "guided play," being present as a sort of tutor or mahjong mentor during a game but stepping in only when someone needs help.
Donnellan also recently started a mahjong league in Chattanooga and is a selfprofessed mahjong addict.
Mahjong All Day Long
"My friends and I all became obsessed with mahjong. We play every single day. We have what we call Mahj Mafia Mondays," Donnellan says."I feel like you mahjong once, and you're hooked."
Donnellan learned how to play about seven months ago from Sara Kilbride, who started Holy City Mahjong and is to thank for helping to bring the game to Chattanooga. Originally from the area, Kilbride now lives and teaches mahjong in Charleston, South Carolina. She used to commute back to Chattanooga regularly to teach classes, but as the game surged in popularity, she couldn't keep up with the demand and soon realized that she needed help. So she brought Donnellan on to teach locally while she focuses her mahjong efforts on Charleston.
But What Is Mahjong?
But What Is Mahjong?
"Mahjong is a game of strategy, skill and luck where your goal is to make a line with your tiles by strategically 'building' that line to match one from the National Mah Jongg League's standard card," explains Kilbride.
Huh?
For newbies, learning to play mahjong can seem as daunting as staring down a chess board for the first time or trying to get Wordle on the first guess. There's a lot to understand and even more to master, but there's also plenty of chance involved.
"I think it's easy to learn the basics, but it takes a lot of practice to learn the strategy," says Hill.
To help clear up the mahjong fog, Hill and Donnellan explained mahjong:
According to Donnellan, the game started in 1800s China, and then a group of Jewish women brought it to America in the 1920s and "really got it going." They changed and updated a few rules and requirements (American mahjong is different from Chinese mahjong), and in 1937, they created the National Mah Jongg League, which remains the ultimate authority on American mahjong today.
The League puts out a card every year with a list of 73 different hands, or mahjongs. These hands change annually when a new card comes out (the Chinese, however, have been playing the exact same hands for hundreds of years).
"You know Americans, we get bored with things," says Donnellan. "So that's why the card changes every year."
Everyone must have this official card to play, and that's where you choose which hand you'll try to make. The dealer passes out tiles to the four players at the table — each player gets 13 tiles; dealer gets 14.
"The long and short of it is, what you're trying to do is replicate one of these hands [on the card] with the tiles that you have," says Hill.
All the tiles are one of three suits: crak, which is short for Chinese character; bam, which means bamboo; or dots. But there are also dragons and jokers, Hill explains. And flowers. And then, there's the Charleston, which is an alternate way of dealing tiles. "You pass three tiles six different times, different ways, and it follows the steps of the Charleston dance," Donnellan says.
"There's a lot of strategy involved — a lot of nuances and little tricks of the trade, and you have to be observant of what other players are doing as well as yourself," Hill says. "I feel like it's a game you're always learning."
In fact, mahjong is so mentally challenging that it's supposed to help prevent dementia — one of the many reasons that Hill, who has Alzheimer's disease in her family, was initially drawn to it. "I was looking for a mental game that I could play that sort of exercised my brain, and I don't like crosswords," she says. Today, Hill is actively involved in fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association, through their Mah Jongg for Memories program.
Tile Style
You can't play mahjong without tiles, and for many, that's the best part. It might even be why some people get into the game in the first place.
"Everyone is on the tile bandwagon right now," says Hill. "They're beautiful."
Mahjong tiles come in sets of 152, and they range in price from $30 for a cheap set you can buy on Amazon up to as much as $500 for a top-notch set. Nicer tiles can be handmade, handpainted, hand-carved and acrylic or made of bone or bamboo. They've become collectors' items that some people leave out on display in their homes, Hill says.
Donnellan owns seven sets of tiles herself, in all different colors and styles. While the basic sets show Chinese characters where Chinese characters are supposed to be, for instance, many tiles have become creative and artsy, representing the three suits via designs of everything from oysters to lipstick to bags of flour. The Mahjong Line even has a set of tiles they call their "Cheeky Line," and colors range from white to neon purple.
"You can pick [a set] to match your personality," says Donnellan, adding that the tiles are especially popular with the younger crowd. She's had a few girls come to take a lesson from her but give up on learning to play halfway through — after admitting that they really just wanted to take pictures with the tiles for Instagram.
"[The companies] come out with new tiles all the time, and you just have to have them," says Johnna Tate, an avid mahjong player. She fell in love with the game the first time she played it and went home and bought tiles that same day. "I think one reason it's caught on so quickly here in Chattanooga is the beautifulness of it," she says. "These tiles are beautiful. The card is beautiful. The accessories are beautiful. And women love pretty things."
Whether it's the social aspect, the fun of the game, the desire to sharpen their minds or because they're simply dying for a set of electric blue tiles, something is driving people to mahjong.
"I think that there's a lot of reasons people want to learn [to play], and I think it's all great," says Hill. "Whatever your reason is, come and give it a chance."
And, adds Kilbride, don't let the challenge of the game scare you off. "Give yourself grace. The first lesson will likely leave you confused, but stick with it," she says. "You learn as you go, you make mistakes and those mistakes will start to turn on light bulbs."
For more information or to learn to play mahjong, go to themahjongsocialchatt.my.canva.site or @holycitymahjong_cha on Instagram.
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