{"id":60481,"date":"2020-07-31T14:45:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=60481"},"modified":"2023-10-31T14:34:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T18:34:14","slug":"fun-and-games-in-the-newspaper-mah-jong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/fun-and-games-in-the-newspaper-mah-jong.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun and Games in the Newspaper: Mah Jong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article \u2013 in honor of tomorrow being International Mah Jong Day \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega searches old newspapers to learn more about this Chinese game that was very popular in the U.S. in the 1920s, and is still played today. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you play Mah Jong? Maybe you have family members who enjoyed playing this game in the 1920s during its heyday in the United States. Mah Jong is a game played with 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols that requires some skill, strategy, and chance. (1) Its U.S. history is interesting, and some of that history is found in old newspapers such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: students in the United States learning how to play Mahjong, 29 November 2007. Credit: Charles Nguyen; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exact origin of Mah Jong in China is unclear, but it started as a local game 2500 years ago then spread to the Western world in the early 1900s. Early U.S. players of the game were reminded of rummy card games. Rules and rituals of those early Mah Jong games varied depending on the players, just as today. Around 1920, the game was \u201cdiscovered\u201d by Westerners and from there became popular worldwide. (2)<\/p>\n

Learning the Game<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newspapers have been a source for learning game rules and playing games throughout most of the 20th century. During the 1920s when Mah Jong was hitting the U.S. by storm, the newspaper was the perfect place to learn more about the game and its ever-changing rules.<\/p>\n

Englishman L. L. Harr is credited with introducing the game to English society. He learned of it as he \u201c…traveled in the intellectual and diplomatic circles in Peking, and among his friends was the distinguished Chinese statesman Li Hung Chang.\u201d Li introduced him to the game that the Chinese called \u201cPe-ling.\u201d When Harr came back to Europe in 1921, he had five sets of the game in his luggage. (3) He wrote a newspaper column about how to play Mah Jong, with the byline \u201cForemost Authority on the Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 18 February 1924, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harr wasn\u2019t the only Mah Jong expert who wrote for newspapers. Ralph J. F. Gerstle, author of The Green Book of Mah Jong<\/em>, also wrote about the 1920s game fad. His similarly-titled column was called \u201cHow to Play Mah Jong\u201d and appeared in the Seattle Daily Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), 24 April 1924, page 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite part of this particular article is the Best Foods Mayonnaise advertisement accompanying it that suggests making club sandwiches after a Mah Jong party. A whole industry sprang up around playing Mah Jong that included the perfect food, accessories, and clothes to wear while hosting parties and playing the game.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), 24 April 1924, page 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mah Jong was so popular that in March 1924 the Seattle Daily Times<\/em> hired two writers to write articles: Gerstle, who wrote a daily column, and articles by R. F. Foster, who was an author of \u201csixty-seven other textbooks on games.\u201d In an introduction to these columns, the paper asked: \u201cDo you play Mah Jong? If you don\u2019t, you will. More than 3,000,000 of the people of the United States are playing it…\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), 2 March 1924, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I will admit that Mah Jong is one of those games I\u2019d probably have to have someone show me how to play because it seems complicated to me. A friend I interviewed provided some rules to help me understand:<\/p>\n