Mahjong Mania

Thanks in part to two Oxford women, the popularity of a native Chinese game is growing like wildfire in Oxford and Lafayette County.

Written by Eugene Stockstill | Photographed by Joe Worthem

Approximately 350,000 people in the United States are playing mahjong, according to the National Mah Jongg League, and thanks to two Oxford moms, at least 200 of those players live somewhere in Lafayette County.

Emily Maxcy and Liza Sorgenfrei founded the Oxford Mahjong League last year. Since then, the league has raised more than $12,000 for the Doors of Hope charity, and the two women have taught mahjong classes in private homes, as well as at The Sipp, Kingswood, The Coop, El Charro, Casa Mexicana, Exploradora Coffee and The Cafe at Myers Apothecary.

So, you might be asking, what’s the big deal? Can’t anybody learn a game? Well, imagine for a moment that you are trying to learn how to play competitive bridge while half-drunk and blindfolded, and you’ll begin to understand why it might help to have a guide into the wild, wonderful world of mahjong, a game that originated in 19th-century China.

There are card games, and there are board games. And then there is mahjong.

“Liza had me and three others at a table teaching all of us at the same time,” Maxcy said. “I definitely remember the chaotic feeling of trying to remember all of the rules and names of all the tiles. It’s just a lot to learn at the beginning.”

So what is mahjong anyway? Mahjong is played with tiles. The goal is to form a 14-tile hand. Four people typically play. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong!

Maxcy and Sorgenfrei teach the American version, but there are a staggering array of rules and a panoply of other versions, too, including formats that originated in Korea, Japan and in the Middle East. The National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) — jongg is an acceptable alternate spelling —  issues an official card of hands of varying degrees of difficulty every year (see sidebar for a few more details on the game itself).

Sorgenfrei was introduced to the game by a childhood friend, Annie O’Grady, who is nationally known for helping start the business The Mahjong Line, which makes game tiles and mats. Sorgenfrei had spotty experiences as she was learning the game through the years.

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d ever pick it up again,” she said, but she sure did.

Maxcy was getting her nails done one day when she saw the mahjong scene in the award-winning film “Crazy Rich Asians” and thought she’d like to learn it. Not long after that, she saw a social-media post about Sorgenfrei playing mahjong with her mom. Long story short, the Oxford Mahjong League was born.

Wondering what a friendly bit of mahjong play might be like? Here is Sorgenfrei’s description.

“We have a group of eight women we play with on Thursday mornings while our kids are at school. We have two tables going and play for two-plus hours and spend a lot of time just catching up on life, laughing and playing. We’ve also walked through hard things like cancer. Mahjong brings people together. We love to go somewhere with yummy food and drinks and that way no one has to have a clean house to host. Some of us come dressed for the day and others come straight from a workout class.”

For the time being, the Oxford Mahjong League is purely a way to teach the game and socialize, though in April, Maxcy and Sorgenfrei put on Mahj 4 a Cause, a mahjong-themed fundraiser event for Doors of Hope, and they would like to sponsor official tournaments and other competitions in the future. They are also planning to attend a mahjong tournament in New Orleans later this year to discover methods to improve their own efforts.

“We want this to be a way to build community in Oxford,” Maxcy said.

Anxious that you won’t fit in because you’ve never played before and don’t know beans about the game? Don’t give those worries a second thought, since both of the league’s founders say they welcome newbies, middlers and veterans of all stripes.

“It’s just about getting together over a few games of ‘mahj,’” Sorgenfrei said, a game that is part competitive spark plug, part social outlet and part mental therapy, which may explain why the NMJL’s charity of choice is the Alzheimer’s Association.

Interested? All you need is a table that seats four. Square tables are the best. For more information on prices and scheduling, contact Maxcy and Sorgenfrei at oxmahjleague@gmail.com.

How to Play Mahjong

A typical game of mahjong consists of four players. (There is also a two-person version, Siamese Mahjong). Here, in a nutshell, is the American version of the game.

You start with 152 tiles, including eight jokers. There are three suits: bams (short for bamboo), cracks (short for characters) and dots (or circles). Each suit has a matching dragon, much like a face card in a card game. There are eight neutral flower tiles and also wind tiles (north, south, east and west).

You need a certain combination of 14 tiles for a winning hand. Jokers can be used in any way except as singles or in pairs. Each year, the National Mah Jongg League issues a new card with an array of winning hands to be played. A new card is issued after the Chinese New Year.

Tiles are shuffled, and each player builds a rack of tiles. Each player starts with 13 tiles except for the dealer, who starts with 14. Players draw and discard tiles. The goal is to combine tiles into sets and pairs totaling 14 tiles that match the lines on the official NMJL card.