I learned to play Mahjong when I was ten years old. I was fascinated by the colours, the sounds and, most importantly, the atmosphere that it brought around us when my relatives played it. I was even my dad’s lucky charm – when I was born, my dad remained undefeated for ages. As I grew up, and continued to see our family play, my brother and I were naturally drawn in and wanted to learn how to play the game that seemed so fun and exciting. We loved the game, not just for the fun aspect, but it was a way for us to bond as a family, igniting part of our beautiful heritage within us. With us being born and raised in Scotland, it was quite refreshing to be able to say we can bring some of our culture with us and, quite frankly, feel more Chinese, which I sometimes feel I have lost.
So, when I see that three white women decided the ancient game needed a ‘modern makeover’, I was upset that people could be so ignorant and disrespectful. I was confused as to how they could deem it as okay for them to change something that wasn’t theirs to change, because it didn’t fit into their ‘aesthetic’. A Dallas-based company attempted to revamp the century-old game to bring it ‘more style’. There are five collections to this in bright neon colours priced between $325 and $425. They claim they want to be ‘part of the evolution in the most respectful and authentic way possible’. To me, it screams ignorance when there is not one part of their website where they even mention the country from which the game originates. Instead, they speak of the man who brought the game over to America.
Mahjong is a tile-based game developed in the Qing Dynasty in China in the 1800s. It quickly grew popular in the United States in the 1920s. It requires a lot of skill, strategy, as well as luck, and it consists of tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols. Within these tiles, there are Simple (numbers) sets (dots, bamboo, and characters), Wind sets (east, south, west, and north), Dragon sets (red, green, and white), and a Flower set.
The founder of The Mahjong Line, Kate, decided the game needed a ‘respectful refresh’, where she states: ‘The traditional tiles… were all the same and did not reflect the fun that we had when playing with our friends… nothing came close to mirroring our style and personality.’
Kate attempted to change an ancient game because it didn’t fit her eye of what she deemed as aesthetically pleasing and, instead, completely disregarded the game because it wasn’t stylish enough for her. This, however, is very problematic. The game was never hers to change. It was not made for what she deems pretty. Now that there is a White rebrand, suddenly the game is ‘stylish’ and ‘luxurious’ because the Chinese original was boring and lacked style. It seems that, apparently, this ‘refresh’ (or whitewash) of the game is the only way to make it worth playing. The company does not realise what the game actually means to us as Chinese people. Yes, it is meant to be fun. But the game means a lot more than that. It is a way of spending meaningful and memorable time with our families. It is a way to build relationships with people within our community. It is a way to feel close to our heritage. The audacity they have to rip off one’s tradition and culture is nothing but insulting and disrespectful, where all they have done is completely whitewash the heritage of the game.
The neon tiles have faced backlash because they now consist of colourful images such as flour. Not flowers which would actually make a little more sense, but bags of baking flour. Whilst these images might be harmless to people who are not Chinese, they are merely forgetting these symbols have a lot more meaning than just being a symbol. For example, some of these tiles remind people to care about the direction of their life. Honour tiles, for one, may remind people to pursue the truth. In my eyes, the colours also have meaning. Red is considered generally as a lucky colour in Chinese culture. You can see it when we celebrate Chinese New Year, and we have our beautiful red lanterns hanging up and the red envelopes we give out. It’s meant to bring luck and fortune. In my humble opinion, these new tiles are just tacky. The symbols have lost all their meaning. Part of the fun when playing the game as a child was familiarising myself with what the characters meant because even though I can speak it, I never learned how to read Cantonese. It made me appreciate my culture and the game even more, knowing what they represented. Why should this be ‘dumbed down’ because people can’t take the time to learn what the symbols mean?
One tweet has shown, for example, that the character that is meant to mean the number ‘4’ in the bamboo tiles now looks like the character for ‘mouth’. The game is completely erasing the traditional game that has been around for centuries. My culture is not just some cheap colouring book. It’s not there to fit the standards of non-Chinese people so they feel it looks pretty for them to enjoy it. It has deep cultural ties, so to ‘refresh it’ only defeats the purpose and rips the original design of its authenticity.
After receiving all this backlash, the company came forward with an ‘apology’, where they said: ‘We never set out to ignore or misrepresent the origins of this game… we are open to constructive criticism and are continuing to conduct conversations with those who can provide further insight to the game’s traditions and roots in both Chinese and American cultures.’
If this was a genuine apology, these collections would no longer be on the market, but they are. The collections are still being sold now. What I still cannot fathom is the fact there was not one person throughout this entire foundation of the game’s creation that thought there was something wrong with it, and that is part of the problem. Not only did these three women not see the issues behind it, but neither did their friends, their family, or anyone working around them. No one in PR, designers, or even photographers had any problem with this game finding its way to the market.
As ‘apologetic’ as they are being, they are still exploiting the game and benefitting from making sales. The game is still at the ridiculous price they were originally being sold at. What I find most interesting is if you look on their Instagram page where they posted this ‘apology’, they have disabled all their comment sections. How can you accept constructive criticism from the community that you claim to be learning from if you cannot see their response? On their website and Instagram page, they say they recognise their failure to pay proper homage to the game’s Chinese heritage, that using the words ‘refresh’ was the problem. I don’t think they see the wrong if that is their takeaway from the community. They did not see the erasing of the game, the insulting price, or the cultural appropriation. They pass it off as American Mahjong, saying its part of the history of the United States. But they have completely ignored the part of history where it was brought over from China, disregarding the influence of Chinese culture. It’s failed to be mentioned, erasing our culture out of the game.
The Mahjong Line is disrespectful to my race. It’s insulting anyone feels it ever needed a rebrand in the first place. The lack of care by the people who supposedly love the game is seen when they can’t take the time to learn the symbols of the game because it’s ‘too hard’. I also didn’t know what the symbols meant, growing up here. I was ten when I first learned how to play it, learning all 144 tiles and what they meant to the game. If I could at ten, surely they could? Because if you truly love the game enough, appreciate the culture enough, want to play the game enough, you will learn. Instead of trying to make my culture better, why not learn about it? Why not honour it, value it? Mahjong is not one of those things you can simply just rip off. It’s not something you can erase. It’s not something you can just ‘make better’. I will continue to play Mahjong, but never the American version, because that’s not Mahjong. I will play the original game that stemmed from years of my heritage. The game that makes me feel closer to my family, my community, my race. The game that brings skill, strategy, and makes my brain think. The game that doesn’t have ‘boring’ but beautiful designs; ones that symbolise our race, the strokes of our writing, the colours that have meaning to us. And that is what I would want to pass on to future generations to come.